Keep Calm and Read On: The Other Yellowstone
By Wayne Limberg
Yellowstone has been front and center of late, be it the multi-season TV series that leans heavily on the likes of “Dallas” and “Dynasty” or its prequels “1883” and “1923” that, despite Sam Elliot's mustache and Harrison Ford's and Helen Mirren's best efforts, leave audiences yearning for an adaptation of Ivan Doig's masterful English Creek trilogy—actually, anything by Doig. The latest and best addition to the Yellowstone saga is “Beartooth” by Callan Wink, which takes a different tack, focusing on the marginal souls who struggle to survive outside the glitz and glamour.
Wink is a National Endowment of the Arts fellow and former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His stories and essays have appeared in “The New Yorker,” “Playboy” and ”Men's Journal.” When it comes to Yellowstone and its environs and people, he knows of what he speaks: He lives in Livingston, Montana and divides his time between writing and working as a fly-fishing guide on the Yellowstone River.
"Beartooth" opens with two 20-something brothers—Thad and Hazen—harvesting organs off a bear they had just killed to sell on the illegal market. A year apart in age, the two could pass for twins but it soon becomes clear they are very different. Thad is quiet and earnest and always wondering if he is living up to the standards of his recently departed father. Hazen seems to be a throwback to the mountain men but it soon becomes clear he may be on the spectrum. The two live off the grid in a log cabin in sight of the Abasaroka-Beartooth Mountains on the edge of Yellowstone National Park. Wink uses the cabin as something of a metaphor. The brothers inherited it from their father who had meticulously cared for it but now its logs are peeling and its roof leaking. It stands in sharp contrast to the McMansions that millionaires are building on neighboring ranchettes.
Thad and Hazen get by on odd jobs, cutting and selling wood, illegal harvesting of animal organs and antlers and hunting. They managed until their father took ill; when he died, they faced a pile of medical bills. At least Thad did. Things got so bad that Thad cut down their mailbox, but that did not stop the county and bank putting liens on the cabin and land. Eviction and homelessness loomed. In the midst of this, their mother, who had abandoned them years earlier, reappears. Her father had named her Sacajawea after the young Shoshone woman who guided Lewis and Clark. She apparently had been traveling the country for years in her old van. Why she has decided to return is unclear. While Thad cannot forgive her for abandoning them and wants her to leave, the cabin was built by her father and she moves in. Hazen is intrigued.
As Sacajawea arrives, a local, a kilt-wearing Scot approaches Thad and Hazen with a business proposition that could solve their financial problems but also get them jailed: rustling antlers in Yellowstone NP for sale on the Asian market. The Scot has a dicey reputation, including accusations of murder. He is accompanied by a mute young woman who he claims is his daughter. Again, Hazen is intrigued, both by her and the proposed deal. Thad resists but finally agrees to the deal and "Beartooth" is off and running as a crime heist thriller complete with narrow escapes, police investigations and building tensions. It soon becomes clear, however, that "Beartooth" is more than that as the narrative shifts to much deeper themes. As the book progresses, there is a sense that Sacajawea may be guiding her two sons much as her namesake guided Lewis and Clark. At one point, Wink wonders if Sacajawea’s life would have been different if her parents had only named her Melanie as her mother wanted. In revealing Sacajawea’s backstory and why she left her family, Wink shines a light on the plight of Indian women trying to survive in a White male world.
Wink's writing is taut, bordering on minimalist. In some cases what is unsaid is as important as what is said. The Scot's relations with his daughter are a prime example of how he often lets readers fill in details and come to their own conclusions based on sparse dialogue and descriptions. Like the fly-fisherman he is, Wink doles out clues judiciously, leaving readers to bite on solutions only to find that their assumptions were wrong. Thad's money problems and the fate of the cabin are examples. Their resolution may not be what readers expected but it is satisfying and splendidly ironic given the start of the book and the caper in Yellowstone. A source of trouble can also be a source of salvation.
Even when reader assumptions are borne out, loose ends remain. And Wink does not tie them all up. Much is resolved one way or another but much is also left hanging. And that may be a good thing. “Beartooth” is Wink’s second book. With luck, he might tie some of them up in future works.
Do you have a good read? If so, share it at wplimberg@aol.com. The holidays are nearing. Meanwhile, keep reading. See you on the trail.
