Guy Vanderhaeghe

It's the 1920s, and an eccentric Hollywood megalomaniac (Damon Chance) is determined to create an epic "great American film" about the American wild west. To this end, he hires Harry Vincent, a down-on-his-luck scenarist (the guy who writes the cards for silent movies), to interview Shorty McAdoo, a genuine wild west relic, to extract an "authentic" recounting of how Americans tamed the west.

The first thing that hits you is the quality of Vanderhaege's writing. It's lyric and original and show more swollen with authentic period detail - he doesn't just describe the Canadian/US frontier in detail: he challenges his readers to smell it, taste it, touch it, feel it, employing language that's stunning in its lack of anachronism.

The next thing you notice is Chance's objective isn't as straightforward as it first appears. Your first clue (assuming we overlook the fact that the guy's name is, literally, "Chance") is that this eccentric studio boss venerates D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" - a horrific example of self-aggrandizing mythmaking if there ever was one. Over the course of the novel, you come to realize that Chance isn't looking for authenticity - he's looking to galvanize American ruthlessness by propagating the message that America is besieged ("Besieged" being the literal name of the movie he is making) by enemies, especially Europe's revolutionaries and the Jews, who deserve to be destroyed. "The enemy is never human," he tells our scenarist, creating a confounding ethical dilemma for poor Vincent who is coming to realize, through his interactions with McAdoo and a comely Jewish colleague (Rachel) that in the real world - unlike black & white "shorties" he writes for - good and evil are, at best, ambiguous concepts.

This is a provocative novel of ideas cleverly embedded in a ripping yarn that embraces both the birth of Hollywood and the birth of our frontier, conveyed in vivid, affecting prose. Feel free to enjoy this for the terrific action/characters/ambiance, but for those who enjoy digging deeper, this novel offers ample opportunity to "invite argument, invite reconsideration, invite thought" - as Chance notes in one of his epic philosophical streams-of-consciousness. Is America's spiritual identity/native art form "motion," as Chance suggests? Should the goal of history-telling be to preserve the past (as Vincent supposes) or to secure the future (as Chance advocates)? Is empathy for the proletariat a strength (as Vincent believes) or a weakness (as Chance argues)? Is using movies to facilitate cultural assimilation appropriate - or dangerous propagandizing? So much great fodder here for book group discussion! show less

My Present Age is one of Vanderhaeghe’s earliest books. It was published in 1984 and, like his protagonist, Vanderhaeghe would have been in his early 30s. I think that’s where the parallel stops, though. I can’t imagine Guy Vanderhaeghe was anything like Ed, the man who narrates this book.
Ed met his wife, Victoria, in university. She saw something in Ed that most other acquaintances didn’t. Ed was opinionated, argumentative (especially when drinking), overweight, and depressive. When show more Ed and Victoria were in school, they used to dream of going to Greece where Ed would write. Victoria thought that was a definite plan but for Ed it was just a whimsy. They got married in order to make it easier to travel together. Victoria thought they would work for a while to earn money on which they could live while abroad. Ed kept putting off the trip until Victoria realized they were never going and then she conceived (pun intended) of the idea of having a child. But that never happened and Victoria left Ed before the book begins. Ed has quit his job in the china department at Eaton’s and is financing his lifestyle with money from a life insurance policy that his father had taken out when he was a boy. His father, now retired and living in Brownsville, Texas, thought that Ed had finally matured enough to take ownership of the policy. Of course, he was wrong. Ed his spending his days reading and listening to his neighbour’s talk radio which is turned up so loud it can be heard in Ed’s apartment. The neighbour is an older man. He and Ed had words about their adjacent parking stalls and they continue to exchange insults. Ed has heard the neighbour on the radio complaining about his neighbour (meaning Ed) and he wants revenge. He also wants his wife back so when she calls and asks him to meet her for lunch, he has his hopes up. Victoria wants to talk to Ed about something but Ed manages to make their conversation all about himself so Victoria walks out on him. From a friend Ed learns that Victoria is pregnant and, as her lover doesn’t want a child at this time, is uncertain what to do. Ed tries to reach Victoria after the disastrous lunch date but she isn’t answering his calls; even more concerning she has left her lover in order to think about the situation. She is supposedly staying in a hotel or motel somewhere in the city and Ed is determined to find her.
Through the book Ed refers to Huck Finn and his companion Jim and, I presume, Ed’s search for Victoria is meant to evoke Huck’s adventures on the Mississippi with Jim. It’s an interesting idea but I think it is stretched a little fine. show less

I read Guy Vanderhaeghe's THE ENGLISHMAN'S BOY several years ago and loved it. THE LAST CROSSING (2002) is the second book in his Canadian West trilogy. A big book at nearly 400 pages, I thought, well, this is gonna take a while. But I finished it in just a few days, it was so good! The Canadian frontier in the late 1800s really comes alive here, and so does England, in a framing story of the wealthy Gaunt family, with its cruel demanding father; an older son, Addington, a British Army show more veteran of the "troubles" in Ireland, with some cruel, twisted habits of his own; and twins - Charles and Simon, perhaps as unalike as twins could be. The plot revolves around a search expedition for Simon, who has gone missing in wild and wooly western Canada. Some Canadian characters are key too, as the point of view shifts between several voices. Perhaps the most iinteresting of these is Custis Straw, a widowed combat veteran of the U.S. Civil war who, despite his PTSD, has amassed a small fortune as a horse trader with the Indian tribes. He is much taken with Lucy Stoveall, a woman hell bent on finding the killers of her younger sister. And there is Aloysius Dooley, Straw's friend and the saloon keeper, as well as Jerry Potts, a half-breed guide (based on a real, historical person). Compelling, finely wrought and complex characters, crime, sex, violence, cowboys and Indians stuff - they all make for one humdinger of a yarn, and a highly literate one at that. Vanderhaeghe is simply a wonderful writer. I cannot over emphasize that. My very highest recommendation. (And the third book of the trilogy, A GOOD MAN, is already in my teetering to-read pile.)

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

“It comes as a great relief to me to be finally disowned. Father always believed that making me his heir gave him an incontestable right to meddle in my affairs. He let himself think that the threat to disinherit me was a sword he held over my head. He has let it descend now, to no effect.” (Ch 13)

A Good Man, set in the late nineteenth century in the Canadian and American West, explores the final days of that great frontier. Wesley Case, former soldier and privileged son of a wealthy show more Ottawa lumber baron, ventures west with a view to escaping both his father’s imperial influence and a disgraceful secret from his military past. Before deciding to make good on a long-time dream of becoming a rancher and settling in Fort Benton, Montana, Case serves a brief term with the North West Mounted Police. Thus he is approached to act as liaison between the American and Canadian militaries, in an effort to contain the unresolved anger of the Native Americans in the wake of the Civil War. But Case will more than have his work cut out for him: Custer has recently been defeated at the infamous Battle of the Little Big Horn; and tensions will eminently give way to brutal violence between the Sioux and US forces. Case’s plans for a quiet ranch life are further thwarted when, much to his surprise, he falls in love with recent widow, Ada Tarr, and unknowingly inflames the jealousy of sociopath Michael Dunne, her disturbed admirer. As the American government unleashes its final assault on the Sioux, Dunne masterminds a plan for vengeance to eliminate Case and claim Ada as his own.

I find Guy Vanderhaeghe compulsively readable, something that came as a complete surprise a couple of summers ago when The Last Crossing was recommended to me. I had heard the word “western,” and thought, “I don’t think so.” But I decided I should at least read a couple of pages, and the rest is history. My experience with A Good Man was the same; I was immediately and completely engaged, and held captive for the duration. In fact, Vanderhaeghe leaves me wanting more frontier! Based on that accomplishment alone, I cannot recommend him highly enough.

“Church services had ended, affording the godly the same opportunity to line the bank of the Missouri as the waddies, the saloon-haunters, the bummers, the wharf rats, and the paisley-vested bottom dealers of the gaming rooms. They stood squinting into the blazing sunshine as the steamer’s paddles churned the silty water, its stubby prow laying a creamy furrow down the river, its funnels scattering smoke and cinders into a pale blue sky.” (Ch 29) show less