Fall Back Down When I Die

FALL BACK DOWN WHEN I DIE is Joe Wilkins’ tightly plotted allegorical Western about poverty, family history, and fate where the "failures of the nation, the failures of myth, met the failures of men.” The themes are all too common. Ranchers, still cling to outdated notions of the “old West.” Government intrudes with measures that are often ill-conceived. Resistance inevitably turns violent. And hatred festers over the years. Haven’t we seen this scenario played out repeatedly (e.g. Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, the American South, and so it goes)?

Wilkins alternates between three narrators to tell his story. Verl Newman writes to his son in a grade school composition booklet while hiding out in the rugged Bull Mountains show more of Eastern Montana following the murder of a BLM game warden who confronts him about illegally shooting a wolf. Verl is a metaphor for the old school Montanans who see their lifestyle threatened from all sides. Their sole solution comes down to violence. Verl is a folk hero to the ranchers, characterized by a local militia called the Bull Mountain Resistance.

Verl’s son, Wendell has less than $100 to his name following his mother’s fatal illness. He owes back taxes on his land and is barely getting by as a ranch hand. His cousin, Lacy, is a meth addict who was incarcerated for child endangerment and neglect of her 7-year-old son, Rowdy. Wendell, haunted by his own troubled childhood, is compelled to provide some stability to Rowdy. Clearly, Rowdy is damaged. He is mute and developmentally delayed. Wilkins portrays him as a boy who may be on the autism spectrum, nevertheless redeemable.

The third narrator is Gillian Houlton. Her husband was the game warden killed by Verl several years ago. She is the widowed mother of Maddy. Despite having made her way as a teacher and school administrator, Gillian is still bitter and opinionated. She is particularly judgmental toward the ranchers, thus serving as a counterpoint to Verl.

The three plotlines converge in a tragic incident resulting in an accidental death and the unfortunate recurrence of Verl’s fate.

The novel evokes a dark and pessimistic mood depicted by its bleak setting in rural Eastern Montana and a cast of damaged characters struggling to overcome their personal histories and fates. show less

Author Joe Wilkins does not cut eastern Montana any slack: "The land where the failures of the nation, the failures of myth, met the failures of men." The men and women he conjures for us do fail in entirely human ways. The steady pace of most of the book is deceptive as it all seems to have gone by too quickly once the final action starts.

Fall Back Down When I Die by Joe Wilkins is a highly recommended politically laden drama set in Montana.

Wendell Newman, 24, is a ranch hand in Eastern Montana who is seriously in debt after his mother's death. He owes back taxes on the land he inherited and is paying off his mother's medical bills. When a social worker shows up, Wendell learns he is the only relative of seven-year-old Rowdy Burns, who is the son of Wendell's incarcerated cousin. Rowdy, who is mute and likely on the autism spectrum, moves in with Wendell and the two form a strong bond.

There is trouble brewing in Montana, between the cowboys and ranchers of the old West and the environmentalists, with the first legal wolf hunt, and increasing regulations being enforced on show more BLM land, and increasing state involvement with the rural families. As much as Wendell wants to stay out of it, he is a part of it simply because his father, Verl, took a stand years earlier and killed a man. Then Verl went into hiding and on the run, leaving his family behind.

The story unfolds between the point-of-view of three characters and chapters alternate between the voices of Verl, Wendell, and Gillian. The novel opens with the first person account of Verl, on the run and evading the law in the Big Dry mountains. His chapters consist of what he is writing to his son in one of Wendell's notebooks that he grabbed when leaving. Wendell and Gillian's narratives are told in third person accounts. Gillian is an assistant principal and counselor, who wants to help but also allows her own judgmental opinions of "rural stupidity" to color her actions. It was her husband, Kevin, that Verl killed years earlier. At the end of the novel two other voices are heard from.

The writing is beautifully descriptive and poetic as it carefully and skillfully captures the setting and the characters. The characters are all well developed and precisely depicted as individuals with their own beliefs and feelings. The novel is slow-paced at the beginning, taking time to describe the land and people as the story leads, inevitably to the haunting and heart-breaking climax.

All the characters are survivors and suffering from emotional damaged in some way. Wendell and Rowdy are wonderful characters and immediately captured my heart. Gillian, I must admit, caused conflicting emotions. She annoyed me since she just seemed to be so opinionated and judgemental about the people she was supposed to be helping, but I alternately had compassion for her and her own struggles.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Little, Brown and Company.
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Two families in the Bull Mountains of eastern Montana have a deadly connection. Wendell Newman has just been given custody of his cousin’s young son, Rowdy, as he is the boy’s only known relative. Wendell is barely making ends meet, but he quickly forms a special bond with Rowdy. Gillian Houlton’s husband died a few years ago. She and her daughter, Maddy, live near the mountains in Billings.

Wendell and Maddy meet one evening and form a sort of friendship. Later and under tragic circumstances, Maddy and Wendell learn that their families are connected. Wendell’s father, who escaped into the mountains on the run from the law and was never found, murdered his childhood friend, Kevin, who is Maddy’s father.

The subplot and cause of show more the tragedy goes back to the concept of land ownership and the rights of landowners and individuals. Many nearby farmers graze livestock on federal land and desire to kill wolves that come onto the land. They bristle under government regulations on grazing and hunting on what they see as their land. The story culminates in a shootout between a fringe group of angry landowners and the government, resulting in Wendell, Maddy, and Rowdy running into the mountains to hide.

The elements of the novel unwind slowly and methodically. The author does not give much away, though the reader is suspicious the entire time that tragedy will continue to befall these families. There is a tense undercurrent that permeates the story as the inevitable unravels. show less