The Trackers

The Trackers is set in 1937, and the narrator is Valentine Montgomery Welch, a painter commissioned to paint a mural in the Dawes, Wyoming post office. His fictional mural represents one of about 1,400 real murals painted in post offices through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1934 and 1943. Val is invited to stay at the ranch of an art collector, John Long, while he works on the mural. Long has political aspirations to be governor or U. S. Senator. His wife, Eve, is much younger than he is. He met her when she was singing with a Western swing band, before that she had been a teenaged hobo and itinerate fruit-picker. Running Long's ranch is Faro, a bit of a throwback to the West's cowboy days, and a man who inspires show more rumors, tall tales, and gossip.

One day, Eve inexplicably leaves John, taking with her his favorite painting by Renoir. Wanting to avoid scandal and the press that could come through going through official channels, John hires Val to find Eve. Val tracks Eve (and rumors of her whereabouts across the country): Wyoming, Washington, Florida, and California. The resolution to Eve's disappearance is handled well by Frazier, making sense in relation to Eve's character, without being telegraphed.

Frazier works in interesting historical references, without them seeming to be Easter Eggs to be collected. He mentions the publication of Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, and the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This book showcases Frazier's excellent writing. His writing seems quiet, not needing to overtly describe emotions or violence. Each of the four characters are appropriate pieces to the puzzle. They are neither "open-books" nor stereotyped. Their emotions and motivations are complex and not always apparent to the reader. The closure of the book is well done, but all questions are not answered, which is appropriate, given these characters and their lives. show less

Spoiler alert - I’m about to reveal several plot points. If you prefer to be surprised, read the book before you read this review.

I’ve read all five novels that Charles Frazier has written. I’m a big fan. He takes us to another time and place in America’s history, often the Civil War era. This time it’s the Depression. The main character is a struggling artist, Val, who has landed a Works Projects Administration make work project to paint a mural in a Post Office in Wyoming. Normally he would have to scramble to find a place to stay but a wealthy rancher, John Long, has offered to put him up as a guest on his ranch, Long Shot. The rancher had been a sharp shooter in World War I and had acquired some impressionist works while show more he stayed in Paris after the war. John Long is a friend of Val’s supervisor who had been Val’s instructor in college. Long has a head hand on his ranch, Faro, like Rip of The Dutton Ranch and Yellowstone fame. Faro is a horse whisperer, a fighter when he has to be, and an expert tracker. To complete the main cast of characters the rancher has a young trophy wife, Eve. She’s had a hard life. She was abandoned by her family who could not afford feeding the extra mouth, rode the rails like hobos of the day, and found a way to keep going by singing in bars and sometimes on the radio. She values her independence.

Val enjoys living with them, especially their late night meals with lots of expensive liquor, even though the late nights interfere with his ability to get up early and continue working on the mural. He learns that the rancher has political ambitions. He may be appointed to the Senate to fill an expected vacancy, or he may just run for Senator or even Governor. All of this is thrown into turmoil when Eve disappears, taking a Renoir with her. The rancher fears a potential marital scandal would wreck his political ambitions. He fears she may have run off to find her first husband, Jack, who she had told the rancher had died in a flood. But the rancher knows she has a long history of lying and wonders whether Jack is actually alive which would make him a bigamist. Were they even married and were they really divorced? Long’s not going to the police as that would make this a public scandal. He reaches out to Val’s supervisor and arranges for Val to drive to Seattle where they believe his wife may have headed in search of Jack.

That was just the first leg of what became a criss-crossing of the country, even to Florida, attempting to uncover the places Eve had visited in her hobo days riding the rails. In Seattle Val finds some of her friends from those days. They fill in pieces of the puzzle for him but hold information back to protect Eve from those looking for her. Perhaps he should check with Jack’s family to determine whether he is still alive. Val flies to Florida and finds in a swampy backwater Jack’s family who confirm that Jack is alive but proceed to beat him up at gunpoint. Val is debating whether he should have signed up for this assignment and would love to return to finish the mural in Wyoming.

Time out for a small world moment. The rancher insists on making all arrangements for Val’s trips and insists he stay at only the fanciest hotels, fly first class and drive fancy cars. In Florida he books Val at an elegant seaside hotel near Tampa, the Don CeSar. The hotel was already aging but its distinctive pink architecture appealed to Val’s artistic sense. Amazingly, I attended a convention in the 1970s at the same hotel. It’s still pink.

Returning to Wyoming the rancher realizes that Val has inadvertently alerted Jack that Eve has a rich husband and expects Jack to attempt to blackmail him but he refuses ever to pay Jack. He insists that Val continue the search and sends him back to Seattle where Val is pointed to San Francisco. After searching many bars he eventually locates Eve who is not ready to return to Wyoming. Val sympathetically agrees not to tell the rancher he’s found her. She is astounded that these men have totally misunderstood why she left and would never have thought of seeking Jack. But Eve realizes that now that Jack knows she has a rich husband who will not pay his blackmail, they are in danger if Jack catches up with them. She attempts to sell the Renoir to pay off Jack. To make things even more tangled she and Val become lovers. Jack indeed does track them down no matter how fast they attempt to escape him. Unbeknownst to them the rancher has had Faro track them as well and he intercedes to take care of Jack. Val knows better than to ask how. Eve and Faro are friends and she lets them know the real reason she fled Wyoming. She had decided she wanted nothing to do with a life as a politician’s wife. She had decided she needed to terminate her pregnancy in Seattle. She loved returning to her life as a bar signer even if it included living again like a hobo. She agrees it's finally time to return to Wyoming so she can decide her future and Val can complete his mural. John Long now appears to be less the concerned husband than the self centered man who inherited his wealth. The full picture has emerged.

A great read. I highly recommend it. show less

I couldn’t put this book down, reading it over two days. The story brings alive the world of 1939, as the main character travels from an East Coast Tidewater town to a small Wyoming town, then to Hoovervilles and lawless Florida swamplands. The novel offers a marvelous opportunity to embrace the whole of America during the Depression. And, we learn that violence is endemic to American culture, with individuals or local authorities holding more power than the Federal government. It was a time when the people lost their trust in American ideals and institutions, while overseas, fascism was a growing threat.

…some days the converging portents felt like the end of the world was approaching, like the next logical progression would be a show more plague erupting or an asteroid plunging straight for us.
from the Trackers by Charles Frazier

Val has been hired by the Works Progress Administration to paint a mural on a newly built post office, art that reflected the history of the town. Val would show the people the importance of art and how it can inspire pride. He plans a scene of progression, showing the conquest of the West, with trackers in the center.

A local rancher offers Val a cabin, and friendship. John Long lucked out when he chose to inherit the ranchland that made him rich with oil wells and cattle. Stepping into Long’s home, Val first sees a gallery of fine art. Then he meets Long’s beautiful wife, Eve. She had been a singer with traveling band when they met. As a teenager, she was sent from home to find work, and she joined the company of hobos, traveling across the country. Long offered her comfort and wealth, but she bristled at being one more collected object, a trophy wife for Long’s political aspirations.

Val dines with the Longs, is invited to go riding and on picnics. He meets Faro, a cowboy who had once known Billy the Kid. Long trusts Val enough that when Eve disappears, he hires him to track her down. But, he is not the only one on her trail.

The law was whoever had the most guns, same as it always was throughout history.
from The Trackers by Charles Frazier

Like all the best historical fiction novels, the past informs our present. “For long stretches, you could believe we were still the imagined country whose overall movement was steadily and surely upward,” Val thinks. He is a socialist whose artist hero is Diego Rivera who portrayed the works on Ford’s assembly line and River Rouge factory on the walls of the Detroit Museum of Art. He believes that the Depression had revealed the fundamental flaws in the Constitution, allowing capitalism to have freewheeling control over the workers who are now organizing unions.

This historical backstory and political commentary is undergirded by the scaffold of a love story. Long’s love for his wife feels like a love of possession, but Val has also fallen for Eve. When he finally finds her, he becomes compromised. Long has hired him to do a job, bring Eve back, but Val wants Eve, too. And then, the tracker becomes tracked as well.

This is a fantastic read, and I hope, will become a fantastic movie. show less

I knew of Charles Frazier as the author of the best-selling novel Cold Mountain as well as a book I liked even better, Thirteen Moons. Those aren't his only two others, but they were the two I knew of. The Trackers is another work of historical fiction, this time taking place in the later stages of the Great Depression. Valentine Welch is a young artist, recently graduated from college, who, through the auspices of his college professor and mentor, gets a job painting a WPA mural on the wall of a post office in remote Dawes, Wyoming. In addition, he has been offered lodging on the nearby Long Shot Ranch, owned by a wealthy landowner, John Long. Long, who has political ambitions, has a younger wife, Eve, with a past that includes years show more spent on the road, picking fruit, surviving in hobo camps, and eventually singing in traveling country bands. To Val they seem an unlikely couple and during the course of story, no one who has ever read a novel will be surprised to learn, their relationship begins to fray in dramatic fashion.

I found the beginning stages of The Trackers to be its most satisfying section. Frazier's writing style is very engaging, and Val's long musings and observations about the nature of the Depression and the damage it has done to millions of lives in the name of greed and irresponsibility I found very well done. Val's description of the Wyoming landscape and Eve's description of the horrors (and satisfactions) of her earlier life are all quite good. Another memorable character is Faro, the Long Shot's foreman who has a colorful and dangerous past of his own.

Once the plot line gets going, however, as Eve takes off with a small Renoir of her husband's to parts unknown and for reasons obscure, and Long hires Val to go find her, things begin to get a bit more pedestrian. The storyline stays engaging, and Frazier's writing overall remains strong, but I began to wonder what it was all for. Also the common trope of the innocent abroad, much less worldly than he believes himself to be and constantly in error, began to wear on me a bit. Time and again I would say to myself, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."*

However, I don't want to overemphasize the novel's faults. All and all I found it entertaining and fun, with some stretches of really lovely writing and a good if not particularly believable plot.

* Game of Thrones reference show less

[3.75 stars] Having been utterly captivated by “Cold Mountain” a couple years ago, I was eager to read Frazier’s last work of historical fiction. Sadly, I was disappointed. Perhaps part of it was the high bar set by the author’s earlier masterful work. But even if I hadn’t approached “The Trackers” with high expectations, the slow pacing of protaganist’s search for a missing wife would have likely yielded a 3-star grade. My mind wandered in at least a dozen different spots. The storyline had potential. I can’t quite pinpoint why I never connected with the main characters.

Struggling artist Val Welch comes to Dawes, Wyoming as he was lucky enough to land the job of painting a mural for the Dawes Post Office. He landed this assignment through Roosevelt’s WPA program and he is to create a mural that represents the area.

While staying at Dawes he has been offered accommodation by a wealthy rancher and his wife, John Long and his wife, Eve supply a cottage and meals and all too soon a friendship is developing between the three of rhem.. Long has political aspirations which doesn’t please his wife and she eventally leaves, taking a valuable painting with her. Rancher Long recruits Val to track Eve down and he is soon driving the roads of America from Seattle to Florida on his quest.

The author offers up some show more vivid descriptions of Depression era America along with comments and insights into the times. The slow-moving story failed to excite or draw me in but it was interesting as the author ensures that he develops every character. This was my first book by this author but from what I gather, perhaps this was not the best book to be my introduction. show less

Charles Frazier’s first novel was Cold Mountain, one of the finest book I’ve ever read, and a magnificent movie as well. I’ve since read Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods, two fine novels, but not nearly the equal of his first effort. I recently finished Varina, and found it another notch below those. This novel pretty much catches me up with all of Frazier’s work.

The book is set during the Depression and has as its protagonist, a mural artist named Valentine, who is commissioned to paint a mural at a post office in rural Wyoming. Through a connection from his benefactor, he is housed at a luxurious ranch nearby. Here, he meets the other main actors in the drama: A wealthy ranch owner and aspiring politician; his younger, free show more spirit wife, and the ultra-capable, hard ranch hand who oversees its operation.

The wife runs away, and the ranch owner sends Val to collect her, setting off an odyssey that spans the country and its various Depression era class struggles.

While the book is not without its charms, at the end of the day, it is utterly average. I can’t help but feel like the author’s work has digressed with each effort. It must be something of a curse to produce a magnificent first novel, making it unlikely that you will ever replicate the effort. Sadly, that appears to be the case here. show less