The Outlander

Well, if I had read this book before the 2009 Canada Reads contest I would have had divided loyalties about which I wanted to win. As it was I had only read The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant and The Book of Negroes and there was no contest about which I wanted to win. I thought The Book of Negroes was a fantastic book and I was very happy when it did win the contest. But if I had read The Outlander before I would have been hard pressed to say which I liked better. They both have strong female characters and each faces horrible physical and mental challenges. And since this book is set in a part of Canada that I am very familiar with I have an immediate affinity for it.

The dogs are chasing Mary Boulton, referred to most of the time as show more simply, "the widow". She's a nineteen year-old widow who murdered her husband with his own gun. The dogs belong to her two brothers-in-law who are bound to make her pay for her crime. She heads off into the Alberta wilderness with no idea where she's going, just that she has to keep going. And the brothers are in hot pursuit. Will they catch her?

But it is not simply the chase that is so compelling, it is the author's talent in describing the Alberta wilderness with such detail and accuracy that the reader is there. Her characters, and they are characters: a whiskey brewing giant, a boxing pastor, an entrepreneurial dwarf and, a strong silent type romantic interest known as the ridgerunner, all become real and interesting and alive on the page.

Despite the fact that the widow clearly did the crime, the reader can't help but come to like her and want her to evade her pursuers and attain some happiness. For a while it seems she just might do that until the town in which she eventually settles, Frank, Alberta, is devastated by a landslide, even as her pursuers close in.

Let me just say that the structure of the book is such that it is almost impossible to put the book away. The chapter endings, usually, were stray threads that were not part of the main story but connected so that you just wanted to keep on reading to see how they fit into the weave of the main story. And I was so glad that the ending was such that Mary continued to be a strong woman fending for herself. show less

This novel was published in 2007 and I have no idea how it had escaped my attention.

What a wonderful treat.

It gives nothing away to write the story is about "The Widow" and her flight into the 1903 wilderness to avoid the two, red-haired brothers of the husband that she has murdered. The novel depicts her flight from her past and the two brothers bent on returning her home to face what she has done.

The writing is excellent and flows with such vivid descriptive power that you can almost smell the pines and other odors of nature.

Along the way "The Widow" meets a variety of interesting characters, with the story being told in partial flashbacks.

For those that enjoyed Wolf Road or the writing of William Gay and Daniel Woodrell, The show more Outlander is for you.

Very highly recommended. show less

My goodness, this woman Gil Adamson can spin a spell-binding, compelling hum-dinger of a yarn! She hooked me from page one of THE OUTLANDER, with her image of a black-garbed girl, initially identified only as "the widow," fleeing for her life, pursued by men and dogs across the sparsely settled wilderness of the Canadian West. The year is 1903, and we quickly learn her name is Mary Boulton, she is but nineteen years old and "Widowed by her own hand." A murder mystery then, which unfolds slowly and artfully over the next 400 pages, with a graceful and precise prose, the like of which is rarely found in contemporary fiction, although I must confess I was almost immediately reminded of another beautiful book I recently read and reviewed: show more Amanda Coplin's THE ORCHARDIST.

There are many wonderfully quirky characters here, from a mad Royal Canadian Mountie and a pugilist preacher to a dwarf storekeeper and a hermit mountain man (the love interest). And the villains of the piece are giant red-headed twins who chase our heroine for many months across the trackless wilderness and even over the Continental Divide with a coldly fierce relentlessness that brings to mind the posse that pursued Butch and Sundance. But the best character of all is "the widow" herself, who becomes even more mysterious and mesmerizing as the story develops and we learn more of her past and what brought her to her present predicament. What we have here is a murder mystery, a suspense thriller, a love story, a little Canadian history (the "Frank Slide" figures into the story's climax and denouement rather prominently), and a very literary Western. Yeah, all those things, really! It's like Prego spaghetti sauce - it's all in there! And, speaking of Prego, there's another minor charactaer, a gigantic Italian catskinner named Giovanni, who provides moonshine to the primitive mining town of Frank.

This is an adventure story extraordinaire, lemme tell ya. And the ending itself is both unexpected and perfect. I loved this book, and will recommend it highly. show less

The Outlander - Gil Adamson
5 stars

We live in a time when there are labels, diagnosis, and treatment for mental disorders. At the turn of the 20th century the teenaged ‘widow’ of this story has nothing and noone to help her negotiate an abusive marriage, postpartum depression, and psychosis. She is, physically and mentally, on the run in the Canadian wilderness.

This story is full of tension and suspense. The writing is evocative, lyrical, and sometimes almost mystical. In the beginning, the story is steeped in the widow’s physical sensations. I could almost hear her labored breathing and feel the frozen dampness of her clothing. The writing and the plot become more substantial as she encounters other wonderful, eccentric show more characters who help her return to reality. I felt that Adamson’s writing style shifted subtly to reflect the ‘widow’s’ changing mental state. As she became clearer in her thinking, the writing became more concerned with external events. This is a coming of age story, but not like any other one that I’ve read. It’s a survival story of physical and mental toughness. The ending was perfect.

The ‘widow’ reminded me a bit of Atwood’s Alias Grace and the setting was similar to The Tenderness of Wolves. It was a much faster read than either of those books, which is sad, because I didn’t want it to be over. show less

"It was night, and dogs came through the trees, unleashed and howling. They burst from the cover of the woods and their shadows swam across a moonlit field."

It is 1903 and Mary Boulton, 19, is on the run in the Rocky Mountains. Having killed her husband, she is steadily pursued through rugged terrain by her two red-headed brothers-in-law, armed and furious about their brother’s death.

The Outlander is the first novel by Toronto writer Gil Adamson, who had previously published works of poetry and short stories. Starting at a cracking pace, the novel settles into a steady rhythm as we follow Mary on a wild ride. She endures freezing nights in the mountains, risking frostbite and starvation as she desperately hides from her pursuers. Wild show more animals shuffle around her at night. Having been raised by her father and grandmother after her mother’s death, Mary’s well-heeled upbringing provides her with little useful knowledge for such conditions.

Fortunately for Mary, several likeable, unusual characters spring up in the nick of time to help. William Moreland, a solitary man who has lived in the mountains for nine years, becomes more than just a rescuer, and later, the friendly Reverend Bonnycastle changes Mary’s life. The rugged environment seems to house an unexpected number of kind souls.

As someone who has spent some time in Alberta and B.C., I loved the setting of the story and the descriptions of the Rockies. I could picture the startlingly beautiful meadow flowers and the animals that inhabit the area, and imagine how cold and bleak that location would be without the appropriate gear.

Read as part of the Canadian Book Challenge, The Outlander was a great read with memorable characters and a Hollywood-worthy ending.

Recommended. show less

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

****

A superb book that grabs you right away and makes you want to know why. Why is this woman running away in the wilderness? Why did she kill her husband? Why are these brothers-in-law of hers so intent on hunting her down? (Well, they could be kind of peeved about the whole killing thing, but really, if she left town they could just leave it at that.)

Anyway, this story is of her flight from the brothers-in-law and how she survives in the wilderness. Along the way she is helped by all sorts of people with all sorts of motives, and even finds love for a time with a wandering vagabond known as the Ridgerunner. It is very well written and you never know what will happen next. I certainly did not see show more the pregnancy thing coming. If I had not been on the bus when I was reading that part where the woman asks her, "How far along are you?", I would have yelled WHAAAAAT? at the page. The narrative never really mentions her suspicions, so it's a shock to the reader. Then there's a moment of "Ohhh, no wonder they never really mentioned what she does when she's inconvenienced." That is one annoying aspect to being a female in the wilderness.

The ending fits the characters, I suppose, but I must admit my romantic side wanted her to stay, or at least go off into the wilderness with the Ridgerunner. I mean, she is pregnant, she could probably use the father around, especially since he loves her and all. But the ending does work in its own way.

To sum up, if you like books set in Western Canada that have lots of lovely-but-not-excessive description, interesting characters and a plot to match, pick this one up. show less

This is a fascinating tale of a widow's escape into the wilderness, into near-insanity, losing one life and gaining another. I loved Gil Adamson's poetic writing, especially her piercingly true similes. I loved peering into the characters' souls and seeing their personalities through their actions.

The book starts during the escape, plunking us in the middle of a mystery...what happened to make her run? Did she kill her husband and if so, how and why? What would happen to her? Was she insane? The answers to those questions do not come quickly, which was occasionally frustrating, but appropriate based on the narrative style and the continuous suspense. How she survives in the wintry Rockies is only part of the story; the characters she show more meets are all intriguing and could have filled the story even if she'd died early in the book.

P.S. There are gruesome details in this book, so it may not be for all of you. There is also bleakness at times, which even made me take a break at times, but the writing, characterizations and mystery kept me riveted once I started again. 4.5 stars. show less