by Ivan Doig (Get the Book)If we were to expand the definition of the traditional western to include historical fiction about the American West, then Doig's acclaimed body of work would fit squarely within the genre's redefined borders. His latest stars Tom Harry, owner and chief barkeep (a classic western archetype) of a saloon called Medicine Lodge in Gros Ventre, Montana, which itself lies in the heart of Doig's version of Yoknapatawpha County, the Two Medicine country, which straddles the Continental Divide in northern Montana and is the setting for many of the author's best novels (including English River, 1985). Tom's story, narrated by his precocious, 12-year-old son, Rusty, begins in 1960 but quickly flashes back to the Depression, when Harry ran another bar at the site of the Fort Peck dam construction (the subject of Doig's Bucking the Sun, 1996). Tom and Rusty enjoy an unconventional but loving and mutually supportive relationship until Proxy, a dancer Tom knew at Fort Peck, and her hippie daughter, Francine, show up, with Proxy claiming that Francine is Tom's child. A reunion of dam workers draws all the principals back to Fort Peck, where past and present collide. Rusty's coming-of-age drama is involving and subtly portrayed, but Doig fans will be especially drawn to the set-pieces that surround the action: a fishing contest, a mudslide, a trip to a brewery, and, most of all, daily life at the saloon, including a delightful seminar on pouring a beer ( For without a basic good glass of beer, properly drawn and presented, a saloon was merely a booze trough ). It's that kind of detail that has made Doig essential reading for anyone who cares about western literature. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Doig rarely hits best-seller lists, but he has a strong, devoted readership, especially in libraries, and his books are book-club naturals. --Booklist
