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Let Him Go
"With you or without you," Margaret insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.
It’s September 1951: years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse; months since James’s widow Lorna took off and remarried that thug Donnie Weboy. Now Margaret is steadfast, resolved to find and retrieve her grandson Jimmy—the one person in this world keeping her son’s memory alive—while George, a retired sheriff, is none too eager to stir up trouble with Donnie Weboy. Unable to sway his wife from her mission, George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, traveling through the Dakota badlands to Bentrock, Montana, in unstoppable pursuit. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a fearsome family determined not to give the boy up without a fight.
With gutsy characters and suspense-filled prose, Bring Him Back speaks to the extraordinary measures we take for family and the overpowering instinct to protect those we love. From the award-winning author who gave us Montana 1948, Justice, and American Boy, Larry Watson is at his storytelling finest in this unforgettable return to the American West.
It’s September 1951: years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse; months since James’s widow Lorna took off and remarried that thug Donnie Weboy. Now Margaret is steadfast, resolved to find and retrieve her grandson Jimmy—the one person in this world keeping her son’s memory alive—while George, a retired sheriff, is none too eager to stir up trouble with Donnie Weboy. Unable to sway his wife from her mission, George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, traveling through the Dakota badlands to Bentrock, Montana, in unstoppable pursuit. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a fearsome family determined not to give the boy up without a fight.
With gutsy characters and suspense-filled prose, Bring Him Back speaks to the extraordinary measures we take for family and the overpowering instinct to protect those we love. From the award-winning author who gave us Montana 1948, Justice, and American Boy, Larry Watson is at his storytelling finest in this unforgettable return to the American West.
269 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Larry Watson
27 books428 followersLarry Watson was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota. He grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, and was educated in its public schools. Larry married his high school sweetheart, Susan Gibbons, in 1967. He received his BA and MA from the University of North Dakota, his Ph.D. from the creative writing program at the University of Utah, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Ripon College. Watson has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1987, 2004) and the Wisconsin Arts Board.
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December 16, 2020
2020 UPDATES Author Watson on the film: "I thought it was terrific—intelligent, moving, and suspenseful. It’s as propulsive as any thriller, but it’s also as tender as any love story. Every performance is excellent, and every scene has something original and interesting." Read the whole interview with him on LitHub.
The 6 November 2020 film has a really intense trailer!
**2019 UPDATE** There's a major motion picture on its way...starring Kevin Costner as George and Diane Lane (!!) as Margaret. It's billed as a thriller...not quite sure I see it as one, but the fact is those actors are more than capable of making these people live.
Real Rating: 4.9* of five
The Publisher Says: "With you or without you," Margaret insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.
It’s September 1951: years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse; months since James’s widow Lorna took off and remarried that thug Donnie Weboy. Now Margaret is steadfast, resolved to find and retrieve her grandson Jimmy—the one person in this world keeping her son’s memory alive—while George, a retired sheriff, is none too eager to stir up trouble with Donnie Weboy. Unable to sway his wife from her mission, George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, traveling through the Dakota badlands to Bentrock, Montana, in unstoppable pursuit. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a fearsome family determined not to give the boy up without a fight.
With gutsy characters and suspense-filled prose, Let Him Go speaks to the extraordinary measures we take for family and the overpowering instinct to protect those we love. From the award-winning author who gave us Montana 1948, Justice, and American Boy, Larry Watson is at his storytelling finest in this unforgettable return to the American West.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is the eleventh in the series, discuss a book that made you cry.
Um.
So, yeah. This book's plot is readily available to anyone who can read. You know that Margaret Blackledge lost her only son, her no-count trollop of a daughter-in-law found her a pretty face on top of a hard body and lit out for the fleshpots of Montana. Good riddance, Margaret would think, were it not for the fact that her one remaining treasure, her grandson, got swept away in the leaving. And the life that boy will be living will be full of no-count people who are no better than the law requires, and most of the time not even that. No. Margaret will not have that, not after all she went through to raise her boy up right. She has to have his son back, so she can do it all again.
And those textures, those memories, they're going to be of her and her husband George, not some petty, small-time criminals like his mama fell in with.
Margaret Blackledge is a force of nature. She is a tall woman with no give to her, and believe you me, she has never given anything. She suits her country beautifully. Margaret just flat hates summer, she went a little crazy one summer from it and...well, that's a piece of story you'll find out. Summer makes a person crazy, and so Margaret waits to pack the Hudson full of her life's stuff and then tell George he's comin' or goin' but the time is now until it's September:
And I don't blame her one itty bit.
George now, he's been a sheriff for Dalton, North Dakota, and he's had to win elections before...in spite of a little drinkin' problem, in spite of being reserved, in spite of never slittin' a lip unless it was necessary:
But when we meet George, he's no lawman anymore, he holds boards for other men to hammer. He's done. He's been more than he wanted to be, and he's done. George has been Margaret's husband for a long time, and he's done right by her and their twin kids (Janie, the other twin, features in this story only in her absence). But now, with this trip, George is done:
Memories might consume him, but no one outside his skin will ever know which ones, or what he thinks of 'em. He does not give anything away, not after running a ranch he inherited from his father and mother, not after making a life in the hardscrabble grab it from the earth way of the American West, and not as long as Margaret is beside him making do, wearing out, mending up, doing without.
I think he loves Margaret, and I think he knows that his only way to show her she's loved is to do for her. So he does. And the story is George, lawman and drunk and closed-up shop, doing his all for the woman who gave him his life. It had its price, this life, but it was theirs, and they're looking at the end:
And that's the story's unspoken edge. These two people are coming to the end, and they...she more than he...want to put something into their grandson that his soft, vapid, pointless mama won't and can't. They want to give him a sense of purpose, a purposeful life-path that won't shame him or his own kids.
Suffice it to say that the conflict between these rock-ribbed, self-contained, competent people and their shiftless opponents isn't going to play out slowly. The end comes, in fact, a bit abruptly and with a B-movie full-circleness that is *exactly* what I wanted.
But in that satisfaction comes the disappointment of getting what you want handed to you, no questions, no effort required. This beautiful story and its handsomely carved characters never launched into the glorious orbit of Montana 1948, and never plumbed the deep-downs of White Crosses. It is excellent, and it is beautiful. It should be on your shelf. It should also break into the myriad frighteningly sharp shards here:
That it never quite does makes me cry.
The 6 November 2020 film has a really intense trailer!
**2019 UPDATE** There's a major motion picture on its way...starring Kevin Costner as George and Diane Lane (!!) as Margaret. It's billed as a thriller...not quite sure I see it as one, but the fact is those actors are more than capable of making these people live.
Real Rating: 4.9* of five
The Publisher Says: "With you or without you," Margaret insists, and at these words George knows his only choice is to follow her.
It’s September 1951: years since George and Margaret Blackledge lost their son James when he was thrown from a horse; months since James’s widow Lorna took off and remarried that thug Donnie Weboy. Now Margaret is steadfast, resolved to find and retrieve her grandson Jimmy—the one person in this world keeping her son’s memory alive—while George, a retired sheriff, is none too eager to stir up trouble with Donnie Weboy. Unable to sway his wife from her mission, George takes to the road with Margaret by his side, traveling through the Dakota badlands to Bentrock, Montana, in unstoppable pursuit. When Margaret tries to convince Lorna to return home to North Dakota, bringing little Jimmy with her, the Blackledges find themselves mixed up with the entire Weboy clan, a fearsome family determined not to give the boy up without a fight.
With gutsy characters and suspense-filled prose, Let Him Go speaks to the extraordinary measures we take for family and the overpowering instinct to protect those we love. From the award-winning author who gave us Montana 1948, Justice, and American Boy, Larry Watson is at his storytelling finest in this unforgettable return to the American West.
My Review: The Doubleday UK meme, a book a day for July 2014, is the goad I'm using to get through my snit-based unwritten reviews. Today's prompt is the eleventh in the series, discuss a book that made you cry.
Um.
Long past the moment when her neck begins to stiffen and ache, she continues to stare into the darkness, even though none of the human secrets she needs to know are to be found in the stars but rather closer to the earth her boots stand upon.
So, yeah. This book's plot is readily available to anyone who can read. You know that Margaret Blackledge lost her only son, her no-count trollop of a daughter-in-law found her a pretty face on top of a hard body and lit out for the fleshpots of Montana. Good riddance, Margaret would think, were it not for the fact that her one remaining treasure, her grandson, got swept away in the leaving. And the life that boy will be living will be full of no-count people who are no better than the law requires, and most of the time not even that. No. Margaret will not have that, not after all she went through to raise her boy up right. She has to have his son back, so she can do it all again.
A four-year-old has so little past, and he remembers almost none of it, neither the father he once had nor the house where he once lived. But he can feel the absences – and feel them as sensation, like a texture that was once at his fingers every day but now is gone and no matter how he gropes or reaches his hand he cannot touch what’s no longer there.
And those textures, those memories, they're going to be of her and her husband George, not some petty, small-time criminals like his mama fell in with.
Margaret Blackledge is a force of nature. She is a tall woman with no give to her, and believe you me, she has never given anything. She suits her country beautifully. Margaret just flat hates summer, she went a little crazy one summer from it and...well, that's a piece of story you'll find out. Summer makes a person crazy, and so Margaret waits to pack the Hudson full of her life's stuff and then tell George he's comin' or goin' but the time is now until it's September:
Autumn has come to northeast Montana. The vapor of one’s breath, the clarity of the stars, the smell of wood smoke, the stones underfoot that even a full day of sunlight won’t warm- these all say there will be no more days that can be mistaken for summer.
And I don't blame her one itty bit.
George now, he's been a sheriff for Dalton, North Dakota, and he's had to win elections before...in spite of a little drinkin' problem, in spite of being reserved, in spite of never slittin' a lip unless it was necessary:
The limitless, lowering sky, the long stretches of motionless empty prairie, the silence, complete right down to the absence of birdsong -- who knows what decides a man to leave most of his words unspoken?
But when we meet George, he's no lawman anymore, he holds boards for other men to hammer. He's done. He's been more than he wanted to be, and he's done. George has been Margaret's husband for a long time, and he's done right by her and their twin kids (Janie, the other twin, features in this story only in her absence). But now, with this trip, George is done:
Now no sign, no scorch or char, marks the place where George built the fire. Remarkable, earth's strength to restore itself and erase human effort. But memory, stronger still, can send flames as high as the roof, and shift the wind and choke George and sting his eyes with smoke...
Memories might consume him, but no one outside his skin will ever know which ones, or what he thinks of 'em. He does not give anything away, not after running a ranch he inherited from his father and mother, not after making a life in the hardscrabble grab it from the earth way of the American West, and not as long as Margaret is beside him making do, wearing out, mending up, doing without.
I think he loves Margaret, and I think he knows that his only way to show her she's loved is to do for her. So he does. And the story is George, lawman and drunk and closed-up shop, doing his all for the woman who gave him his life. It had its price, this life, but it was theirs, and they're looking at the end:
When night comes on in a room lit by kerosene, any flicker of the flame can give the sense that darkness is about to triumph.
And that's the story's unspoken edge. These two people are coming to the end, and they...she more than he...want to put something into their grandson that his soft, vapid, pointless mama won't and can't. They want to give him a sense of purpose, a purposeful life-path that won't shame him or his own kids.
Suffice it to say that the conflict between these rock-ribbed, self-contained, competent people and their shiftless opponents isn't going to play out slowly. The end comes, in fact, a bit abruptly and with a B-movie full-circleness that is *exactly* what I wanted.
But in that satisfaction comes the disappointment of getting what you want handed to you, no questions, no effort required. This beautiful story and its handsomely carved characters never launched into the glorious orbit of Montana 1948, and never plumbed the deep-downs of White Crosses. It is excellent, and it is beautiful. It should be on your shelf. It should also break into the myriad frighteningly sharp shards here:
A gust of wind doesn't suddenly bang a door open. A clock doesn't chime. The phone doesn't ring. Yet in the next instant the stillness breaks as if it is crystal.
That it never quite does makes me cry.
November 30, 2020
Imagine a woman who lost her adult son when he was thrown from a horse. Now imagine that the same woman fears that she has also lost his young son, her only grandchild. Do you think she could let him go? That’s her husband’s advice, not because he doesn’t love his grandson, but because he doesn’t see any clear solution to the problem.
If you are Margaret Blackledge you are not going to follow the advice of your husband, George. You are not about to let him go. You are not about to let Jimmy go because his mother, Lorna, has hooked up with a ne’er do well, lazy lowlife named Donnie Weboy, and you personally witnessed him mistreating Jimmy.
That boy does not belong with those people is what drives Margaret as well as the story.
With or without George, come hell or high water, Margaret plans to track down Lorna and Donnie and her grandson. She learns that they have left North Dakota and moved to Montana, in all likelihood to live with Donnie’s family near the town of Gladstone.
George finally relents, as he knew he would, and they head to Montana.
"From the bluffs east of the city, Gladstone, Montana looks as though it could have been laid out by a shotgun blast, the commercial and residential districts a tight cluster in the center and then the buckshot dispersing in the looser pattern of outlying houses and businesses owned by those Montanans for whom space is a stronger article of faith than neighborliness.”
Finding Jimmy didn’t turn out to be as difficult as they had imagined, but getting him away from the Weboy clan, headed by the matriarch, Blanche, who is just as strong-willed as Margaret, was not going to be as simple.
Margaret is described as being as “steady as steel,” but in Blanche she has met her match, a woman who is not only tough, but ruthless as hell. Blanche rules her clan with an iron fist and as far as she is concerned the clan includes Jimmy. She will not let him go, and that places the Blackledges and the Weboys on a collision course fraught with danger.
This is my sixth Larry Watson book (five novels and one short story collection), and therefore I am quite familiar with the locale in which Let Him Go is set. Once again, it is primarily a small town in Montana. The year is 1951.
In addition, the town of Bentrock, Montana -- the setting for Montana 1948 and White Crosses -- makes a cameo appearance. The former sheriff in Montana 1948, Wes Hayden, is even mentioned, and his successor, Jack Nevelsen, makes a brief appearance. Running unexpectedly into Jack is a rather poignant experience for readers who have read White Crosses, for they know to what lengths he resorted to six years later in a well-intentioned, but tragic, effort to “serve and protect” his community.
This is not meant to imply that Let Him Go doesn’t have anything new to offer. No, it just means that Watson has chosen the same environment in which to set a new story with a new twist. It isn’t as though a precedent for that sort of thing hadn’t already been set by – well, by practically every novelist that one can think of.
As always with Watson, his writing is one of his books’ assets, and this one is no exception. Known for his prose and characterizations drawn, as one critic put it, “without flashy over-accessorizing,” he allows us to ride along with the Blackledges so that we can put ourselves in their place and to decide if we would go to the lengths that they do in an effort to “save” their grandchild.
All of the books by Watson that I have read include an element of mystery in the plot. Let Him Go, however, goes beyond mere mystery by taking on a noirish quality. If it were set in the Ozarks, it could have been written by Daniel Woodrell, and thus might have even been classified as Grit Lit. And that’s not a bad thing.
If you are Margaret Blackledge you are not going to follow the advice of your husband, George. You are not about to let him go. You are not about to let Jimmy go because his mother, Lorna, has hooked up with a ne’er do well, lazy lowlife named Donnie Weboy, and you personally witnessed him mistreating Jimmy.
That boy does not belong with those people is what drives Margaret as well as the story.
With or without George, come hell or high water, Margaret plans to track down Lorna and Donnie and her grandson. She learns that they have left North Dakota and moved to Montana, in all likelihood to live with Donnie’s family near the town of Gladstone.
George finally relents, as he knew he would, and they head to Montana.
"From the bluffs east of the city, Gladstone, Montana looks as though it could have been laid out by a shotgun blast, the commercial and residential districts a tight cluster in the center and then the buckshot dispersing in the looser pattern of outlying houses and businesses owned by those Montanans for whom space is a stronger article of faith than neighborliness.”
Finding Jimmy didn’t turn out to be as difficult as they had imagined, but getting him away from the Weboy clan, headed by the matriarch, Blanche, who is just as strong-willed as Margaret, was not going to be as simple.
Margaret is described as being as “steady as steel,” but in Blanche she has met her match, a woman who is not only tough, but ruthless as hell. Blanche rules her clan with an iron fist and as far as she is concerned the clan includes Jimmy. She will not let him go, and that places the Blackledges and the Weboys on a collision course fraught with danger.
This is my sixth Larry Watson book (five novels and one short story collection), and therefore I am quite familiar with the locale in which Let Him Go is set. Once again, it is primarily a small town in Montana. The year is 1951.
In addition, the town of Bentrock, Montana -- the setting for Montana 1948 and White Crosses -- makes a cameo appearance. The former sheriff in Montana 1948, Wes Hayden, is even mentioned, and his successor, Jack Nevelsen, makes a brief appearance. Running unexpectedly into Jack is a rather poignant experience for readers who have read White Crosses, for they know to what lengths he resorted to six years later in a well-intentioned, but tragic, effort to “serve and protect” his community.
This is not meant to imply that Let Him Go doesn’t have anything new to offer. No, it just means that Watson has chosen the same environment in which to set a new story with a new twist. It isn’t as though a precedent for that sort of thing hadn’t already been set by – well, by practically every novelist that one can think of.
As always with Watson, his writing is one of his books’ assets, and this one is no exception. Known for his prose and characterizations drawn, as one critic put it, “without flashy over-accessorizing,” he allows us to ride along with the Blackledges so that we can put ourselves in their place and to decide if we would go to the lengths that they do in an effort to “save” their grandchild.
All of the books by Watson that I have read include an element of mystery in the plot. Let Him Go, however, goes beyond mere mystery by taking on a noirish quality. If it were set in the Ozarks, it could have been written by Daniel Woodrell, and thus might have even been classified as Grit Lit. And that’s not a bad thing.
November 24, 2019
5 🥃 🥃 🥃 🥃 🥃
This book just took over my Sunday morning plans, had to let them go. After sitting on my stand for weeks and weeks I finally got to it and at the fifty percent mark could not put it down. I was tempted to wait on the movie with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane but so glad I succumbed to reading temptation. It should be a great film but there is so much nuance in the pages which cannot be transported to the screen. My first Watson but surely not the last. Hot Damn! This delivered on everything I want in a story.
This book just took over my Sunday morning plans, had to let them go. After sitting on my stand for weeks and weeks I finally got to it and at the fifty percent mark could not put it down. I was tempted to wait on the movie with Kevin Costner and Diane Lane but so glad I succumbed to reading temptation. It should be a great film but there is so much nuance in the pages which cannot be transported to the screen. My first Watson but surely not the last. Hot Damn! This delivered on everything I want in a story.
September 18, 2013
This is a story of the powerful force of Grandparent love for a grandchild, and what a man would do for his wife. A beloved son tragically dies, leaving a widow and grandson. The daughter-in-law remarries a bad man who physically abuses the grandson. The newly established family suddenly moves from their home in North Dakota to Montana. This is a heartbreaking tale of Margaret’s(the Grandmother) obsessive need to save her only grandchild. She enlists her husband George, who begrudgingly goes with her on her expedition which he believes will come to no good. George is man who shies away from trouble, but he’s a man who stands by his woman. Watson uses minimal language to convey complicated emotions. These are ranch people. It’s a tough life and not a much time for dilly-dallying, and that includes superfluous words. Watson’s depiction of life in a small town in North Dakota in the 50’s is flawless. I saw everything he described. All his characters are richly developed and credible. I especially loved his characterization of Margaret’s and George’s marriage: their matter of fact support of each other, and their devotion to each other. Watson writes very beautifully, lyrically. I will read his other books. A great writer.
March 9, 2020
[4+] A spare, intense novel about a couple's quest to find their grandson. There is tension and some action in their journey but mostly this about George and Margaret and their relationship. Watson shows how it is done, stripped of all sentimentality. A stunning love story.
October 3, 2020
5 Stars. I can't believe I just discovered Larry Watson.
September 29, 2013
WOW! The suspense begins in the very first chapter and keeps building as the story evolves subtly warning you that danger is on the way. The relationship between George and Margaret is so full of deep emotion, and unconditional love which makes the This is not a happy, feel good book, but definitely one of my 2013 favorites.
December 10, 2023
one couple’s quest
The daughter-in-law and widow, who married the son of the elderly couple who are at the center of the story, jumps far too quickly into another relationship with a man who turns out to be a controller and abusive. She finds herself trapped by the man’s large family of siblings in a big house in Montana. And that with her four year old son.
Her dead husband’s mother and father, grandparents to the boy, make their way from North Dakota to Montana to rescue the woman and their grandson. But not everything goes according to plan.
The writing has a rough, lean, sinewy way about it, perfect for the hardscrabble locations in the story. For me, taking pleasure in the style in which it was written, was as good as taking in the story itself. 4 stars.
[I’ll watch the movie and compare. I did look at the trailer and there is definitely stuff happening on the screen that didn’t happen in the book.]
The daughter-in-law and widow, who married the son of the elderly couple who are at the center of the story, jumps far too quickly into another relationship with a man who turns out to be a controller and abusive. She finds herself trapped by the man’s large family of siblings in a big house in Montana. And that with her four year old son.
Her dead husband’s mother and father, grandparents to the boy, make their way from North Dakota to Montana to rescue the woman and their grandson. But not everything goes according to plan.
The writing has a rough, lean, sinewy way about it, perfect for the hardscrabble locations in the story. For me, taking pleasure in the style in which it was written, was as good as taking in the story itself. 4 stars.
[I’ll watch the movie and compare. I did look at the trailer and there is definitely stuff happening on the screen that didn’t happen in the book.]
December 6, 2020
Excellent!!! Not sure two characters could be any better suited for each other. I’m anxious to see Kevin Costner play the role of George in the movie. Can a love story be gritty and raw? Larry Watson seems to say “hell yeah!”
Update: of course the book was better than the movie. But the movie was good. So read the book then watch the movie. I hope this movie has success and we see more Watsons on the big screen.
Update: of course the book was better than the movie. But the movie was good. So read the book then watch the movie. I hope this movie has success and we see more Watsons on the big screen.
November 21, 2013
Larry Watson’s bare bones writing style tells a deceptively simple story. Just as the pitch perfect title is packed with multiple meanings, the author’s lean economy with words end up delivering surprising layers. Clean and raw, yet magically lyrical.
The characters are as striking as any you are likely to find within the pages of a book. The Weboy clan – the boys are pure D mean stupid, a dangerous combination. Blanche, the mama, is not stupid, but meaner than a snake. As another reviewer noted, this bunch easily brings to mind some of the folks we have seen on the television series Justified.
Margaret Blackledge – a no nonsense name for a formidable woman. Tall, with a high forehead and a sharp angled jaw, hair plaited and pinned up. Her resolve to remove her grandson from the poisonous clutches of the Weboys is absolute. The relationship between she and husband George is as intricate and familiar as only a 40-year marriage can be. Minor characters are just as vivid. The waitress at Ressler’s Café scowls and grinds her teeth while taking your order. She is as efficient as she is rude. Get ‘em fed and move ‘em out. She doesn’t say it, but it is clearly her intent.
This is my first encounter with this author and I am sold. The denouement is horrific, yet strangely satisfying. To anyone who is not emotionally wedded to the use of quotation marks, I recommend this book without hesitation.
This was a first-reads giveaway, thank you for a great read and for yet more additions to my to-read shelf.
The characters are as striking as any you are likely to find within the pages of a book. The Weboy clan – the boys are pure D mean stupid, a dangerous combination. Blanche, the mama, is not stupid, but meaner than a snake. As another reviewer noted, this bunch easily brings to mind some of the folks we have seen on the television series Justified.
Margaret Blackledge – a no nonsense name for a formidable woman. Tall, with a high forehead and a sharp angled jaw, hair plaited and pinned up. Her resolve to remove her grandson from the poisonous clutches of the Weboys is absolute. The relationship between she and husband George is as intricate and familiar as only a 40-year marriage can be. Minor characters are just as vivid. The waitress at Ressler’s Café scowls and grinds her teeth while taking your order. She is as efficient as she is rude. Get ‘em fed and move ‘em out. She doesn’t say it, but it is clearly her intent.
This is my first encounter with this author and I am sold. The denouement is horrific, yet strangely satisfying. To anyone who is not emotionally wedded to the use of quotation marks, I recommend this book without hesitation.
This was a first-reads giveaway, thank you for a great read and for yet more additions to my to-read shelf.
August 3, 2016
I really am too much in awe of this novel to offer a coherent review so instead I offer a list of adjectives: brilliant, desolate, violent, searing, linguistically perfect.
1951 South Dakota is not my typical read but everything about this novel captured me. Watson never wasted a single word but evokes these aching people in these lonely places with grace and integrity. It's the kind of book that made me want to stop every few pages just to appreciate the language. I will certainly read more of Watson.
Read Alikes:
The Painter by Peter Heller
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
1951 South Dakota is not my typical read but everything about this novel captured me. Watson never wasted a single word but evokes these aching people in these lonely places with grace and integrity. It's the kind of book that made me want to stop every few pages just to appreciate the language. I will certainly read more of Watson.
Read Alikes:
The Painter by Peter Heller
Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
November 5, 2013
The 1950's and North Dakota, not exactly the days of the old west but much of the attitude and history is still present. A hardy people, hardy stock and hard-working like Margaret and George. Unfortunately in places it is still the old west in that laws don't apply to everyone and fear can still have a huge impact. They take a journey with the hope of retrieving someone that has the utmost of importance, to Margaret more than George. They find more than they anticipated and will never be the same.
This book is a wonder, beautifully written, spare language and in your face confrontations.
It is hard not to be consumed by this novel it is so compelling. How far will we go for family? For justice? What will we sacrifice? All this is answered for Margaret and George and hats off to the author for the ending. Hard yes, real, yes, I can't see it ending any other way. I have already checked out his other two novels, only hope they are as good as this one. Brilliant!
This book is a wonder, beautifully written, spare language and in your face confrontations.
It is hard not to be consumed by this novel it is so compelling. How far will we go for family? For justice? What will we sacrifice? All this is answered for Margaret and George and hats off to the author for the ending. Hard yes, real, yes, I can't see it ending any other way. I have already checked out his other two novels, only hope they are as good as this one. Brilliant!
June 6, 2020
There were at least two things I did not like about this novel.
1. I felt that the conversations between the husband (George) and wife (Margaret) were contrived and were mainly for the reader to understand things and events that had happened in the past between the husband and wife. It’s not how normal people talk who have been married a good long time. At times, it was like they had just met.
Good god, I could have done without the stupid sex scene between the husband and wife. I felt it was so contrived…I almost felt insulted. Like really Larry Watson, you want me to read this tripe?
2. The plot was absurd. I think the reader was supposed to be rooting for the husband and wife in this novel, and I for one, was not.
I was conscious of myself at several times while reading this book shaking my head, and it was horizontally, not vertically. Enough said.
Reviews:
https://www.startribune.com/review-le...
from a blogsite: http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo...
1. I felt that the conversations between the husband (George) and wife (Margaret) were contrived and were mainly for the reader to understand things and events that had happened in the past between the husband and wife. It’s not how normal people talk who have been married a good long time. At times, it was like they had just met.
Good god, I could have done without the stupid sex scene between the husband and wife. I felt it was so contrived…I almost felt insulted. Like really Larry Watson, you want me to read this tripe?
2. The plot was absurd. I think the reader was supposed to be rooting for the husband and wife in this novel, and I for one, was not.
I was conscious of myself at several times while reading this book shaking my head, and it was horizontally, not vertically. Enough said.
Reviews:
https://www.startribune.com/review-le...
from a blogsite: http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo...
December 30, 2019
Book Club read #28 Jan. 2020.
Had this on my nightstand for quite a while, unread. Maybe it was the title - it just didn't grab my attention. It took a 5 star review from a trusted GR friend, Cathrine, to make me take another look at it, to convince my book club to make it our next read, and to sit down with it today and finish her off in no time. Like Cathrine said, this book will take over your schedule and whatever was planned for the day won't get done.
George and Margaret have lost their son, James, in a riding accident; and now it appears James' son Jimmy is lost to them as well since Jimmy's mother remarried and took the boy to Montana. Margaret plans a trek to Montana to bring the boy home to stay, where she knows he'll be better off. Only thing is the other family has other ideas about that, and neither they nor Margaret are going to give up. A lot happens in a short time, and I didn't see that ending coming. At. All. I can only say, Wow! I will read this author again. And thanks, C!
Reminded me of Little Faith by Nickolas Butler
Had this on my nightstand for quite a while, unread. Maybe it was the title - it just didn't grab my attention. It took a 5 star review from a trusted GR friend, Cathrine, to make me take another look at it, to convince my book club to make it our next read, and to sit down with it today and finish her off in no time. Like Cathrine said, this book will take over your schedule and whatever was planned for the day won't get done.
George and Margaret have lost their son, James, in a riding accident; and now it appears James' son Jimmy is lost to them as well since Jimmy's mother remarried and took the boy to Montana. Margaret plans a trek to Montana to bring the boy home to stay, where she knows he'll be better off. Only thing is the other family has other ideas about that, and neither they nor Margaret are going to give up. A lot happens in a short time, and I didn't see that ending coming. At. All. I can only say, Wow! I will read this author again. And thanks, C!
Reminded me of Little Faith by Nickolas Butler
July 20, 2016
So well written!!!! At first it reminded me a little of Kent Haruf's fiction- gripping, simply told, American West, etc.--but it really is even more. It is suspenseful, it is "a wonder"( Diane S-again!). Larry Watson is a MASTER of fiction! Read it- you won't be sorry!!!!
October 6, 2013
Winter is approaching in rural Dalton, North Dakota in the early 1950s. One day retired sheriff George Blackledge returns home from work to find his wife, the headstrong, stubborn Margaret, packing up the contents of their house and loading their car. She is determined to track down Lorna, their former daughter-in-law, who remarried following George and Margaret's son's death in a freak accident, and moved away with her ne'er-do-well husband, Donnie Weboy, and Margaret and George's young grandson, Jimmy.
Margaret is convinced that Lorna and Donnie aren't treating Jimmy well, and that he'd be better off if she could convince Lorna to give custody of the boy to George and Margaret. She tells George she's going looking for them with or without him. While George isn't sure that Margaret's idea is a sound one, especially given their advancing age, and he worries that she'll go off half-cocked, his duty is to follow his wife, so they set off into the badlands and head to Montana to find Donnie and Lorna, who have apparently returned to Donnie's boyhood home.
When Margaret and George arrive, they find that the Weboys are a family not to be trifled with. While Donnie isn't particularly intelligent or ambitious, his mother, Blanche, has held her family together every way she knows how, and she and her three sons, as well as her brother-in-law, Bill, turn to bullying, intimidation, and downright violence to get whatever they want. And what they want is for Margaret and George to return home to North Dakota, and consider their mission to retrieve their grandson finished. But of course, Margaret has different ideas, which sets the Blackledges and Weboys on a collision course that grows increasingly bleaker and more dangerous.
Larry Watson is a fantastic writer, and I've been a fan of his work since reading his first novel-in-stories, Montana 1948, in the early 1990s. His imagery and language are poetic, and his storytelling is compelling yet surprisingly simple. In Let Him Go he transports you to the early 1950s, to the strong connection between a couple married for years who have struggled with different issues, yet their bond is unshakeable. I wondered how Watson would resolve the clash between the two families, and what would ultimately happen.
Watson is one of those writers who can evoke feelings of nostalgia both with setting and imagery as well as his storytelling. But although the novel seems faithful to place and time, the story still feels tremendously current and was incredibly compelling. This really was a great book, a fast read, and another example of Larry Watson's strength as a storyteller.
Margaret is convinced that Lorna and Donnie aren't treating Jimmy well, and that he'd be better off if she could convince Lorna to give custody of the boy to George and Margaret. She tells George she's going looking for them with or without him. While George isn't sure that Margaret's idea is a sound one, especially given their advancing age, and he worries that she'll go off half-cocked, his duty is to follow his wife, so they set off into the badlands and head to Montana to find Donnie and Lorna, who have apparently returned to Donnie's boyhood home.
When Margaret and George arrive, they find that the Weboys are a family not to be trifled with. While Donnie isn't particularly intelligent or ambitious, his mother, Blanche, has held her family together every way she knows how, and she and her three sons, as well as her brother-in-law, Bill, turn to bullying, intimidation, and downright violence to get whatever they want. And what they want is for Margaret and George to return home to North Dakota, and consider their mission to retrieve their grandson finished. But of course, Margaret has different ideas, which sets the Blackledges and Weboys on a collision course that grows increasingly bleaker and more dangerous.
Larry Watson is a fantastic writer, and I've been a fan of his work since reading his first novel-in-stories, Montana 1948, in the early 1990s. His imagery and language are poetic, and his storytelling is compelling yet surprisingly simple. In Let Him Go he transports you to the early 1950s, to the strong connection between a couple married for years who have struggled with different issues, yet their bond is unshakeable. I wondered how Watson would resolve the clash between the two families, and what would ultimately happen.
Watson is one of those writers who can evoke feelings of nostalgia both with setting and imagery as well as his storytelling. But although the novel seems faithful to place and time, the story still feels tremendously current and was incredibly compelling. This really was a great book, a fast read, and another example of Larry Watson's strength as a storyteller.
June 30, 2021
Tra epica western e noir, in un’ambientazione dell’America rurale dei primi anni cinquanta, questo romanzo si è fatto letteralmente divorare e gli ingredienti c’erano tutti: spazi aperti e spesso desolati, allevatori e sceriffi, bevitori incalliti (ex o meno), drammi famigliari ed esistenziali e famiglie al limite dell’associazione a delinquere. I protagonisti, tra i buoni e i cattivi, sono soprattutto maturi sessantenni segnati da dolore, incomprensioni e silenzi; i più giovani sembrano essere perlopiù molli o sovrastati dalla presenza dei grandi.
Il ritmo della narrazione è veloce, le descrizioni sono spesso stringate e ridotte a ciò che può essere funzionale al racconto e, unitamente all’uso del presente indicativo in frasi brevi, determinano un effetto da audiodescrizione del cinema alla radio, talvolta un po’ marcato, ma la tensione narrativa resta alta con apici veramente notevoli. Man, mano che si entra nella storia si riescono ad anticipare gli eventi, e ci si può sorprendere a sostenere l’azione dal di fuori sperando che ci porti proprio là dove vogliamo che vada, e ci ha portati Larry Watson: quindi bravo, direi!
***
A mente fredda, posso fare qualche altra considerazione, senza entrare troppo nel merito della storia, per giustificare le cinque stelle dal mio personale punto di vista.
L'epica western, in cui i buoni, quelli che sono dalla parte giusta, reagiscono a un sopruso, soccombono e si riorganizzano per lo scontro finale, il tutto in una società in cui la legge è spesso succube dei cattivi a volte rappresentati da un gruppo famigliare, può dare origine a un buon prodotto seriale ma non molto di più, a mio avviso.
Quello che può fare la differenza è la crisi morale ed etica che incrina in primo luogo le solide certezze che separano il bene e il male e che spesso ci fa propendere per i buoni anche se non hanno pienamente ragione, come in Soldi bruciati , di Ricardo Piglia, molto diverso ma che evolve in un epico duello finale.
Le protagoniste reali del romanzo sono le due nonne, Margaret Blackledge, emotiva e poco razionale ma caparbiamente decisa a "salvare il bambino" (dalla quarta di copertina) a qualsiasi costo, e Blanche Weboy, perfida ma lucida e razionale.
Il cuore darebbe ragione a Margaret, la razionalità, invece, a Blanche. Come si fa a essere cattivi e avere ragione, ed essere buoni fino a rischiare il sopruso? Essere cattivi pur entro la legge e anche la morale, ed essere buoni ma anche amorali, egoisti e magari fuorilegge a fin di bene? Mentre si legge non si fa alcuna fatica ad essere dalla parte di Margaret, ma il tarlo, comunque, rode. Questo aspetto evidenzia una storia tutta al femminile; in modo diverso entrambe le donne sono leader, il lavoro sporco (e quanto può essere sporco, violento, estremo!!) spetta agli uomini, anche in questo caso buoni o cattivi che siano, ma sempre legato all'autorevolezza o all'autorità femminile, anche a costo del sacrificio.
Anche il finale, tutto sommato, resta aperto e una delle possibili vie che si prospettano potrebbe addirittura vanificare tutto ciò che è accaduto.
Non so se queste considerazioni siano solo mie elucubrazioni, ma almeno il romanzo ha lasciato un segno.
(PS - Da questo libro hanno tratto il film che sarà a breve in sala; il ruolo di George Blackledge, il marito di Margaret, sarebbe stato perfetto per Clint Eastwood anche se forse è un po' vecchierello, ma è toccato a Kevin Costner che ha l'età giusta.
Il titolo del libro/film originale è Let him go, riferito al bambino, e dice già molto; il titolo del libro/film italiano è un'affermazione di Blanche Weboy, che dice altrettanto.)
Il ritmo della narrazione è veloce, le descrizioni sono spesso stringate e ridotte a ciò che può essere funzionale al racconto e, unitamente all’uso del presente indicativo in frasi brevi, determinano un effetto da audiodescrizione del cinema alla radio, talvolta un po’ marcato, ma la tensione narrativa resta alta con apici veramente notevoli. Man, mano che si entra nella storia si riescono ad anticipare gli eventi, e ci si può sorprendere a sostenere l’azione dal di fuori sperando che ci porti proprio là dove vogliamo che vada, e ci ha portati Larry Watson: quindi bravo, direi!
***
A mente fredda, posso fare qualche altra considerazione, senza entrare troppo nel merito della storia, per giustificare le cinque stelle dal mio personale punto di vista.
L'epica western, in cui i buoni, quelli che sono dalla parte giusta, reagiscono a un sopruso, soccombono e si riorganizzano per lo scontro finale, il tutto in una società in cui la legge è spesso succube dei cattivi a volte rappresentati da un gruppo famigliare, può dare origine a un buon prodotto seriale ma non molto di più, a mio avviso.
Quello che può fare la differenza è la crisi morale ed etica che incrina in primo luogo le solide certezze che separano il bene e il male e che spesso ci fa propendere per i buoni anche se non hanno pienamente ragione, come in Soldi bruciati , di Ricardo Piglia, molto diverso ma che evolve in un epico duello finale.
Le protagoniste reali del romanzo sono le due nonne, Margaret Blackledge, emotiva e poco razionale ma caparbiamente decisa a "salvare il bambino" (dalla quarta di copertina) a qualsiasi costo, e Blanche Weboy, perfida ma lucida e razionale.
Il cuore darebbe ragione a Margaret, la razionalità, invece, a Blanche. Come si fa a essere cattivi e avere ragione, ed essere buoni fino a rischiare il sopruso? Essere cattivi pur entro la legge e anche la morale, ed essere buoni ma anche amorali, egoisti e magari fuorilegge a fin di bene? Mentre si legge non si fa alcuna fatica ad essere dalla parte di Margaret, ma il tarlo, comunque, rode. Questo aspetto evidenzia una storia tutta al femminile; in modo diverso entrambe le donne sono leader, il lavoro sporco (e quanto può essere sporco, violento, estremo!!) spetta agli uomini, anche in questo caso buoni o cattivi che siano, ma sempre legato all'autorevolezza o all'autorità femminile, anche a costo del sacrificio.
Anche il finale, tutto sommato, resta aperto e una delle possibili vie che si prospettano potrebbe addirittura vanificare tutto ciò che è accaduto.
Non so se queste considerazioni siano solo mie elucubrazioni, ma almeno il romanzo ha lasciato un segno.
(PS - Da questo libro hanno tratto il film che sarà a breve in sala; il ruolo di George Blackledge, il marito di Margaret, sarebbe stato perfetto per Clint Eastwood anche se forse è un po' vecchierello, ma è toccato a Kevin Costner che ha l'età giusta.
Il titolo del libro/film originale è Let him go, riferito al bambino, e dice già molto; il titolo del libro/film italiano è un'affermazione di Blanche Weboy, che dice altrettanto.)
November 28, 2020
I’ve read several Of Larry Watson’s novels and I always enjoy them. He did not disappoint me with Let Him Go. I figured I had better read it before the movie comes out. I don’t want to have the actors in my mind when I read a book. I want to picture the characters myself and not have the influence of Hollywood. (Especially now that I found out Costner is the main actor - I’m not a fan.).
Back to the story....Larry Watson has the ability to tell a big story with few words. I love that! This is a sad tale. Something scary happens in the book that I did not see coming! The way he ended the story was not what I was expecting either. Loved the good guys in the book and Watson was very effective in creating the bad guys (who were very bad indeed!).
Now I suppose I’ll watch the movie and see if Costner can change my mind about is acting.....
Back to the story....Larry Watson has the ability to tell a big story with few words. I love that! This is a sad tale. Something scary happens in the book that I did not see coming! The way he ended the story was not what I was expecting either. Loved the good guys in the book and Watson was very effective in creating the bad guys (who were very bad indeed!).
Now I suppose I’ll watch the movie and see if Costner can change my mind about is acting.....
March 8, 2021
With spare prose and timeless conflicts, this literary thriller immerses the reader in the lives of George and Margaret Blackledge. Although I have not yet viewed the movie this book was based on, I must confess that the anticipation of seeing Kevin Costner and Diane Lane bring the book to life on the big screen enhanced my reading experience. The middle-aged couple is committed to their vows made decades prior. They venture forth together in a quest to find their grandson -- who left with his widowed mother and her new husband. In the wild, untamed areas of Montana in the early 1950's, the two face life and death decisions and realize the strength of their love for each other and for their only grandchild. Exploring the themes of family, commitment, sacrifice, grandparent's rights, and lethal force; this is a story we can all relate to.
August 18, 2013
Sometimes you read a book so good that it leaves you breathless and not wanting to come up for air. That is the case with Larry Watson's, Let Him Go: A Novel. Written in language rich, poetic and spare like the land it takes place in, it is a story that will leave you wanting to read whatever else this author has written.
The year is 1951. Margaret and George Blackledge have lost their son in a horse accident. He was thrown off the horse and his neck was broken. He left a wife, Lorna, and a son named Jimmy. For a while, Lorna and Jimmy lived with the Blackledges but Lorna has since remarried Donnie Weboy, a troublemaker and a poor stepfather. Margaret has witnessed Donnie treating Jimmie abusively and she has never forgotten this. Lorna, herself, did not come to Jimmy's aid in this situation.
George and Margaret live in Dalton, North Dakota not far from the Badlands. Margaret gets it into her head that with or without George she is going to find Lorna and ask her to give them custody of Jimmy. Margaret packs most of their belongings in their car and they travel to Montana where Lorna now lives and plans to ask for the child. George decides to go with her. "I'd loaded up damn near everything in the house. Everything we'd need to live out of the car for months, if need be. And that was the vision I had - George and me on the road, chasing Donnie, Lorna, and Jimmy, traipsing all over the west. We'd have ourselves a real adventure. By the time we'd caught them we'd have earned Jimmy, as if there is such a thing..." What happens from then on is a story that grips the reader and never lets go.
Watson's writing is magical. He catches the way people are in their silences and with their words. " A gust of wind doesn't suddenly bang a door open. A clock doesn't chime. The phone doesn't ring. Yet in the next instant the stillness breaks as if it is crystal. The love and connection between Margaret and George is a given, shown in their silences, touches, and shared understanding. Margaret is a power unto herself. She is a woman of strength and determination and has never failed at getting what she wanted. She also has a tender side, one that shows at the most amazing moments. "Long past the moment when her neck begins to stiffen and ache, she continues to stare into the darkness, even though none of the human secrets she needs to know are to be found in the stars but rather closer to the earth her boots stand upon."
This is certainly one of the ten best books I've read this year, and one of my favorite books ever. I highly recommend it to any lover of wonderful writing and literary fiction. It is a jewel.
The year is 1951. Margaret and George Blackledge have lost their son in a horse accident. He was thrown off the horse and his neck was broken. He left a wife, Lorna, and a son named Jimmy. For a while, Lorna and Jimmy lived with the Blackledges but Lorna has since remarried Donnie Weboy, a troublemaker and a poor stepfather. Margaret has witnessed Donnie treating Jimmie abusively and she has never forgotten this. Lorna, herself, did not come to Jimmy's aid in this situation.
George and Margaret live in Dalton, North Dakota not far from the Badlands. Margaret gets it into her head that with or without George she is going to find Lorna and ask her to give them custody of Jimmy. Margaret packs most of their belongings in their car and they travel to Montana where Lorna now lives and plans to ask for the child. George decides to go with her. "I'd loaded up damn near everything in the house. Everything we'd need to live out of the car for months, if need be. And that was the vision I had - George and me on the road, chasing Donnie, Lorna, and Jimmy, traipsing all over the west. We'd have ourselves a real adventure. By the time we'd caught them we'd have earned Jimmy, as if there is such a thing..." What happens from then on is a story that grips the reader and never lets go.
Watson's writing is magical. He catches the way people are in their silences and with their words. " A gust of wind doesn't suddenly bang a door open. A clock doesn't chime. The phone doesn't ring. Yet in the next instant the stillness breaks as if it is crystal. The love and connection between Margaret and George is a given, shown in their silences, touches, and shared understanding. Margaret is a power unto herself. She is a woman of strength and determination and has never failed at getting what she wanted. She also has a tender side, one that shows at the most amazing moments. "Long past the moment when her neck begins to stiffen and ache, she continues to stare into the darkness, even though none of the human secrets she needs to know are to be found in the stars but rather closer to the earth her boots stand upon."
This is certainly one of the ten best books I've read this year, and one of my favorite books ever. I highly recommend it to any lover of wonderful writing and literary fiction. It is a jewel.
July 5, 2023
Let Him Go has been on my TBR for YEARS. I loved Watson’s writing in Montana 1948, and his measured prose is definitely on show here too. Let Him Go is another classic Watson novel, deeply rooted in place, complex and flawed characters, moral and interpersonal dilemmas, and a healthy dose of trauma. It’s exquisitely constructed, but relentlessly bleak. I’m glad I finally read it.
April 15, 2023
I came upon this book after watching the film that I mostly hated, finding the story sparse and poorly told and the runtime exceeding what the tale warranted. And I have never understood how Diane Lane can make a living as an actress.
The only way that I can explain why so many people love this book is because they are looking for another Cormac McCarthy. Larry Watson tries to fill those shoes.
Creative writing. Two words that are synonymous with horror, in my book. If you want to rewrite the rules of grammar, go ahead. Just know that there’s nothing creative in that, although there is plenty of annoyance in not using quotation marks. Larry Watson teaches creative writing, so I suppose it's sort of his job to annoy.
I started out thinking that I’d like the novel as little as the movie. My first criticism of the film was that it began showing what a fine, upstanding son they had and then he died in an accident as embarrassing for a cowboy as dying of auto-erotica asphyxiation. The book begins more economically with the couple packing to go after their grandson, their dead son already just a memory.
The premise of the novel is as stupid as the film: a grandmother aiming to have her former daughter-in-law hand over her own son because the boy’s new step-dad slapped him. If you took away the children of every couple who slapped their kid in 1951, I can’t imagine there would be a couple with children, especially out in the West.
It’s a very short novel, yet I still think that it would have worked better as a much shorter novella. There are really only three scenes in the novel: the dinner at Blanche’s home when they all meet, the hotel room amputation, and the grand finale slaughter. This isn’t enough to prop up an 80,000-word novel.
In the movie, it’s good Montana folk against North Dakota trash, except in the book it was the other way around. All I know is either North Dakota people are trash, or they aren’t and it's the Montana folk who are vile trash.
It’s odd, but in the book and in the movie, I can’t understand how the house fire began. If anyone can explain this to me, I would be thankful.
The only way that I can explain why so many people love this book is because they are looking for another Cormac McCarthy. Larry Watson tries to fill those shoes.
Creative writing. Two words that are synonymous with horror, in my book. If you want to rewrite the rules of grammar, go ahead. Just know that there’s nothing creative in that, although there is plenty of annoyance in not using quotation marks. Larry Watson teaches creative writing, so I suppose it's sort of his job to annoy.
I started out thinking that I’d like the novel as little as the movie. My first criticism of the film was that it began showing what a fine, upstanding son they had and then he died in an accident as embarrassing for a cowboy as dying of auto-erotica asphyxiation. The book begins more economically with the couple packing to go after their grandson, their dead son already just a memory.
The premise of the novel is as stupid as the film: a grandmother aiming to have her former daughter-in-law hand over her own son because the boy’s new step-dad slapped him. If you took away the children of every couple who slapped their kid in 1951, I can’t imagine there would be a couple with children, especially out in the West.
It’s a very short novel, yet I still think that it would have worked better as a much shorter novella. There are really only three scenes in the novel: the dinner at Blanche’s home when they all meet, the hotel room amputation, and the grand finale slaughter. This isn’t enough to prop up an 80,000-word novel.
In the movie, it’s good Montana folk against North Dakota trash, except in the book it was the other way around. All I know is either North Dakota people are trash, or they aren’t and it's the Montana folk who are vile trash.
It’s odd, but in the book and in the movie, I can’t understand how the house fire began. If anyone can explain this to me, I would be thankful.
October 1, 2013
LET HIM GO
Larry Watson
Montana 1948 was my first encounter with the wonderful author, Larry Watson. Now I am again quite in awe of his straight forward but masterful writing, characters that fly off the page, and creative everyday plots that become heroic and almost mystical.
LET HIM GO is the story of a grandmother who has lost her son and the mother of her grandson has remarried in haste to a despicable ne'er do well and has taken her only grandson with them. The grandmother is determined to get her grandson back at all costs and the costs become horrific when dealing with the backwoods degenerates. The child's other grandmother rules over her tribe and they live by a no rules existence with strong ties to the towns corrupt good old boy system of savage entitlement.
This is a marvelously written strong morality tale told by a master storyteller and craftsman who transports you to a cast of ordinary citizens who attain a kind of majesty.
Larry Watson
Montana 1948 was my first encounter with the wonderful author, Larry Watson. Now I am again quite in awe of his straight forward but masterful writing, characters that fly off the page, and creative everyday plots that become heroic and almost mystical.
LET HIM GO is the story of a grandmother who has lost her son and the mother of her grandson has remarried in haste to a despicable ne'er do well and has taken her only grandson with them. The grandmother is determined to get her grandson back at all costs and the costs become horrific when dealing with the backwoods degenerates. The child's other grandmother rules over her tribe and they live by a no rules existence with strong ties to the towns corrupt good old boy system of savage entitlement.
This is a marvelously written strong morality tale told by a master storyteller and craftsman who transports you to a cast of ordinary citizens who attain a kind of majesty.
February 22, 2021
I read this book as a precursor to seeing the movie. Once I watch the movie, I'll add a little blurb about what I thought.
As for the book, I'm disappointed. I was expecting more.
I didn't care for the lack-lustre climax and the abrupt ending. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue did not make for a smooth reading experience.
On a positive note, I thought the characters were alright, and the writing was decent. Unfortunately, it lacked that WoW factor.
As for the book, I'm disappointed. I was expecting more.
I didn't care for the lack-lustre climax and the abrupt ending. The lack of quotation marks for dialogue did not make for a smooth reading experience.
On a positive note, I thought the characters were alright, and the writing was decent. Unfortunately, it lacked that WoW factor.
November 27, 2020
Unlike this reviewer, Larry Watson has a way of writing sparse little quips that make you stop, drop, roll in it, and then wonder if anyone else saw you. Further, no quotations just like Cormac, but these deletions don't strain your brain and rip your guts out in that same way.........instead this syntax puts you in the characters' real lives (because who except late show hosts use quotation marks when they are talking).
Second point- I will admit it.........the trailer of the movie made me read it. There, I said it, call me bandwagon. Do I get any bonus points though that my wife read it before the screenplay was a thing? She hounded my ass and told me to read it (in ways she reminds me of Margaret from the book)........she told me that it was one I would connect with, and that was before Costner had even been cast. Yeah, I'm predictable and typical.
Last point- bad shit happens to mostly good people (if there's such a thing- sidebar read Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West before you draw a conclusion there). There's the theme that draws me in like flies to the bug zapper. And then we get old, and then stuff that used to matter/function/motivate the human race quits working in the individual human, and we get more reflective, and then.......well you know. Yeah, that happens here. In fact, there's a little monologue where the author basically toys with us who get all academic in that theme. He calls us out, spits on us, and then goes on for the rest of the book rubbing our noses in it.
So you know------pretty much the foretell of all our endings........enjoy homies.
Second point- I will admit it.........the trailer of the movie made me read it. There, I said it, call me bandwagon. Do I get any bonus points though that my wife read it before the screenplay was a thing? She hounded my ass and told me to read it (in ways she reminds me of Margaret from the book)........she told me that it was one I would connect with, and that was before Costner had even been cast. Yeah, I'm predictable and typical.
Last point- bad shit happens to mostly good people (if there's such a thing- sidebar read Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West before you draw a conclusion there). There's the theme that draws me in like flies to the bug zapper. And then we get old, and then stuff that used to matter/function/motivate the human race quits working in the individual human, and we get more reflective, and then.......well you know. Yeah, that happens here. In fact, there's a little monologue where the author basically toys with us who get all academic in that theme. He calls us out, spits on us, and then goes on for the rest of the book rubbing our noses in it.
So you know------pretty much the foretell of all our endings........enjoy homies.
September 8, 2013
The simple plotting of Larry Watson’s Let Him Go – the quest of Margaret and George Blackridge to reclaim their young grandson, who lives with his mother and rotten-to-the-core stepfather – belies the strong emotional impact of this exquisitely powerful book.
The power sneaks up on the reader when it is least expected – in a snatch of dialogue, a perceptive insight, a small detail that turns everything around. Larry Watson is a master of breathing life into his characters through ordinary conversations and actions that hint at extraordinary revelations that bubble right beneath the surface.
The story takes place in Dalton, North Dakota in 1951 in what some people refer to as the “real America” – a place where people don’t waste words, where hard work and straight talk is respected, and where the people and the land are reliant on each other. Their grown son has met with tragedy, and Margaret prevails upon her taciturn husband to travel to Gladstone, Montana to find his namesake Jimmy…a boy who has been caught in the web of his stepfather’s violent Weboy family.
Larry Watson walks a delicate tightrope; what he doesn’t reveal is every bit as meaningful as what he describes. Is the long and tender marriage of Margaret and George more complex than it appears? What were they like as parents to their twins – James, who is now dead, and Janie, who is estranged from them? Does raising Jimmy give them the right to another chance?
Along the way, there are brutal surprises and heartbreaks and words so true they cause the reader to gasp at their validity. Take this, for example: “A four-year-old has so little past, and he remembers almost none of it, neither the father he once had nor the house where he once lived. But he can feel the absences – and feel them as sensation, like a texture that was once at his fingers every day but now is gone and no matter how he gropes or reaches his hand he cannot touch what’s no longer there.”
At the end of the day, Let Him Go is about what’s worth fighting for and what’s worth sacrificing for along this rocky road of life. Gutsy, authentic, and downright riveting, it’s a book that succeeds at blurring that thin barrier between fiction and the outside world. Quite simply, it’s hard to believe that these characters are anything but 100% real.
The power sneaks up on the reader when it is least expected – in a snatch of dialogue, a perceptive insight, a small detail that turns everything around. Larry Watson is a master of breathing life into his characters through ordinary conversations and actions that hint at extraordinary revelations that bubble right beneath the surface.
The story takes place in Dalton, North Dakota in 1951 in what some people refer to as the “real America” – a place where people don’t waste words, where hard work and straight talk is respected, and where the people and the land are reliant on each other. Their grown son has met with tragedy, and Margaret prevails upon her taciturn husband to travel to Gladstone, Montana to find his namesake Jimmy…a boy who has been caught in the web of his stepfather’s violent Weboy family.
Larry Watson walks a delicate tightrope; what he doesn’t reveal is every bit as meaningful as what he describes. Is the long and tender marriage of Margaret and George more complex than it appears? What were they like as parents to their twins – James, who is now dead, and Janie, who is estranged from them? Does raising Jimmy give them the right to another chance?
Along the way, there are brutal surprises and heartbreaks and words so true they cause the reader to gasp at their validity. Take this, for example: “A four-year-old has so little past, and he remembers almost none of it, neither the father he once had nor the house where he once lived. But he can feel the absences – and feel them as sensation, like a texture that was once at his fingers every day but now is gone and no matter how he gropes or reaches his hand he cannot touch what’s no longer there.”
At the end of the day, Let Him Go is about what’s worth fighting for and what’s worth sacrificing for along this rocky road of life. Gutsy, authentic, and downright riveting, it’s a book that succeeds at blurring that thin barrier between fiction and the outside world. Quite simply, it’s hard to believe that these characters are anything but 100% real.
February 7, 2015
Four stars for the writing, two stars for the plot line. Of course I understand Margaret, grandmother to Jimmy, wanting to chase Jimmy’s mother, Lorna, across North Dakota and into Montana when Lorna takes off with a new guy. And a lazy, no-good guy at that. Hard to imagine a grandmother who could bear the idea of her precious grandson – her only tie to her grown son who died too early – disappearing into a questionable and perhaps unwholesome situation hundreds of miles away. This I get. What’s hard to fathom is that Margaret by sheer force of will and personality thinks that she can convince Lorna to give Jimmy up so that she, Margaret, can raise him. To this end she rather impulsively jumps in the car (George, retired sheriff and her husband is welcome to come or not) and drives west across ND to track down Lorna who, as it turns out, has definitely put herself and Jimmy at risk by hooking up with the Weboys, folks with a mean streak as deep as the Montana sky is big.
Lorna may be a bit passive and lacking any spine of her own, but she does love her son. Granted, it’s 1951 Montana and ideas about raising children were perhaps less stringent than they are today, but even still that’s quite the assumption to make on Margaret’s part. Hi Lorna! You won't miss Jimmy if I take him home with me, will you?
However it goes, beware of the Weboys. They’re as nasty as they come. No spoiler here, but consider yourself warned. And hope that your own George, like Margaret’s, comes along to protect you.
Lorna may be a bit passive and lacking any spine of her own, but she does love her son. Granted, it’s 1951 Montana and ideas about raising children were perhaps less stringent than they are today, but even still that’s quite the assumption to make on Margaret’s part. Hi Lorna! You won't miss Jimmy if I take him home with me, will you?
However it goes, beware of the Weboys. They’re as nasty as they come. No spoiler here, but consider yourself warned. And hope that your own George, like Margaret’s, comes along to protect you.
November 30, 2013
I had not heard of Larry Watson until a goodreads friend sang his praises recently. What a talent he is. In 270 pages, he draws full pictures of a long-married couple, other people in their sphere, and the very land on which they live in North Dakota, as well as the land they travel in search of their grandson. In 1951, after 40 years together, George and Margaret Blackledge are each coping in their different ways with several losses: the too-early death of their beloved son, the physical and emotional loss of their daughter (who moved to city life in Minneapolis) and the recent loss of their young grandson, Jimmy, whose widowed mother, Lorna, has moved to Montana with her new husband. Before Jimmy's departure, Margaret has seen him mistreated by Lorna and her husband. Now Margaret is convinced she has to retrieve Jimmy and bring him back "home." George knows this plan is doomed, but he's so tied to Margaret that, once she has made up her mind, he has little choice but to follow. Their ensuing journey has moments of supportive friendship from unexpected quarters, as well as violence so shocking and brutal that I had to put the book down for a few minutes. The story was not particularly easy to take, but I was drawn in by Watson's spare yet descriptive prose as he created a world that was entirely foreign to me, yet believable. I look forward to reading some of his other works.
September 3, 2013
Exquisite literary country noir piece centering on poor families, clans and kin, what extent they will go to to keep kin with kin and the hierarchy such families have in place. This is a devastating story and while short, a slow read, a piece that deserves to be lingered over rather than devoured. This is not a happy story and if that is what you like to read it won't be for you. Gritty, bleak and oppressing even, at times, this is the kind of story that makes me think and appreciate the good in life. The Blackridges have suffered tragedy in their life but they are a family based on love, and love for each other drives them. On the other hand, the Weboys are a clan based on fear and control, though family always sticks up for family, no.matter.what. As the two families face off over the fate of a grandchild, the suspense slowly rises. One knows something is going to happen at some point but when it does it is a surprise and exactly what happens is a shock. The climax hit me hard! The ending is bittersweet but redeeming and left me satisfied. For reader's of tragedies or country noir set in the American West.
September 13, 2013
I do not remember where I first heard of this book or why I added it to my list of books to be read, but whomever that messenger was all I can say is thank you. This book is breathtakingly brilliant. The author has picked up each word and placed it so precisely and perfectly that it reminds me of a typesetter setting type; nothing is said that need not be and everything that needs to be said is expertly conveyed. This book packs a wallop; it hits you in the heart and in the gut. Beautiful, smart prose and character development so fine I felt like I was watching a movie instead of reading a book. At times this story made me gasp out loud. This book is a triumph and is not to be missed.
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