Aspen Marooney by Levi S. Peterson

Abstract

Reviews 89 Title character Antonio Montoya is a long-dead distant cousin of Ramona. In the mid-1920s Antonio was Guadalupe’s arbiter of disputes and local historian. Now, seventy years later, Antonio’s journal is unearthed in the ruins of the old town hall. In the journal’s dank pages Ramona comes to relive Guadalupe’s past and, not unsurprisingly, in pon­ dering it finds a meaningful place for herself in the current village’s life. Vivid descriptions of northern New Mexico coupled with a dozen or more well-drawn major and supporting characters prove Collignon’s two strongest points. Collignon knows the land and the people. However, both Publishers Weekly and the New York Times Book Review faulted The Journal of Antonio Montoya for its lack of plot. If the truth be told, they’re right. After the middle of the tale, you want something more than you’re getting, you want Collignon to push himself and his story harder and farther into the realm of literary magic. And because he doesn’t, you’re disappointed. Nonetheless, Rick Collignon’s first novel is a dazzling study in geo­ graphic place and characterization. JAMES B. HEMESATH Colorado Springs, Colorado Aspen Marooney. By Levi S. Peterson. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995. 216 pages, $15.95.) In his latest novel, Levi Peterson uses the tableau of a forty-year high school class reunion to explore the tension between how we would like to live our lives and how we actually do. Where, between passion and moral­ ity, do each of us exist and how comfortable are we in the world we have, over the years, created for ourselves and our loved ones? Have we been able to learn the lesson of life, which, according to Aspen, is “to get the better of ourselves”? And, finally, when ourselves get the better of us, to whom are we accountable? As with other Peterson works, Aspen Marooney offers a realistic por­ trait of rural Utah life—but this time the backdrop is as colored with classism as it is with religion. During their high school years Durfey Haslam and Aspen Marooney were forbidden by her parents to date—‘“When the Haslams marry . . . their wives sink to their level. I’ve never known of a case where it was the other way around’.” But they did much more than date. Ultimately, though, they don’t marry. Instead they wonder about what might have been. For forty years. And when they finally reunite, the 90 Western American Literature years have washed the passion and intimacy away ... or have they? It’s hard to guess what might happen. Since Levi Peterson doesn’t create main characters who can ignore their moral consciousness, the only question that remains is “How will each of the characters face the past and continue to live in the present?” Peterson’s characters answer this question in honest, thought-provoking ways. When Durfey rejoins his family in Cedar City (where they are attend­ ing the annual Shakespeare festival) he sums up his class-reunion experi­ ence by saying, “I’ve been surveying the earth from the perspective of the Class of ’51. . . . It’s a strange angle to see things from.” It may seem strange to Durfey, but for Levi Peterson’s readers it will seem oddly familiar. JANE REILLY Utah State University Tales of Burning Love. By Louise Erdrich. (New York: HarperCollins, 1996. 452 pages, $25.00.) It’s a gutsy move to name a book Tales ofBurning Love. The title sug­ gests a torrid read, full of incendiary passion. And that’sjust what we get in Louise Erdrich’s new novel, which more than lives up to its inflamma­ tory moniker. Houses burn down, passions heat up, and religious zealots spontaneously combust during the course of this rollicking story of jeal­ ousy and desire and love. The fifth volume in her series of interconnected novels, Burning Love is the story of five women who love one man, a ne’r-do-well, mixed-blood mountain of a man named Jack Mauser. The richly inventive plot twists and turns with all the subtle (and not so subtle) subterfuges of passionate attachment...