Oregon or Bust by Max Westbrook, and: Moon by David Romtvedt, and: The Porcine Canticles by David Lee

Abstract

86 Western American Literature Blue Period,” ending finally with “Hunt Without Style.” Collectively, what the various views of Hunt create is a portrait of the artist as middle-aged. For Hunt, the hunting years turn out to be the middle years. The point of departure for the novel’s action occurs boldly in the first paragraph when Hunt informs his wife, Leah, that he wants a divorce. The couple does not, in fact, divorce, but the novel is also a study of a marriage, a redefinition of a man and wife. What we discover in Hunt is a penchant for risks, even a penchant for destruction. The initial wish for the divorce ishis entrance to a mid-channel wherein he goes through a series of such decisions, literally attempting suicide at one point. He does not ponder the actions he is about to undertake; he is given to acting on impulse, as in the final chapter where he finds his truth in a confrontation with a bison. Earlier he tells a woman who, on a spur-of-a-moment decision, becomes his model, “I’m a klutz!” Then hejustifies himself: “But I’m a good painter.” The good painter, Kranes seems to say, shares much with the hunter. The novel comes to us mostly from Hunt’s perspective. The only other character in the novel in any sense rounded isLeah, and segments of the novel come to us through her. Leah, in fact, changes greatly in the novel. Essentially catatonic at the beginning when Hunt tells her he wants a divorce, she later embarks on a business career, becoming assured and successful. We never understand the dramatic change. Finally, it, too, is a by-product of Hunt, the artist. David Kranes gives us some vivid pictures at this exhibition of creativity, near-destruction, and recovery. JOSEPH M. FLORA The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Oregon or Bust. By Max Westbrook. (Austin, TX: Thorp Springs Press, 1984. 73 pages, price unlisted.) Moon. ByDavid Romtvedt. (St. Paul, MN: The Bieler Press, 1984. 76pages, $6.95.) The Porcine Canticles. ByDavid Lee. (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1984. 108 pages, $7.00.) Clear, honest voices seem to be important in the evolution ofour national poetry today. To them one may add an expert control of the line, the creation of well-defined dramatic situations, and the development of a distinctive, personal perspective within the nature of poetic action. The poetry of the West iskey in this evolution and the uniqueness of the western experience and idiom unarguably an intrinsic part of the American voice. All three poets here concern themselves specifically with a western outlook and idiom and their relationship to the larger issues of time and change. Max Westbrook’s Oregon or Bust is an experiment in personae, a presen­ tation of oral histories some ofwhich are successful, some not. Westbrook isat Reviews 87 his best when he draws the perimeters of his dramatic situation clearly. This lends an authenticity to the voice and gives over to a natural tautness of the line. This is most evident in poems such as “Rat Terrors” and “Home­ steaders.” In “Father’sDiary,” for instance, a daughterdiscoversher deceased parent’sdiary and is amazed at the human revelation of its pages where “love and grace . . . slip the guards / of death yet keep their secret.” Interestingly Westbrook isalso a debunker of myths, preferring the hard realities of struggle to Hollywood’s romantic glosses. In “A College Student,” he surprisingly gives these words of balance to a critical, yet pragmatic speaker: “Look, they went west / because what they could get / was better than what they had. / The rest is money-loving technicolor hogwash.” One wishes more from Westbrook, however. If he can give shape more consistently to what he so well imagines, he will be a western poet to watch. David Romtvedt’s Moon is a work of unusual sensitivity and texture. Divided into three sections, the book moves from a vision of sometimes wanton, sometimes careless destruction, as in “The Men” and “Solstice,” to an unsettling portrait of the undeveloped central African nation of Rwanda to a nostalgic and disturbing viewof the earth aswe move almost...