Isle of Books Presents Last Best Books: "A Kind of Man," "The Whole Country was... 'One Robe,'" and "The Dead Ringer"
A Kind of Man
by Allen Morris Jones
Montana's esteemed poet laureate and author of novels like Last Year's River, Sweeney on the Rocks, and A Bloom of Bones as well as the classic A Quiet Place of Violence, which explores the ethics of hunting, is adept in a variety of modes. In his latest work, he returns with a collection of short stories including the eponymous never-before-published novella. The moving and literary stories included therein explore Montana life in all its grit and complexity, including the titular piece, set during the 1917 Speculator mine disaster. Morris is particularly good at balancing a light step with weighty subject matter, and A Kind of Man is entertaining even as it explores the human dimensions of a tragedy that still fascinates and horrifies us more than a hundred years on.
The Dead Ringer
by Dane Bahr
This dark as pitch and hard as nails literary Western noir is a must read, shaping up to the year's best Montana-set novel. Set during the Great Depression in the fictional town of Black Elk, Montana, The Dead Ringer begins with protagonist Benjamin Kilt being bludgeoned and buried alive by his half-brother, a bank robber. Kilt, improbably, survives. In fact, you might almost say he was brought back from the dead. As you might expect, he sets out for revenge. Along the way, he reluctantly picks up a traveling companion, Bonnie, a 13-year-old Indigenous girl he rescues from abuse. It is Bonnie's own memories, decades later, that form the narration of the novel. Grim but humane, pierced through with violence but elevated by love and the poignancy of unexpected tenderness, The Dead Ringer recalls the best of Charles Portis in its characterization, while its prose cuts like the sharp edge of a rock.
"The Whole Country was... 'One Robe'": The Little Shell Tribe's America
by Nicholas C. P. Vrooman with additional contributors Pamela Bunte, Anne Coyner, Sandra F. Kennedy, JoEllen Shively, Brenda Snider, Jackie Trotchie edited by Rick Newby
In 2005 the state of Montana allocated money for each tribal nation to record and publish the history of their people. "The Whole Country was... One Robe" The Little Shell Tribe's America was first released in 2012, the book not only sold out and became a collector's item, but helped to secure official federal recognition of the tribe. Now it is being rereleased, funded partially by the beneficence of donors, in a weighty 504-page edition featuring over 400 illustrations and photos. As we assume the second edition will also quickly sell out, we strongly advise all history-loving Montanans who like to read to pick up this indispensable volume. Sadly, the author, folklorist and historian Nicholas C. P. Vrooman, died in 2019, but this wonderful example of his work will now enjoy a richly deserved second life.
Life Sentences by Billy O'Callaghan
This October, Dear Butte brings Irish letters back to the Mining City for its Festival of Irish Writing. This year's featured guest is Billy O'Callaghan of Cork, one of Ireland's most acclaimed living writers, whose work has been translated into nineteen languages and drawn praise from John Banville and Sebastian Barry. At the festival's heart is O'Callaghan's bestselling novel Life Sentences, a luminous and hard-edged saga of three generations of a single Cork family, from a famine survivor who leaves Cape Clear at sixteen to her granddaughter's final days in 1982. Loosely drawn from the author's own ancestry, it is a story of poverty, endurance, and love that lingers well past the last page. The festival runs October 2 and 3 in Uptown Butte. O'Callaghan delivers the free keynote on Saturday, October 3, at 7 p.m. in the Montana Tech Auditorium, and leads a three-day short story workshop, Drawing From the Well. Historic trolley tours, an archives talk, and a luncheon with the author round out the weekend. RSVP and registration are at dearbutte.org.
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