★★
When widowed mule breeder Cy Bellman reads in the newspaper that colossal ancient bones have been discovered in the salty Kentucky mud, he sets out from his small Pennsylvania farm to see for himself if the rumors are true: that the giant monsters are still alive and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River. Promising to write and to return in two years, he leaves behind his only daughter, Bess, to the tender mercies of his taciturn sister and heads west.
I gotta admit I wasn’t looking forward to writing this review. So, naturally I put off writing it. I didn’t know what to say about this book. I’ve settled the score since. Sort of.
I’ll start by saying: this isn’t an easy book to get through. Trigger warnings for pedophilia, sexual assault, violence and racist stereotypes.
Having said that I don’t think this is the kind of book that packs a punch. It’s pretty forgettable. It had its moments and some I thought were very poignant. There’s a lot of character development happening in those particular scenes - a lot of self discovery, a lot of regret, a lot of resentment and a lot of grief. But in the end I couldn’t care less.
Our main character, Cy Bellman is really innocent, naive, and selfish. His daughter believes he is heroic and y’know what? I was rooting for him alongside her, but there’s only so much guilt and pity you can feel towards his character before you’re just fed up. And the thing is I don’t think this is at all the novel’s intent.
The novel’s premise hinges on Bellman’s relationship with his daughter during his long journey west. But honestly, there’s so much happening in this book that distracts from it’s initial goal. I understand that this is a historical fiction novel and all but I just cannot justify any mention of harmful racial stereotypes. Period. Especially when they seemingly serve no purpose. They solely exist to create atmosphere of “another time” which is hardly an excuse and completely unnecessary.
So.
Yeah.
I guess the only redeemable quality here is the prose, which isn’t at all what I was anticipating. It’s nothing incredibly poetic, lyrical or even beautiful, but it works well for such a short novel and again, has its moments too. But given what this book has to offer, the prose was just not enough for me to love it.
I’m so torn up over this novel. When it had its moments, I really did enjoy my experience reading it. In the end though, I was incredibly underwhelmed and even disappointed in this novel.
Read my first impressions of West by Carys Davies here.
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