Montana 1948 by Larry Watson, Savedge, Jane Rosenman (Editor)

From the Publisher

The events of that small-town summer forever alter David Hayden's view of his family: his self-effacing father, a sheriff who never wears his badge; his clear sighted mother; his uncle, a charming war hero and respected doctor; and the Hayden's lively, statuesque Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier, whose revelations are at the heart of the story. It is a tale of love and courage, of power abused, and of the terrible choice between family loyalty and justice.

Annick Smith - Los Angeles Times Book Review

Larry Watson is one of those good writers few people know about, a writer whose work is worthy of prizes.... The style of Montana 1948 is as thin, clear and crisp as a North Dakota Wind.

Chris Faatz - Nation

My favorite novel of 1993.... Utterly mesmerizing.... There's something eminently universal in Watson's ponderings on the human condition, and it's refracted through a nearly perfect eye for character, place and the rhythms of language. Fiction at its finest is sometimes hard to find; Montana 1948 amply fits the bill.

Susan Petro - San Francisco Chronicle

Montana 1948 stands out as a work of art...

Publishers Weekly

A stark tragedy unfolds in Watson's taut, memorable novel, the winner of the publisher's National Fiction Prize. During the summer of 1948, a solid, middle-class family in a small Montana town is wrenched apart by scandal, murder and suicide. Narrator David Hayden tells the story as an adult looking back at the traumatic events that scarred yet matured him when he was 12. His pious Lutheran mother informs his father, Wesley, the county sheriff, that David's uncle Frank, a doctor, has been molesting and raping Native American girls during routine medical exams. Uncle Frank's latest victim is Marie Little Soldier, the Haydens' Sioux housekeeper. When Marie dies, presumably of pneumonia, David provides key evidence that implicates his uncle in her murder. Frank is arrested by his brother, who locks the confessed sexual abuser in the basement to save him from the embarrassment of jail. David confronts his uncle's racism and the evasions and denials his family has constructed to cover up the affair. In crisp, restrained prose, Watson ( In a Dark Time ) indelibly portrays the moral dilemma of a family torn between justice and loyalty; by implication, he also illuminates some dark corners of our national history. (Sept.)

Library Journal

A young Sioux woman tossing with fever on a cot; a father begging his wife for help; a mother standing uncertainly in her kitchen with a 12-gauge shotgun: from these fragments of memory, evoked by the narrator as the novel opens, Watson builds a simple but powerful tale. It is Montana in 1948, and young David Hayden's father, Wesley, is sheriff of their small town--a position he inherited from his domineering father. Wesley is overshadowed by his older brother, Frank, a war hero who is now the town doctor. When Marie, the Sioux woman who works for the Haydens, fall ill, she adamantly resists being examined by Frank. Some probing reveals that Frank has been molesting the Indian women in his care. Wesley's dilemma--should he turn in his own brother?--is intensified when Marie is found dead and David confesses that he saw his uncle near the house before she died. The moral issues, and the consequences of following one's conscience, are made painfully evident here. Watson is to be congratulated for the honesty of his writing and the purity of his prose. Highly recommended.-- Barbara Hoffert, ``Library Journal''

Chris Faatz

My favorite novel of 1993....utterly mesmerizing...there's something eminently universal in Watson's ponderings on the human condition, and its a fact that there's a nearly perfect eye for character, place, and the ribbons of language. Fiction at its finest is sometimes hard to find: Montana 1948 amply fits the bill. -- The Nation

Howard Frank Mosher

This story is as fresh and clear as the trout streams fished by its narrator....As universal in its themes as it is original in its peculiarity, Montana 1948 is a significant and eloquent addition to the fiction of the American West and to contemporary American fiction in general. -- Washington Post Book World

What People Are Saying

Louise Erdich
A beautiful novel about the meaning of place and evolution of courage....A wonderful book.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Reading Group Guide

Table of Contents

Reading Group Guide

The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for discussion in your reading of Larry Watson's Montana 1948. We hope the following information will enrich your discussion of the book.

Reading Group Discussion Points

1. What motivates Frank Hayden's final act? (The author has characterized it as both a selfish and a selfless act.)

2. Late in the novel, Gail Hayden changes her attitude. She no longer wants her husband to continue the course of action that earlier she encouraged him to follow. What causes her to change?

3. What does Wesley Hayden mean by his admonishment not to "blame Montana"?

4. A great deal of attention is paid to locating Bentrock (a fictional community) on the map. Why? What role does the setting play in the novel?

5. Whose story is this? Wesley's? David's? Why?

6. Who is the moral center of the story? Why?

7. How does prejudice play into the story?

8. Why is Wesley Hayden especially concerned when his son David tells him that Len McAuley might "know something"?

9. What would the outcome of the story have been had David's father publicly arrested his uncle? Would things have turned out better? Worse? Would you have done the same thing as Wesley had it been your family?

10. Was there any justice for the crimes committed by Uncle Frank?

11. Most of the novel's action takes place in 1948. Why did the author choose that year? Could the events occur today?

12. In what ways is the novel about privilege and the abuse of power?

13. What is the effect of David Hayden telling this story so many years after the fact?