December 2009

 

 

 

 

From the acclaimed author of ACTS OF FAITH, ablistering new novel about the brutality and beauty of life on theArizona-Mexico border and about the unyielding power of the past toshape our lives.

Taking us from theturn of the twentieth century to our present day, from the impoverishedstreets of rural Mexico to the manicured lawns of suburban Connecticut,from the hot and dusty air of an isolated ranch to New York City in thewake of 9/11, Caputo gives us an impeccably crafted story about threegenerations of an Arizona family forced to confront the violence andloss that have become its inheritance.

WhenGil Castle loses his wife in the Twin Tower attacks, he retreats to hisfamily’s sprawling homestead in a remote corner of the Southwest.Consumed by grief, he has to find a way to live with his loss in thisstrange, forsaken part of the country, where drug lords have more powerthan police and violence is a constant presence. But it is also a worldof vast open spaces, where Castle begins to rebuild his belief in thepotential for happiness—until he starts to uncover the dark truthsabout his fearsome grandfather, a legacy that has been tightly shroudedin mystery in the years since the old man’s death.

WhenMiguel Espinoza shows up at the ranch, terrified after two friends weremurdered in a border-crossing drug deal gone bad, Castle agrees to takehim in. Yet his act of generosity sets off a flood of violence andvengeance, a fierce reminder of the fact that while he may be able toreinvent himself, he may never escape his history.

Setting out to tell the story of a mysterious cowboy—a strangerin town with a terrible secret—Christine Montalbetti is continuallysidetracked by the details that occur to her along the way, herCinemaScope camera focusing not on the gunslinger’s grim and determinedeyes, but on the insects crawling in the dust by his boots.

A collection of the moments usually discarded in order to tell even thesimplest and most familiar story, WESTERN presents us with the worldbehind the clichés, where the much-anticipated violence of the plot iscontinually, maddeningly delayed, and no moment is too insignificantnot to be valued.

Montalbetti’s daring theft of movie technique and subversion of a genrewhere women are usually relegated to secondary roles—victims,prostitutes, widows, schoolmarms—makes WESTERN a remarkable wake forthe most basic of American mythologies.