Montana 1948
Ratings8
Average rating3.8
The tragic tale of a Montana family ripped apart by scandal and murder: “a significant and elegant addition to the fiction of the American West” (Washington Post). In the summer of 1948, twelve-year-old David Hayden witnessed and experienced a series of cataclysmic events that would forever change the way he saw his family. The Haydens had been pillars of their small Montana town: David’s father was the town sheriff; his uncle Frank was a war hero and respected doctor. But the family’s solid foundation was suddenly shattered by a bombshell revelation. The Hayden’s Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier, tells them that Frank has been sexually assaulting his female Indian patients for years—and that she herself was his latest victim. As the tragic fallout unravels around David, he learns that truth is not what one believes it to be, that power is abused, and that sometimes one has to choose between loyalty and justice. Winner of the Milkweed National Fiction Prize
Tags
Genre
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Twelve-year-old David Hayden learns terrible secrets about his family during the summer of 1948, and as the secrets come to light and are dealt with, he comes to see the people in his family in new ways.
This is a powerful coming-of-age story set in Montana in the postwar period. We see people rise to do the right thing; we see people fall, doing the wrong thing. And whether people do the right or the wrong thing, we see how difficult it is to make a decision at all, and we see the consequences of the decisions made reverberating throughout an entire family, an entire community.
A quick, easy read. Liked both David and his father as characters and felt they were the most well drawn in the book. Some of the other though - particularly the grandfather - were more caricature. The story was simplistic which fit with the idea of a 12 year old being the narrator but it never became anything more than that to me. Instead of being drawn in, I felt like I was watching all the events through the window in the Hayden family living room.
