Ever Faithful

 

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett      352 pages

 Former park ranger Karen Barnett has given historical fiction readers a wonderful series in her stand-alone novels set in America’s National Parks. Almost like a Ken Burns for readers! We get the history, the beauty and wonderful tales about characters that feel oh so real.

In this, her third novel, she takes us to Yellowstone National Park in 1933. The Great Depression has hit America hard, and the National Parks are no exception. Visitors to the park are few, causing the management not to open certain lodgings and other services. It’s almost a double whammy to park employees.

The protagonist is a young adult, Elsie Brookes, who has grown up in the parks. She desperately wants to go to college and become a teacher. She has been working as maid in the park’s hotels, but after four years, she still hasn’t saved enough. 

I chuckled at the nicknames the park’s employees gave to position, terms like pillow pushers, savages, pack rats, gear jammers, etc.  And I like the way Barnett let the reader know what each nickname represented without overtly doing so.

Poor Elsie. She is facing another summer with little hope of saving enough money for college. However, FDR’s New Deal comes to the rescue without officials realizing it. The year is 1933 and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is sending a group of men to help work in the park, looking for bug-infested copses, culling trees and all around manual labor. For most, this is the first time they have ever seen this much wilderness. Elsie is offered a second job as a teacher to the men who are coming, and she jumps at the opportunity.

Enter Nate Webber. The Brooklyn-ite shows promise. He is a hard worker and a born leader. But he has a secret that he will protect at all costs. When Elsie uncovers that secret, she vows to do everything she can to protect that secret, it makes for some dynamite reading. 

I give “Ever Faithful” 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee     320 pages

Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.

With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.

But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park's stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

An exceptional read. I was fascinated by the story that's been unfolding for most of my life without knowing that it's happening. The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone was such a necessary step, and yet the fight to protect these same wolves should they leave the park's boundaries is a seemingly never-ending battle. There are those who wish to protect their livestock, there are those who simply hate wolves, and there are those who like to trophy hunt - and this mixture of types led to a politicizing of a seemingly non-complicated decision to allow an animal to return to the lands it was driven from by humans (through poisoning, over killing, etc.). It just goes to show that where man has taken hold of the wilderness, nature has to fight to prove it's worth to be there - and only through the fight that other humans provide. Where would the wolves of Yellowstone be without the voices of those wolf-watchers, biologists, and environmentalists?

It was hard reading this book because there were so many instances of death - many at the hands of humans. But nature is brutal and sometimes cruel and wolves are no exception. Yet Blakeslee manages to capture their lovable side, their playfulness, and their majesty. It seems impossible to me that humans can look at these magnificent creatures and see only a brutish animal that needs to be killed. I dislike, very much, big game hunting, especially when there is so much to prove that it is bad for the environment, bad for the ecosystem of these national parks and beyond. I loved how in-depth this book went to show how these wolves contributed to a regrowth of balance in the environment of Yellowstone, and many times in unsuspected ways.

I wish there was an insert with images of these wolves. I would have loved to look at them as I read about them, but Blakeslee, with the help of notes from the many wolf-watchers who contributed their information to this book, does an excellent job of describing the wolves, their different natures, their lives. It was such a great read. I honestly would recommend this to anyone. It's worth seeing a slice of life outside of urban settings, especially in a place that is almost exactly the same as it's been since before people began populating North America.