Prompted by my recent reading of Clear I borrowed West from the library. It's the debut novel of Carys Davies and I started reading it last night. And I finished it this morning because it's only 149 pages long, and would be less than that if there were not a blank page separating each of the brief chapters.

It's a simple, fable-like story of a widowed man who goes searching for mythic creatures in the 'unexplored' American west while leaving at home his only daughter Bess in the care of her cold-hearted Aunt Julie. It's another example of Davies' interest in the disruption of ordinary lives during the entrepreneurial 19th century.

The catalyst for Cy Bellman's epic journey is a newspaper article about the discovery of some ancient fossils in Kentucky, some massive bones found in the mud. The scientific study of the fossil record was then in its infancy, and Wikipedia tells us that Darwin was concerned about the absence of older fossils when he published The Origin of the Species in 1859. But Bellman, a breeder of mules, has had a scanty education and he knows nothing of any of that. His imagination had lit a spark in him.

When darkness fell he lit the lamp and read it again. He fetched a knife and scored it around and folded it into quarters and placed it in the pocket of his shirt, next to his heart. He felt his breath come differently. He could no longer sit still. He paced about and every half hour he took the folded paper from his shirt pocket and smoothed it flat on top of the table and read it again: there were no illustrations, but in his mind they resembled a ruined church, or a shipwreck of stone—the monstrous bones, the prodigious tusks, uncovered where they lay, sunk in the salty Kentucky mud: teeth the size of pumpkins, shoulder blades a yard wide, jawbones that suggested a head as tall as a large man. A creature entirely unknown. An animal incognitum. People poking and peering at the giant remains and wondering what had happened to the vast beasts the bones had belonged to. If, perhaps, the same gigantic monsters still walked the earth in the unexplored territories of the west. (p.16)

Bellman is a man of little education but his spirit of adventure had propelled him to migrate to America in search of a better life. In no doubt that he will find these intriguing creatures, he departs on his quixotic journey, possessed by the idea that it would be a fine thing if he were the one to return with news of their existence.

The landscape over which he travels takes him from the settled areas of his homeland in Pennsylvania where 'the savages' are not welcome, across areas where the Native Americans have been reduced to trading for trinkets in order to survive, haplessly contributing to their own dispossession as they guide settlers westwards, and to the 'unknown' and hazardous territory of the Sioux. The journey is every bit as long as he had predicted it to be. He acquires a young Shawnee guide who, despite their mutual incomprehension, gets him over hazardous river crossings and through the cruel winters.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/05/18/west-2018-by-carys-davies/ ( )

Warmly devastating, West by Carys Davies is an engrossing historical tradicomedy, one told like a potent dream or myth. A decade or so after the Lewis and Clark expedition, John Cyrus Bellman, a widower and mule breeder, reads in the newspaper of the discovery of “monstrous bones…sunk in the salty Kentucky mud” and is convinced that “the same gigantic monsters still [walk] the earth in the unexplored territories of the west.” Promising to write frequently, Bellman leaves his preteen daughter, Bess, on his Pennsylvania farm and heads west, embarking on a so-called fool's errand. So he sets out alone bearing gifts and trinkets for any Native Americans he might meet along the way. He connects with a young Swanee boy, an unforgettable character and together they trek across thousands of miles, through brutal winters and harsh conditions. Both Bellman and the boy depend on each other for survival, although they do not speak each other languages.

And what follows is the story of Bess’ years of waiting and Bellman’s wandering. West is about extinction and collective loss, extinction of the past (the extinction of mammoths) and the genocide of Native Americans. But it also shows how ambition causes the white man to become just as lost as those he may have displaced. Both Bellman and the swanne boy are lost characters. West is also about destroying the myth of fated journeys. It is a book that kills the romance of exploring the West. And it is a coming of age story. West is many things.

To say much about how this novel ends would be to spoil its depth, its pain, its beauty.

This short novel is structured with great artistry. Read it. Now.

( )

Cy Bellman has been captured by an idea. Giant beasts that just maybe wander beyond the fringe of civilization. The West. He determines that he must go see for himself. Despite the fact that he is leaving behind a 10 year old daughter, Bess. But how long will he be gone? And who will protect Bess in his absence?

This is a beautifully written short novel. Davies wonderfully evokes the single-minded obsession that often arose in the 19th century. But the real genius here is Bess, who must fend almost entirely for herself with many threats rising. Distasteful threats. Anxiety builds and, well. It’s a short novel, but don’t race to end. Just enjoy the beautiful writing.

Highly recommended. ( )

4.5*

Carys Davies’s debut novel West is a work of historical fiction set on the American frontier in the early 19th Century. John Cyrus Bellman, a thirty-five year old widower and mule breeder, reads about sensational discoveries of fossils in Kentucky and, for the first time since the death of his wife, his imagination is fired up. He feels that he has found his calling – that of travelling West in a bid to see the bones for himself, and possibly trace the giant creatures which might still be roaming deep in uncharted territory. The scepticism of friends and relatives does not deter him, and he departs upon this quest, even though this means leaving his beloved daughter Bess behind him, in the care of his sister. Thus the novel unfolds, alternating between an account of John’s voyage and a description of Bess’s journey into adulthood.

Carys Davies has published two collections of short stories and she brings to a larger canvas the pithiness and conciseness which characterize the best short-story writers. At 160 pages, West might be better described as a novella, and yet it often has the epic feel of a much longer novel. It is a “western” in the best sense of the word, evoking the vast open spaces of an unknown America ripe for discovery. But it is also an intimate and poetic work, as the third person narration delves into the innermost thoughts of Bess, John and, at a later stage, the young Native American who accompanies John on his journey. The fable-like simplicity of the novel’s language does not hinder it from facing big issues head-on – endings, beginnings and survivals; fate, faith and the nature of belief; personal and collective memory. West is a quick read but I suspect that its images will long resonate in my mind. ( )

Anti-western set in 1800s America. Cy Bellman is a mule breeder who lives with his ten-year-old daughter, Bess, and his sister, Julie. His wife has died, and he has become restless. His interest is spurred by a news article about gigantic bones discovered in the west. He leaves Bess with Aunt Julie and travels in search of the large animals (obviously dinosaurs). He believes they are still living and roaming the countryside. He enlists help from a young Shawnee man, called Old Woman from a Distance. Cy does not realize he is on a fool’s errand until it is too late.

Cy faces dangers inherent in nature, and in the meantime, Bess faces dangers from humankind. It is told from the perspectives of both Cy and Bess, providing the views of the one who leaves and the one who is left behind. This is a story of the arrogance of men in the Old West who minimize the abilities of Native Americans and women. The one issue I had with it is that the timeline is a bit off historically. It is poetically written with vivid descriptions of the natural world. It reminds me of Don Quixote, and, I believe, parallels some of its messages. ( )