No Good Day to Die
Livingston, Montana, near Bozeman, marks Memorial Day by hanging up hundreds of white crosses, each commemorating a local veteran of wars ranging from Afghanistan at one end to the Civil War at the other. Mingled with the Civil War crosses are a few marked “Indian,” for these Northern Plains and Rocky Mountains were once the setting of bitter battles over the possession of the land.
Probably the most famous—and infamous—battle was fought at the Little Bighorn in 1876. James Wolf has centered his encyclopedic new novel (published in Livingston) around it, although his time frame runs from 1851 to 1945, beginning and ending on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Wolf’s dozens of characters represent many strands of Western history: German and Irish immigrants, former Confederate and Union soldiers, settlers, tourists, criminals, Buffalo Soldiers, and members of the Lakota, Oglala, and Cheyenne nations. But their disparate lives are “all entwined like a grapevine,” as one of them marvels near the end of the book.
The main character, who connects most of the others, is Robert Killsun, a Northern Cheyenne. His Cheyenne name is Kills the Sun, for he’s born during an eclipse in 1857, which gives him mysterious power. He stands somewhat apart from other people, even though he links past and present, white and Native, bad, good, and in between.
The writing is somewhat unpolished but enthusiastic; the frequent brutality is unfortunately true to life—and death. Wolf, who lives in Bozeman, describes the landscape well. This enormous epic tale is not a book for readers who shy away from rape, murder, and mutilation. It’s a memorable memorial, though, to warriors past and present.
