William Kitteredge, Willow Field

Willow Field

William Kitteredge

Knopf, October 2006, $5.95

ISBN: 1400040973

In the 1930's, fifteen year old Rossie Benasco, son of the pit boss at the Riverside Casino in Reno, obtains work as a "wrango boy" at the Neversweat Ranch owned by retired rodeo star Slivers Flynn. He and his employer's daughter Mattie are attracted to one another, so Slivers offers Rossie a choice. He can herd several hundred horses through Idaho and Montana to Calgary, or he can marry Mattie and raise a horde of kids. Not ready for children, Rossie agrees to hit the trail.

At the end of the thousand mile journey, Rossie meets and falls in love with pregnant Scottish Eliza Stevenson. Her dad gives Rossie his Montana farm as a wedding present, and soon she gives birth to a son that he adopts as his. The years go by, Rossie runs the farm and he and Eliza adopt a daughter. In December 1941 he enlists in the Marines, but is shot at home station and becomes a supply clerk. The years move on and so have their children.

William Kitteredge is at his best with this homage to a bygone Americana rugged outdoors era. Readers will follow deeply Rossie's life from the 1930's as a teen through WWII on into the McCarthy period, all the way up to 1991 when a "family" reunion with Mattie occurs. THE WILLOW FIELD is a superb slice of twentieth century Americana.