By Guy Vanderhaeghe

Published 1998 by Anchor

ISBN: 1862 30015 1

This is a real gem. For those who enjoy history, particularly US late nineteenth century and the golden age of silent movies in the 1920s, then this is a must read.

Vanderhaeghe cleverly weaves a tale involving two strands: one part of the story sees writer Harry Vincent looking back on a time in his life when he worked for (fictitious) movie mogul Damon Ira Chance in the 1920s; the other part concerns the story of two Assiniboine Indians rustling twenty horses from a group of sleeping white men, wolf hunters taking in their pelts for trade. The wolf hunters then form a search party to retrieve the stolen horses which includes a young drifter known to them only as ‘The Englishman’s Boy.’

Meanwhile Vincent is employed by Chance to track down the enigmatic and evasive old-time Western actor Shorty McAdoo in Hollywood. Chance wants to make the ultimate film about the American West and he needs McAdoo to add authenticity.

This is a highly ambitious project with Vanderhaeghe’s story taking place in America and Canada as well as two different centuries. Vincent tasked with finding McAdoo is a Canadian himself and through him we get added perspective.

With characters like the feisty, intelligent and desirable Rachel Gold and the thuggish and intimidating Denis Fitzsimmons this one crackles and sparkles with strong as well as believable characters and snappy dialogue. Both the 1920s and 1870s are equally well evoked and it’s clear that Vanderhaeghe has done his research.

This is a world of DW Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Lillian Gish and of course cowboys and their story, which forms the meat and potatoes of this novel. Vanderhaeghe expertly crafts a tale that manages to be intriguing as well as authentic as it debunks the myths of the Old West.

The movie mogul Chance is only interested in presenting the world with a film through the filter of his own viewpoint where the actual truth can be conveniently discarded as long as he can entertain, provoke and of course influence the public’s opinion.

Vincent does not see the world in this way and as he becomes more involved with his subject he has a moral dilemma on his hands: What is more important: Money, or a clear conscience?

This is harsh, brutal, savage yet also beautiful and captivating. The novel is packed with powerful, unforgettable images and is bang on the money in its depiction of sentiment and harking back to an age or era that never was or could ever be. A case of ‘the good old bad old days’ if you will.

What Chance wants is a rose-tinted epic that tells a story from his own skewed perspective. What Vincent discovers is something far more gripping and complicated as well as a terrible secret which thanks to the strict Hays code that operated at that time would ensure that the truth would always be a hard sell.

Despite the tough subject matter which at times I found both bleak and chilling, this stands as a provocative and fascinating novel about two eras which over the ensuing years have been over-romanticised where the truth has been somehow lost in translation. If you are a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck you will love this.