Our First 2011 VIB: West of Here By Jonathan Evison

Set in the fictional town of Port Bonita, on Washington State's rugged Pacific coast, West of Here is propelled by a story that both re-creates and celebrates the American experience-it is storytelling on the grandest scale. With one segment of the narrative focused on the town's founders circa 1890 and another showing the lives of their descendants in 2006, the novel develops as a kind of conversation between two epochs, one rushing blindly toward the future and the other struggling to undo the damage of the past.

An exposition on the effects of time, on how something said or done in one generation keeps echoing through all the years that follow, and how mistakes keep happening and people keep on trying to be strong and brave and, most important, just and right, West of Here harks back to the work of such masters of Americana as Bret Harte, Edna Ferber, and Larry McMurtry, writers whose fiction turned history into myth and myth into a nation's shared experience. It is a bold novel by a writer destined to become a major force in American literature.

We've gone a little crazy over this book at Tattered Cover. So much so we talked our friends at Rockmount Ranch Wear into letting our lead buyer Cathy Langer (left) and book blogger Jackie Blem (right) play dress up in their store to help promote the book! What great neighbors! Thanks again!

Here's what we've got to say about this amazing book:

Cathy:
"Close to the end of this sweeping, moving, brilliant novel, Lord Jim, a dying Klallam, speaks these words:
'We are born haunted', he said, his voice weak but still clear. 'Haunted by our fathers and mothers and daughters, and by people we don't remember. We are haunted by otherness, by the path not taken, by the life unlived We are haunted by the changing winds and the ebbing tides of history. And even as our own flames burn brightest, we are haunted by the embers of the first dying fire. But mostly', said Lord Jim', 'we are haunted by ourselves.' " I was haunted by West of Here, a novel brimming with unforgettable characters that prove out Lord Jim's last words. Dreamers, adventurers and ordinary people, damaged or damaging, populate the fictional town of Port Bonita, Washington. Moving back and forth from the late 19th century and the building of the dam that will determine the town's future, and 2006, when the dam is decreed to be dismantled, Jonathan Evison fills his novel with a compelling cast that prove out Lord Jim's last words. The 21st Century characters of Port Bonita, many of whom are related to the19th century inhabitants, bear the burden of their history, and many repeat the mistakes of their forbears. There is redemption in the end, though not without some hard lessons learned. Lessons taught, though, in a manner that the reader is at once highly entertained, enlightened about the harsh realities of exploring and taming the Northwest, and left with a good number of wonderful characters that were hard to bid adieu."
Joe:
"In Jonathan Evison's West of Here, we follow the founders of the fictional Washington town of Port Bonita in 1890 and their descendants in 2006. Populated by characters that encountered the wilderness and tamed it to their whim as well as those struggling to overcome the damage wrought by the past (their own and those before them), West of Here is a hard book to easily classify: it contains elements of the old west, of the fading glory of the Native Americans that initially stood in the way of progress, and then in hindsight, may show the way beyond that progress. It had mystical elements, it has Bigfoot. It is one hell of an adventure story. And it is told in a cohesive, compelling narrative. It is a large book that went by quickly for me. The questions it raises do not belong only to the fictional residents of Port Bonita, but to all of us: we live in a time when nearly everything on earth has been discovered, and many of the decisions we have to chose from seem to have already been laid out before us. What do we do with that sense of adventure and conquest still bubbling underneath our surface? How do we reconcile with the brash decisions of those who came before us? And, is there more to discover, but we just haven't opened ourselves up to it yet? West of Here is a playful novel, full of compassion and surprises. I can't wait for you to read it!"
Jackie:
"Port Bonita is not a place, but a spirit, an essence, a pulse; a future still unfolding.... Onward! There is a future, and it begins right now."


"This is a quote from the last few pages of the book, but it's truly the essence of the book as well. Evison has referred to this book as his 'little opus' with some humor--this is a chunky book. But it covers 126 years (1880-2006) and is told in 42 voices (I didn't count them--he did), so what else could he do? What is interesting is that the only true character is the place: Port Bonita and the Olympic Mountains and the river that runs through them. The people are the temporary and every changing scenery to the life of this place. Don't get me wrong--there is plenty of 'people plot' to the book--we learn the stories of everyone from daring explorers to whores to preachers to parole violators to high school jocks gone to seed. Everyone is trying to find their way in some manner--to a better life, a grand discovery, to fame, to love, to freedom, to a shiny future of some sort even if they don't know how to articulate that or even really know what it is that they are looking for. But whatever they are searching for, the spirit of the place infuses and inspires them--there is a bit of mysticism to the story both blatant and subtle. The book is written with all the considerable passion Evison has about the real place that he has fictionalized for this book. That truly what makes this book the memorable tome that it is. It is an opus indeed. Well done, maestro! "

Check out the book's website for even more great pictures, maps and other fun stuff!

Meet the author on Monday, February 28 at 7:30 at our Colfax Avenue Store!