Book Review: Nails by Peter Bowen

Once in awhile you find an author who opens up new vistas for you. Peter Bowen is that kind of author. In the publicity photo he looks like a white-haired old cowboy, and he writes like one, too. His main character is Gabriel DuPre, a renowned fiddle player who specializes in the old French Canadian music. DuPre is part Indian also, and he lives in the Wolf Mountains of Montana. The other characters are so well-drawn that you know you'd recognize them if you saw them on the street.

Each book has many themes. In Nails, Bowen's latest book, the theme is religion, believe it or not.

There are the "Christers," as DuPre calls them, fundamental Christians who pray out loudly anytime and all the time but who browbeat their women and kill them if the women aren't righteous enough. The Christers' goal is to get Creationism taught in the school instead of evolution. It doesn't matter to them that the money spent to fight them in court is money that cannot be spent on education.

There is Father Van Den Heuvel, a Jesuit priest who is also a geologist. Father Van Den Heuvel was sent to this out-of-the-way place because it would keep him out of trouble. He is the clumsiest person alive, and it's all DuPre can do to keep the priest from fatally wounding himself. At one point, Father V.D.H. says, " I could almost manage to believe in hell, just so I could hope that bastard was in it."

There's Madelaine, DuPre's wife, who is steady as a rock, and wise and generous to boot. She goes to confession even though she knows Father V.D.H. doesn't believe in it. She says she knows what works for her, and what other people believe is no concern of hers.

There's Booger Tom, an old cowboy who is now the top hand on a rich man's ranch. Tom is one of the funniest and most colorful characters in the books. In this one he sews up a wound on Father V.D.H.'s rear end and gives him shots of penicillin that he keeps for treating horses and cows. His funniest line in this book is, "I tried to give myself one [a shot] oncet. Chased my ass with that needle from Miles City to Spokane, gave up, had to ask for help."

The patois spoken by the natives of Toussaint, Montana, is English, with word order and phrasing that is French Canadian and/or Indian. It takes some getting used to, but after a bit I was wishing I could be immersed in it for real.

My advice is to start reading Bowen's work from the first one, Stewball, and proceed through all 13 books. My problem now is that I have to wait months for the next book in the series. It'll be worth the wait though.