Arfive

by A.B. Guthrie Jr.

Set in a small Montana town during the early years of the twentieth century, it revolves around the conflict and friendship of a newly-hired high school principal and a successful rancher.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Novels

247 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A.R.Guthrie,Jr takes the reader to Montana as the west becomes less wild and free. It is the story of the settling of towns and the birth of civilized society creeping in and crowding out the old , cowboy ways. The people struggle with lawless principles and God and time everlasting. Beautiful , engrossing writing.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arfive is billed as a "saga" and an "American epic." While it is an enjoyable read there is so much more that could have been added to it to make it so. Once again I enjoyed the landscapes Guthrie painted with his words, seeing the Montana seasons pass, feeling the heat and the cold. This is one of my favorite aspects of his writing. The characters of the story are definitely interesting and all the traditional western characters are included: sheriff, deputy, madaam, saloon owner/keeper, store keeper, principal of the school, school teacher, the town father, the rich man, Indians, and all of their families. As the story unfolded the reader is given just enough to know how some arrived in Arfive, why they remained, and why some left. However, I found myself thinking so much more could have been told about the key characters and if the stories had been more fully developed it would indeed have been an epic along the lines of "The Thornbirds." If I read the history correctly the author was in his late 80s, maybe early 90s when he wrote this final book and given the late date of its recording it was a satisfactory read.

[Dennis McClure · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stop before the end of the series. But the first two books had it all. With this one, his ability to put words on the page and commit prose is as evident as ever.

But he's wearing his story out. And the book just is not as good as its predecessors.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read The Big Sky and The Way West but have only vague memories of both stories. Now I want to read them again.

Guthrie juxtaposes two good men, one who considers himself 'cultured' (Benton Collingsworth) and the other who settled comfortably into the role of western rancher (Mort Ewing). What struck me, was the way Guthrie used sex to highlight the differences in the two men, and the mores of the times. Nothing is anywhere near lurid or erotic, but sexuality in all of its forms is woven thru the story. Whores, brothels and a madam, rape and teen crudity, 'perversion,' masturbation, and conjugal relationships (with one paragraph addressing sex during late pregnancy). Along with these dimensions, Guthrie interweaves, the decreasing sexual drive with age, influence of religion, and beliefs about sex with the local natives. Seldom blatant. Usually mere comments that could easily be overlooked.

Right along with sexuality, Guthrie takes on gender roles, ending with the toll pregnancy and overwork takes on the women.

Here's one of the heftier passages that reveals Ewing's thoughts about Collingsworth's attitudes. (page 190)

The facts of life, Ewing thought as he rode away. The facts of sex with its twists and turns. How explain them, how make them exist in the mind of a man who probably never had had a piece in his life until he got married, who would have read about birching and sodomy and pederasty and maybe muff-diving but in his innocence, out of his determination, might class them with ancient history, remote from modern sanctified sex? How much would a man like Collingsworth recognize. How much was he bound to reject? (Some of the words in this passage were new to me.)

I mention this only because other reviewers haven't commented on this aspect of the story.

Guthrie's writing has a distinctive tone and his characters are varied and well-developed, which is why I'll find my copies of his other books so I can read them again.

[Lisbeth Solberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four of his I've read, this is the least narrative and most impressionistic. With multiple viewpoints, Guthrie revisits themes and motifs from early works, especially These Thousand Hills, but without the same narrative arc. Dire things happen: scandals, deaths, suicides. But it is a book overlaid with calm and reflection, rather than drama. Unlike the earlier books, this one felt anachronistic, obviously written years after its setting.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written western. Westerns are not normally my thing, but the writer was true to the era while also injecting historical and literary elements. Diverse and well developed characters and amazing dialogue. Once finished, the plot left a little desired, but such a good read, I hardly noticed until finished.

[Penny Long · Rating 1 out of 5]

It looks to me like no one even attempted to edit the first 50 pages or so. I read about 75% of the book and I'm going to call it "quits" from here. The book did not hold my interest. I hear that another book by this author is good so I might give this author another try down the road. I'm not sure at this point.

[Odetta · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was profanity every other word.

[Weradi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and graphic portrayal of small town Montana at the turn of the 20th century.

[Joyce Reynolds-Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written but needed more details. A very quiet book.

[Ernest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed because of the good writing. This is a slow, orderly book.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still on my kick to read Guthrie’s 130-year chronicle of Montana in his six-volume Big Sky sequence, Arfive was next up after These Thousand Hills, moving us out of the 1880s into the 1890s and early 20th-century. While the name of the northwestern Montana town is Arfive, the origin of that name is only glancingly mentioned/explained when someone speaks of the R5 cattle brand, which belongs to the area’s largest rancher, Mort Ewing.

In the 20-year span of the novel, Arfive undergoes growing pains, and at the heart of it are the refinements necessary to sustain a more respectable populace, with families and children. The frontier days of whore houses and bars for entertainment are fast fading, and the arrival of Benton Collingsworth, the new schoolmaster, and his family is emblem of that change. Mort Ewing, while “only” a rancher, has his eye set on the town’s growth, and he is often behind the scenes in making the transitions go smoothly.

What Guthrie continues to do well is portray characters whose speech is pared down to the essentials, their actions largely consistent with their words. And, at the extremity of laconicism, there is the unspoken suffering of the married women, Collingsworth’s wife not excluded. Arfive may be growing into a town, but it still demands at this time much labor and sacrifice from the women who live with husbands, enterprising or otherwise. Guthrie observes the hardships women endured, and he gives due attention in several of the pivotal episodes.

‘Prof’ Collingsworth, as he reluctantly becomes known, runs a good school, but his moral rectitude, which he wears like a hairshirt, is tested on several occasions. Ewing comes to Collingsworth with a request to have a young teenaged girl enrolled in the school who’d been orphaned then raped by the widower who hired her as a domestic. Further, the girl had fled to the whorehouse madame, Eva Fox, for succor and refuge, and in Collingsworth’s mind, this makes her a whore, whom he can’t possibly enroll.

Collingsworth does bend, and the girl, Julie Justice, proves over the next few years to be an excellent student, graduating and then going off to college in Missoula, later returning to marry Mort Ewing. Collingsworth later has to deal with accusations that one of the female teachers is behaving unnaturally with the Indian girl she has taken in. In trying to quell talk of immorality, Collingsworth confronts the teacher with the allegations. Tragically, the teacher kills herself, and the promising Indian girl/student returns to her tribe.

Guthrie gives vivid life to Collingsworth and Ewing, and to their mutual admiration and strained friendship. Ewing exhibits a more relaxed kind of strength and rectitude, and he is naturally at ease with everyone, even those he dislikes. Collingsworth remains tightly wound throughout, and when his wife dies in childbirth, he becomes self-pitying, stern, and cruel. His daughter confronts him with his cruelty and selfishness, and he breaks. There is intimation that he will recover for the better, but the rebuke from his 20-year-old daughter adverts once more to the unspoken sacrifices that women are expected to make for husband and family.

(The story of Ewing and Collingsworth continues in The Last Valley, the last of the Big Sky novels, commencing in the early 20s, ending in the late 40s.)

[leggere.con.leggerezza · Rating 4 out of 5]

𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 è il quarto capitolo dell'epica saga western di Guthie.

𝐼𝑙 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒 𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑜, che è il primo della serie è sicuramente il suo libro più famoso, e ahimè lo devo ancora recuperare assieme al secondo volume 𝐼𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑊𝑒𝑠𝑡.

Ho letto invece il terzo libro: 𝑄𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒.
Con il secondo volume della saga - 𝐼𝑙 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑊𝑒𝑠𝑡 - Guthrie nel 1950 vinse il Premio Pulitzer.

In 𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 c'è tutto quello che ci si aspetta da un libro western ambientato nel Montana alla fine del XIX secolo.

Periodo in cui ormai si e quasi stabilizzata l'espansione verso Ovest e vede arrivare il declino del selvaggio West.

𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 più che un paese è una piccola comunità con due market di merci varie, un ristorante gestito da un cinese, un negozio di finimenti e selle, un fabbro, una scuola, tre saloon, un albergo e un bordello, e ovviamente tutti i personaggi di ruolo: lo sceriffo, i mandriani, gli allevatori, i cacciatori di pelli, i cowboy, gli indiani, e ovviamente le immacabili prostitute.

𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 è situato nel mezzo di una terra selvaggia, dove anche i personaggi sono abituati a vivere alla giornata.

Berton Collingsorth è un insegnante dell'Indiana che è arrivato ad Arfive con la sua famiglia con il compito di istruire e civilizzare l'anima selvaggia di queste terre.

L'anima del libro è malinconica, la scrittura di Guthrie è meravigliosa e ricca di descrizioni.
Leggere 𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 è come immergergersi nelle terre selvagge, sporcarsi di terra rossa e perdersi ad ammirare l'orizzonte infinito di questi spazi immensi.

Una scrittura magistrale: Guthrie sa come raccontare i western, con i suoi personaggi indimenticabili e le sue ambientazioni cinematografiche.

In conclusione, consiglio la lettura di questo libro agli appassionati di libri western come me.

In 𝐀𝐫𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 Guthrie racconta la fine del mito del West, e sinceramente i miei preferiti sono quelli
delle colonizzazioni, proprio quelli che mancano 😅.

Per questo motivo il mio grande consiglio per immergersi e apprezzare in pieno questa saga , è quello di iniziare dal primo volume, se tornassi indietro inizierei sicuramente dal primo.

Voglio rivolgere un complimento alla c.e. per la scelta delle loro pubblicazioni.

[Josephine Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arfive, this is an old book, but pretty good. Mr Guthrie was known for writing westerns, this is a quite western. It takes place in a small town in Montana. it begins when Benton Collingsworth moves to Arfive to take a job as the high school principal. His family, wife, May, young daughter, Mary Jess, baby son, Tommie, are moving from Indiana. The man meeting the family is Mort Ewing. He has money and is driving the family thirty miles into town. The two men become fast friends. Many townsfolk are introduced into the story. The book contains much philosophy, interesting to read, and takes place over a time of about seven to ten years as the town grows. Both Benton and Mort are good men, honorable, as many of the town characters are not.

I enjoyed reading about how Mort liked the plains where he could see so far across the land, big plains, big clouds. One lady preferred being surrounded by mountains which closed her in and protected her. Another lady hated the constant wind. One of the wives left the town, she was never happy here. She took her two daughters, left her husband who loved Montana. She wrote back every week from upstate New York around her family. Benton loved Montana, living here, he never wanted to move back east. He bought a large bit of land for a ranch and to build a house.

There is the good hearted Eva Fox, the town madam who runs a good house, is good to her girls. Eva loves money as does Mort. They are friends. The book tells of the local bar where men like to spend time and drink, card games, fishing trips up in the mountains.

Benton joins the school board, he is an educated man. Mort not so much. He has good smarts. The Collingsworths join the Methodist Church, the church choir. Readers meet the town characters. Benton becomes very involved in the town, Mort has always been.

The town grows, changes, people die, folks from other parts move to Arfive, others move away.

There is some prejudice about Indians and half breeds. But this was in the early years of the twentieth century.

I don't know where I found this book. It is pretty old. Decent read.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about a small town in Montana in the last quarter of the 19th century leading into the 20th . Embraces the issues of ranching, life challenges in a place still beyond the reach of law.
Guthrie is a master of early American west dialects and the peculiarities of regional cultures.

As an extension of a 6 book series that began with Big Sky, Guthrie continues in a locale of Montana filled with greenhorn settlers, poker games, sometimes incompetent lawmen, and the challenges to the mores and sensibilities brought as the world changes about the settlers.

A good book for fans of historical fiction of the old west.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guthrie continues his saga of the changes to the western US with this installment in the Big Sky series. Here, the small Montana town of Arfive serves as the stand-in for towns across the west as the 19th century ends and the 20th century begins. Lots of cowboy philosophy and lovable characters. No reference to characters from earlier books - we miss you Summers - but you know they’re watching.

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good. He's a good writer. I was sad about May though. And the whole Julie & Mort thing was weird and gross but that's probably just my modern mind thinking that. I'm sure it was much more common back then.

[Francesco Ressa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Malinconia verso un'epoca e un mondo, quello del far West, ormai verso la fine. La penna di Guthrie scorre con facilità.