A Good Man

Frontier trilogy #3

by Guy Vanderhaeghe

Multi-award-winning author Guy Vanderhaeghe's eagerly awaited new novel is a dazzling follow up to his bestselling The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing (a Canada Reads winner!).

A Good Man culminates what could be thought of as a trilogy of books set in the late nineteenth-century Canadian and American West, and it is a masterpiece. Vanderhaeghe skilfully weaves a rich tapestry of history with the turns of fortune of his most vividly and compellingly drawn cast of characters yet. Vanderhaeghe entwines breathtaking, intriguing, and richly described narratives that contain a compelling love story, a tale of revenge and violence, a spectacular battle scene, the story of an incident in Welsely's past that threatens his relationship with Ada, and much, much more. While raising moral questions, this novel weaves the historical with the personal and stands as Vanderhaeghe's most accomplished and brilliant novel to date.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns, Canada, Canadian Literature, Historical, Book Club

464 pages, Hardcover

First published September 13, 2011

About the author

Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe, OC, SOM is a Canadian fiction author.

Vanderhaeghe received his Bachelor of Arts degree with great distinction in 1971, High Honours in History in 1972 and Master of Arts in History in 1975, all from the University of Saskatchewan. In 1978 he received his Bachelor of Education with great distinction from the University of Regina. In 1973 he was Research Officer, Institute for Northern Studies, University of Saskatchewan and, from 1974 until 1977, he worked as Archival and Library Assistant at the university. From 1975 to 1977 he was a freelance writer and editor and in 1978 and 1979 taught English and history at Herbert High School in Herbert, Saskatchewan. In 1983 and 1984 he was Writer-in-Residence with the Saskatoon Public Library and in 1985 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Ottawa. He has been a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Ottawa (1985-86), faculty member of the Writing Program of the Banff Centre for the Arts (1990-91), faculty member in charge of senior fiction students in the SAGE Hills Creative Writing Program (1992). Since 1993 he has served as a visiting professor of English at St. Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan.

Vanderhaeghe lives with his wife in Saskatoon.

Vanderhaeghe's first book, Man Descending: selected stories (1982), was winner of a Governor General's Award and the United Kingdom's Faber Prize. A novel, The Englishman's Boy (1996), won him a second Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction and for Best Book of the Year, and it was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

He is perhaps best-known for The Last Crossing (2001), a national bestseller and winner of the Saskatoon Book Award, the Saskatchewan Book Awards for Fiction and for Book of the Year, and the Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book of the Year. The novel was selected for the 2004 edition of Canada Reads as the book that should be read by all Canadians.

In 2003, Vanderhaeghe was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major James Walsh and Sitting Bull steal the show.

There is a love story. It's more earnest than steamy and, reminded me of the joke about how porcupines make love. A vivid supporting cast keeps pulling you along. I'll remember Mr. Dunne disturbing as he is. Set in the post Civil War period with the Fenian Brotherhood's invasion of Canada, the Indian Wars west of the Mississippi and the delicate shifting politics of the US and Canada that the conflicts created.

A slower start than The Last Crossing, but plenty of food for thought as Vanderhaeghe pulls the threads together.

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Guy Vanderhaeghe book I've read, and I"m not sure why. One of his books was very popular back in those days, long ago, when I worked in a bookstore. One of the bright lights of Canadian literature, and I'd entirely missed him.

And now I can say I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get here. Because this is a very good book indeed.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have complaints:

1. If You're Going Epistolary, Go Epistolary! -- The immediacy of letters and journals were a high point in A Good Man, so high, in fact, that the decision to leave them behind and enter other modes of narrative kept ripping me out of the world Vanderhaeghe was creating. Let me immerse, Guy. Quit fucking with me.

2. Nothing is Terribly Original -- The plot, at least, is like an IKEA instruction sheet. It's a polite, Canadian, Cormac McCarthy where the violence is present but suspended behind a skein of reserve. And though there is one mild surprise, it doesn't effect the familiar trajectory of the tale as I hoped it would.

3. Don't Be So Damn Readable -- I wanted to be mad at Guy and his book, but he is so compelling, so insinuating, so virulent, that he works into my mind like a fever, and I find myself eating through his pages with an ease and passion I usually only feel while making love. Guy, you are a beautiful, talented, bastard.

Which leads me to my praise:

1.If You're Going Epistolary, Go Epistolary! -- Or instead, maybe you can just throw all convention to the Manitoba / Montana blizzard and do a little bit of everything, messing with tense, perspective, narrative voice and anything else that suits your whims. Pull me out of the narrative, then drag me right back in, just to prove you can. I kneel to your arrogant assurance and skill, Guy. You know what you're doing.

2. Nothing is Terribly Original -- But that's the point isn't it, Guy? You aren't trying to reinvent the Western or the love story or the novel of violent men or the Canadian prairie epic or the historical novel. You're just telling a story. A story we all know and love. And you want your readers' expectations to be fulfilled, albeit in beautiful ways. Well ... you succeed.


3. Don't Be So Damn Readable -- Because when you are -- as you are -- I have nothing to complain about, much as I try.

I really liked this book, in case you weren't able to tell. And while I think it could be truly great with a few changes, I would also hate to see Guy Vanderhaeghe change a single word. It isn't the most beautiful, transcendant novel, but damn is it a good read. I didn't want it to stop. I loved its strong woman. I loved its tortured protaganist. I loved its troubled sidekick. I loved its fucked up and all too human antagonist. I loved its play with history. I loved that I didn't want it to stop.

This book deserves a CBC series, though I doubt it will see production. What a shame.

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great finish to the "Frontier Trilogy". I read as such to keep a common thread for the story line of Canada/US relations with each other and the Native Americans.

Enjoyed the story lines of Case/McMullen/Ada, especially when tracking down the demented Dunne.

What a crazy person Dunne was concerning how he pined for Ada and all he did to try and take her away from Case; especially hiring the three thugs and how he murdered them.

The back story of Case was brilliant and how he kept that secret of tying up Pudge to the tree and being guilt-ridden at Pudge's ultimate death.

Yet again, some of the places mentioned in the book I know since I lived in Ottawa for many years and now live in Calgary which are near places listed in Southern Alberta.

Recommend for fans of this author and those who enjoy historical fiction. All three books are well-written, easy to read and the main characters are easily relatable.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

'A Good Man' by Guy Vanderhaegue is number three in this historical fiction series about the 'Wild West' in southern Canada and northern United States. Each of the three books in the Frontier trilogy can be read without reading the others. Together though, they cover a lot of history regarding how and why White men arrived and made homes in Canada and the United States before the North American territories had finished becoming official countries. The declining populations of Native Americans and how the Canadian and American governments robbed them of their lands is also shown in the novels, but I think it is 'A Good Man' that highlights this particular chapter of North American history the most.

Vanderhaegue concentrates on vivid characterization over the historical facts so I did not feel I was ever reading a dull textbook, but perhaps this novel was more of a history-channel documentary series than the others had been. The book ranges over quite a large field of historical activities, including Irish terrorism in Canada (!!!!), Sitting Bull's war and life, and the various men and leaders contending with and cancelling each other out in controlling the irresponsible violence of lots of people around them, especially in and around the official far-flung military Forts. The large ensemble of characters disagreed frequently with each other which led to incoherent policies and often-changing plans. This was very disheartening, and unfortunately, true to life. The main characters are followed from the first chapter to the last, though, and I cared about them.

The ending of 'A Good Man' reminded me of the movie 'Fargo'! It was kind of an amazing finish to one main plot thread because the book is generally slow in its pacing.

I learned a lot of history I did not know. I liked this. But ultimately, I did not feel the book was successful as a novel. I felt the story should have been divided into three books, not one. Idk. But I certainly felt I got an excellent look at the types of men and women who populated Canada and the United States in the nineteenth century. It was incredible how varied their futures could be, given the irregular tsunamis that overtake them because of politics, wars, gender mores, deaths, and no consistent legal presence to govern behaviors.

North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially in the West and the Midwest, were places where offbeat personalities flourished despite the wealth and political power of some and the education attained. Notice I said flourish! Some people are annuals, not perennials, if you know what I mean, gentle readers and gardeners.

I suggest starting the series with book two, The Last Crossing, the best one in the trilogy imho.


YouTube links to 'Fargo' the movie:

https://youtu.be/h2tY82z3xXU

https://youtu.be/bn7LOhWYtqE

[Elinor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliant novel from Guy Vanderhaeghe, the third in a series, or trilogy, if you can call it that -- three standalone books set in the same time period (late 1800s) and the same area of northern Montana, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. I loved the first two (The Englishman's Boy, The Last Crossing) and enjoyed this one just a trifle less because there was a lot of narrative about the politics and military history of the day.

My takeaways -- the love story was very satisfying, the psychopathic character Dunne made my blood run cold, and my heart almost broke over the true events around the surrender of the Indigenous people and the way they were treated by both Canada and the United States. It's such a shameful chapter in the history of both countries.

Updated to five stars on second reading…I enjoyed the historical backdrop more this time around, although it was still the personal story of rancher Wesley Case, his true love Ada Tarr, and the horrible villain Mr. Dunne that really drove the story. And talk about a thrilling climax!

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

News of the disaster at Little Bighorn reached the Eastern Seaboard shortly after July 4, and not just any ordinary July 4 but the grand celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Republic. A country feeling its oats, flexing its muscles, vigorous and rich, cocksure and confident, has seen the impossible happen, the unthinkable become fact. Sitting Bull has spoiled their glorious Centennial, pissed on Custer's golden head, the head of a genuine Civil War hero, the head of someone who has recently been touted as a future President of the United States. Somehow a wedding and a funeral got booked for the same hour in the same church.

This is the atmosphere in which A Good Man begins: Sitting Bull and his band of Sioux have humiliated the American military and disappeared. At Fort Walsh on the Canadian side of the western border, Wesley Case is waiting for his term with the Northwest Mounted Police to be up (a fact made possible by his estranged and wealthy lumber baron father having bought out his contract with the Mounties) when his commander and old friend, Major Walsh, enlists Case to become his envoy to his American counterpart, Major Ilges of Fort Benton, a hundred and fifty miles to the south in Montana. As Case had decided to become a rancher in the vicinity of Fort Benton, and since he can recognise the importance of smoothing the correspondence between Walsh and the American that he despises, he accepts the challenge. In this way, A Good Man ( and The Englishman's Boy and The Last Crossing before it) does for Canada and the U.S. what Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy did for Mexico and the U.S. -- setting a work of epic sweep on the fluid border between two different countries, two different cultures, at a time when that border doesn't seem written in stone and the Americans can't be trusted to not attempt to move the border as it suits them.

When Sitting Bull finally appears on the Canadian side of the "Medicine Line" seeking sanctuary, Major Walsh is sympathetic and shows great respect for the Sioux leader who proves himself to be more holy man than warrior. Walsh finds himself under pressure from the Americans to treat Sitting Bull as a dangerous terrorist who is probably hiding out just long enough to rally other tribes to his cause and plan a renewed attack against the States. Despite wanting to help the Sioux, Walsh is under orders from Ottawa to give them nothing, to let them starve (and hopefully go away before the Canadian government is forced to come to a decision about what to do with them). I found the entire thread about Sitting Bull and the other Natives to be compelling and, ultimately, sad -- if the American solution to hunt down the Indians and take their land and move the survivors to Reservations sounds brutal, the Canadian stance of ignoring the problem, refusing to put money into setting up Reservations, had much the same effect (and has led to where we are today, a hundred and fifty years after the treaty process began, and a staggering number of agreements yet to be reached).

Wesley Case, through diary entries and the eventual revelation of a written confession of sorts, describes his upbringing and young adulthood in what were then Canada's power centers, Ottawa and Toronto. This civilised and privileged life makes for a nice contrast to the wild frontier existence he encounters later. Especially fascinating is his recounting of the Battle of Ridgeway during the Fenian Raids -- the notion of a bunch of kids being led into battle by pompous brats whose Daddies bought their commissions in the Militia, going up against Civil War veterans who are fighting passionately for the cause of an Irish homeland, makes for tense and exciting reading (and also is an interesting contrast to the sympathetic view of the Fenians held by some of the characters in Jane Urquhart's Away). A misjudgement during the battle will haunt Case throughout the book and taint his budding romance with the very strong-minded, very married, Ada Tarr.

Another instance of cross border shenanigans is described by the mysterious Michael Dunne; a character who thinks himself more clever than everyone around him but whose low station in life causes him to be used and discarded repeatedly by men of wealth and power. As a young man, Dunne was hired to help the "crimpers and substitute brokers" who came up from the States to Toronto -- those looking for volunteers (or at any rate those who could be tricked into volunteering) to take the place of rich Yankees in the Union army during the Civil War. From there, Dunne infiltrated the Fenians, working both sides for his own profit, and after he, too, falls in love with the alluring Mrs. Tarr, a sequence of events is initiated that would make a worthy plot for a Coen Brothers movie a la Fargo.

The writing in A Good Man is muscular and masculine, but not in a way that I found off-putting; it is intelligent and literary, but not given to fancy prose. There is also much humour, especially in the character of Joe McMullen -- I laughed out loud at his story of Fancy Charles and the lovely Lurleen. The fact that McMullen made for Fort Whoop-Up when he was injured -- a place I know well from my years of living in Lethbridge, Alberta -- placed the main events of this story firmly within the limits of my own experience, making it feel even more like the story of me and my people. I loved this book -- it made Canadian history come alive, and as anyone who has been half asleep during Canadian History in high school would tell you, that's no small feat.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sitting Bull the Mystic

I love the Western genre and “A Good Man” is a wonderful addition. The story centers on a young man, Wesley Cash, from an upper middle class Canadian family who begins his career as an army officer. He leaves the army due to an undisclosed tragedy (cleared up later in the book) and becomes a Canadian Mountie. When that doesn’t work out quite the way he wanted he decides to move to Montana and become a rancher. In Montana he’s finally able to put down roots. As would be expected in a Western there’s a love story and a bad guy who enact a vengeance plot. The love story is fairly good; the vengeance plot was less successful. What is great beyond all imagining is the unfolding interplay between Canada, the US and the Native Americans on both sides of the border and the dispute about the last remaining parts of the continent that remain unclaimed; the only place the Native Americans can call home. Our hero, Cash, acts as an adviser to three major players in the dispute. The descriptions of the politics and the characters involved are absolutely fascinating. Sitting Bull comes alive in a way I’ve never encountered before. Canada is referred to as the ‘old lady’s country’ and Sitting Bull is entreated to listen to the grandmother’s words. “A Good Man” is almost worth reading if just for these sections. I could have done without the over the top bad guy.

This is the third in a trilogy by Vanderhaeghe but it stood up completely on its own. Based on the descriptions of the other two books I don't see any overlap of characters.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the cover -- and the book ain't bad either. I hope to get around to writing a review of this literary western.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I found this, and since it's the last part of a historic trilogy, I'll have to retrace my steps to the first two.

This is just a wonderful, gripping saga, combining post-Civil War Canadian and American history, Native American history, a love story and a white-knuckle confrontation with a murderous psychopath.

At the beginning of the book, set in the 1870s, Wesley Case is a Mountie in Canada, but planning to leave as soon as he can. He eventually makes his way to Montana, where he is determined to start a ranch using his inheritance from his wealthy mother, a decision his father highly disapproves of.

In the American encampment, Case encounters the Tarr family: pompous lawyer Randolph Tarr, his wife Ada, their pampered and selfish daughter Celeste, and a man Tarr has hired as a bodyguard for his wife (because of threats from one of his former clients), the chilling Michael Dunne.
These events unfold not long after Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Sioux warriors have massacred Custer and his soldiers at Little Big Horn.

Using his Mountie connections, Case sets up a correspondence between his former commander, the stiff-necked but highly principled Major Walsh, and Ft. Benton's top officer, Major Ilges, so that they can trade notes and updates on the movements of the Indians.

In the meantime, Case makes the acquaintance of Ada Tarr, and they clash -- which of course almost guarantees they'll fall in love.

There's only one problem. Dunne, the lethal bodyguard, has convinced himself that Ada's kindnesses to him mean she secretly loves him as well, and as the book progresses, this will set up a deadly confrontation with Case.

Vanderhaeghe may not be well known in the US, but has won several writing awards in Canada. He is a wonderful writer and storyteller, and much of what gives this novel its power is that he provides compelling backstories for all the main characters, including Dunne (who at times you can almost feel sympathetic for) and Sitting Bull, the shamanistic Sioux leader, who must decide whether to lead his tribe back from Canada and surrender in the United States, real-life events that Vanderhaeghe weaves into the story.

Why this hasn't become a blockbuster movie like Dances With Wolves or The Revenant, I don't know, but it would certainly sing on the screen.

Highly recommended.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. For its length (464 pages), it promises somewhat more than it delivers. I had the same reaction to the author’s The Last Crossing.(reviewed here a while ago). There are a lot of ideas and food for thought in this novel about character, friendship, responsibility, Native Americans, the frontier, and U.S.-Canadian relations. But in the end it’s hard to say what it all adds up to. You can puzzle if you like over the title. Who among the novel’s male characters is the “good man”? Is there one at all?...

More at my blog.

[Jason P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guy Vanderhaeghe has to be my favourite Canadian author. This book is a fitting end to his Fort Benton/Cypress Hills trilogy. I loved learning the history, but the story and characters are gripping. And the stuff about US-Canadian relationships is still relevant. This book makes you want to spend some more time in the Prairies! How can that be anything but good?!

[Eric Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning, I had trouble getting into the story. It seemed slow, with long bits of narrative and new characters. However, it quickly captured my interest.

The time period, ten years after the US civil war and shortly after the massacre of Custer and his men at Little Big Horn helped to make it a memorable story. The setting in the wild west of Canada and the US, with modern day Alberta and Montana chief places added to the intrigue as did the cast of strange characters, some historical, some original. There is the willful and unpredictable Major Walsh whose sympathies with the Sioux seem destined for tragedy. There is Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and a host of lesser chiefs of his people and other tribes. There are confederate conspirators, Fenian revolutionaries, officers of the North West Mounted Police, American generals, and scheming politicians. But most menacing of all is Michael Dunne, a huge man with a genius for murder and mayhem.

The story of Wesley Case and the object of his love, Ada Tarr is woven into this narrative of swirling conflicts and competing characters. Can Wesley shake off the clutch of his wealthy father, escape the terrible memory that haunts him, and win the hand of Ada without falling victim to Dunne’s terrible wrath?

Vanderhaeghe’s amazing grasp of the period: Canadian and US history, medicines and products of that era, and Indian culture adds to the experience. The only thing that prevented me giving it a 5 out of 5 was the sometimes overblown narrative.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has a slow-burn-by-candlelight pace, and occasionally I think it's a big longer than it needs to be, but it's also very evocative and compelling. Guy Vanderhaeghe experiments with narrative voices in a gentle way -- the literary equivalent of film screen cross-fades from one character to another. It's a western with modern sensibilities: brutal, uncompromising, but also sad & melancholy. It's a book you soak in like a hot bath, as opposed to lighting a fire, trying to burn through it.

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine-looking western just rode into town from up North, and you’d best take notice if you know what’s good for you. The Canadian writer Guy Vanderhaeghe has been publishing best-sellers and winning national awards for decades, but American readers have mostly shrugged and looked away, despite praise from Annie Proulx, Richard Ford and a posse of reviewers who’ve been trying to scare up a broader audience for this Saskatchewan novelist.

His latest, “A Good Man,” concludes a fantastic historical trilogy set on both sides of the long, blurry border that runs between Canada and the United States. Along with its predecessors, “The Englishman’s Boy” and “The Last Crossing,” this new novel canters through the Old West, offering a chance to survey our history and our national myths from the more nuanced perspective of our giant, wary neighbor. Rather than a series, these three novels form a triptych about North America in the second half of the 19th century, a vast exploration of the battles, negotiations and migrations that swept up immigrants, Indians and settlers. Each of these three books has its own focus and tone — you don’t have to read them all or in order — but if you’re looking for strapping historical fiction with morally complicated characters, hitch a ride here.

“A Good Man” opens in the wake of Gen. George Custer’s defeat at Little Bighorn, a shocking interruption of the country’s centennial celebration of 1876. The Sioux feel emboldened; the United States is “having fits of hysterics,” and Canada worries it could become a casualty of America’s redoubled efforts to solve its Indian problem once and for all. (Memories of Washington’s land grab in Mexico are still raw.) The first chapters serve as a kind of Union Station from which plot tracks run off in several directions. It’s a structure that could easily pull a novel apart, dragging us across miles of exposition or leaving us stranded on the rails of some dull subplot. But Vanderhaeghe manages these various story lines with agility, filling in historical detail without losing speed, jumping from one line to another without losing us and finally drawing them all together without losing his credibility.

Unless you’re a serious student of U.S.-Canadian history, you’re bound to feel enlightened by this dramatization of long- forgotten tensions involving our two countries. Vanderhaeghe describes brokers who troll through Canadian bars looking for naive young men to serve as substitutes for well-to-do Americans in the Civil War. He uncovers the network of spies that flit back and forth across the border. He shows how deftly — for a time — the Sioux manage to play their Canadian hosts against the Americans. And he introduces us to Irish militants who use the United States as a safe haven for attacking the British just over the border.

But what makes “A Good Man” so captivating is the way Vanderhaeghe draws us through this complicated puzzle of international and racial conflicts while keeping his story grounded in the intimate lives of ordinary people. His central character and sometimes narrator is Wesley Case, a conscientious young man set on reinventing himself. Haunted by a shameful military error during the Battle of Ridgeway — an 1866 conflict between Canadian troops and Irish American radicals attempting to invade Canada — he’s determined to be a good man, to live a life of rectitude and honor at a time when ideas of law and order are still “notional and shaky.” To start anew, he resigns from the North-West Mounted Police and breaks off contact with his overbearing father, who dreamed of buying him a seat in Canada’s Parliament. Instead, Case intends to “roll the dice and become a rancher.”

Vanderhaeghe knows his way around this tense psychological territory (“The Last Crossing” featured a similarly tyrannical father), but what’s surprising here is the element of romantic comedy. Case’s struggle to manage 1,000 acres in Northern Montana gradually gives way to a charming love story — a touch of Jane Austen with Mr. Darcy in a cowboy hat. Despite Case’s determination to smother his remorse in hard work, an unlikely woman in town catches his eye and manages to melt his priggish attitude. If you know the work of the Seattle writer Ivan Doig, you’ll recognize this blend of romance and rectitude set against the crushing labor of ranch life.

That courtship gives the novel its warmth, but “The Good Man” never loses its lightning and thunder. For one thing, there’s a creepy villain slithering through these pages: Michael Dunne, an aggrieved man with a photographic memory, a diagnostic interest in human nature and an unstoppable drive to get what he wants. “He likens himself to water,” Vanderhaeghe writes. “It finds a way around every obstacle because it is patient.” From the Civil War to the Indian attacks to the Irish skirmishes, Dunne finds a way to turn every conflict to his deadly advantage. When Case inadvertently crosses him, nothing will satisfy his thirst for revenge.

Case, meanwhile, is not as eager to withdraw from politics as he claims. By offering to serve as an informal liaison between Canadian and U.S. officers dealing with the Sioux, he keeps himself at the flash point between the two nations. His Canadian contact is the historical figure Maj. James Morrow Walsh, a North-West Mounted Police officer who befriended Sitting Bull and played a critical role in the country’s Indian relations. Indeed, there are moments when Case’s front-row seat on history seems too improbable, as though he’s both Forrest Gump and George Kennan, offering strategic advice to the Americans, Maj. Walsh and Sitting Bull. And these two larger-than-life figures of the late 19th century come close to wresting the novel away from Vanderhaeghe’s fictional hero. Sitting Bull, exhausted and harried, burdened by responsibility for his ragged people, moves through these pages with melancholy eminence. And Walsh, a man of rash passions and indissoluble loyalties, becomes the novel’s tragic “good man” — disgusted by both countries’ treatment of the Indians, but unable, ultimately, to protect them from either government’s genocidal pragmatism.

Admittedly, there’s a certain slackening in this final novel of the trilogy, a bulging of the waistline that wasn’t noticeable 15 years ago. Vanderhaeghe has an omnivorous appetite for diversions and tangents that might exhaust some readers, but for that broad storytelling magic that lets you sink into the past and the lives of rich characters, he’s still one of the very best.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...

[Anne Gafiuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this story...who was/is a good man? That is the question!

[Doreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This literary western, longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, is set in the late 1870s, primarily between Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan and Fort Benton in Montana.

The protagonist is Wesley Case, a privileged intellectual who seeks to escape the political manipulations of his lumber baron father. After stints as a soldier in Ontario and as a member of the NWMP at Fort Walsh, he decides to take up ranching, purchasing property near Fort Benton. He also becomes a diplomat, serving as an informal ambassador between Major James Walsh, the commander of Fort Walsh, and Major Guido Ilges, the commander of Fort Benton, the nearest American military detachment.

Exchange of information between Walsh and Ilges is crucial. Chief Sitting Bull recently decimated General Custer's troops at Little Bighorn, but no one knows what the Sioux will do next. Will they make another attack on Americans? Will they migrate to Canada and, if so, how will the Canadians react?

The book is not just about politics; there is also romance and mystery. A love triangle develops between Case; Ada Tarr, an independent-minded widow; and Michael Dunne, a thug-for-hire whom Case encountered in the past during a mysterious event which has left him burdened with guilt.

The characters are fully developed. Through flashbacks one learns about the past of most of the characters. As a result, the "bad guys" are humanized, and the "good guys" are not faultless.

There is interplay between personal stories and historical events, the latter explained in terms of how they affect the characters. Both personal and historical dramas are fraught with uncertainty, so suspense is abundant.

Canada - U.S. relations are examined from a historical perspective. Tensions exist between the newly formed country of Canada and a post-Civil War U.S. Questions of security taint relationships between the neighbours: the Canadians have experienced Fenian raids originating in the U.S., and the Americans fear further attacks by Indians after regrouping in Canada.

Canadian and American attitudes to native people are differentiated, attitudes that are somewhat exemplified by Majors Walsh and Ilges. The Americans favour a genocidal approach while Canadians emphasize peaceful resolution of problems. That is not to say that Canada's treatment is exemplary since tribes are starved into submission!

In terms of narrative structure, this novel is strictly conventional, but it possesses a depth and complexity that makes it a very satisfying read. It may lack the experimentation some readers crave, but The Good Man is definitely a good read - this opinion from a reader who prefaced her earlier review of The Sisters Brothers by admitting her dislike of the western genre.

Please check out my blog (http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).

[Rhiannon Ryder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guy Vanderhaeghe is a fellow Saskatchewanite, and long ago when I was attending the University of Saskatchewan, he used to teach a creative writing course. Although I didn't ever take the class (I was a total chicken shit), I did buy his then latest book for my grandpa- The Englishman's boy. He loved it, and after he passed away the book came back to me and has spent the past few years sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get around to reading it.

Imagine my surprise when the hype around A Good Man started and I realized that it was the end to a trilogy of frontier books that started with The Englishman's Boy?

In A Good Man, Guy Vanderhaeghe weaves the story of the American and Canadian dealings with the Sioux and Sitting Bull, after the battle with Custer at Little Bighorn, together with the fictional story of Wesley Case. An ex-north west mounted policeman, Case has settled down to ranch and is helping American Major Ilges and Canadian Major Walsh communicate about the movements of the Sioux. No small task as the two can barely stand each other and need some major inter-mediating.

This was a totally engrossing story with really nicely layered characters and was a fascinating study of several men and one woman, their struggles, their loves, and their disappointments. By weaving together third person narration, and first person letters, you come to know all the players intimately, while getting a sense of how historical moments of significance unfolded around every day people.

Likely to appeal as much to the lover of westerns as the lover of literature, or even the lover of history, A Good Man is a story with many levels to it. The art of Guy Vanderhaeghe’s writing is that he excels at them all. Canadian History might have been a boring grade school subject, but A Good Man might just make you want to give it another try.

Among many other awards and accolades, Good Man was longlisted for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

[Maxine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Man is the third and final novel in Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe's trilogy of stories set in the nineteenth century Canadian and American west. It combines fictional characters with real historical figures including Sioux chief Sitting Bull. The novel takes place a decade after the end of the Civil War and shortly after Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn and gives a brilliant portrayal of life at the end of the old west. It is a story of love and revenge, of betrayal and politics, of Fenian incursions and military missteps, of relations between Canada and the US (which seem very similar to those existing to this day), and of the brutal and cruel treatment of the Sioux at the hands of both governments.

Although a work of fiction, A Good Man stays very true to the history of the period and gives a beautiful portrayal of life at the end of one of North America's most fascinating periods. The writing is clear and crisp and the characters, both real and fictional, are so well-drawn that the reader can't help but feel involved in their lives whether it is the small details of ranching in Montana or the horrors of battle.

Mr Vanderhaeghe has won many awards for his writing and deservedly so. I can honestly say I was completely blown away by this book. It is the kind of novel that raises important moral questions while telling one heck of a good story and leaves the writer thinking about it long after finishing the last sentence.

[Guy Bellerby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Canadian masterpiece: a work of great morality, great physicality: Guy V. is a great, great writer, he deserves much more accolade than what we can give him - Booker, or Pulitzer, could readily have been bestowed on this achievement, one of a trilogy of novels of the frontier, indeed, if our nation's very frontier-founding. His method is like O'Brian's, placing his own characters into real history, with real men: Sitting Bull, Major James Walsh, John A. MacDonald, and the Americans, General Sherman and Captain Ilges. A love story, a history, a biography, but mostly a chronicle of the heart. I loved it.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not generally a fan of Westerns, I was taken on by the characters, their back stories and their complex web of allegiances/personalities/circumstances. It has been a while since I read a book with such heft. I found it a delicious pleasure to slide into reading this book each time I picked it up, knowing it would keep going for a while.

[Kal · Rating 2 out of 5]

He might be a good man but this is not a good book. Very slow paced, half the book is letters written back and forth between a couple of the characters. For whatever reason I could not figure out what was happening until 2/3rds of the way through. It's 100 pages too long. Almost DNF this book but I kept grinding through... 2/5 stars cause I like the cover.

[Karie · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A Good Man” is a book I would not normally choose. My husband got it, read it for a bit, and then I picked it up when I had nothing else to read.

Not a big fan of western/post-Civil War novels – I ended up liking most of this book. It was similar in some ways to Mary Doria Russell’s “Doc” – a story about a man who exhibits great outer strength, but whose inner demons threaten to consume him.

Wesley Case, the main character, fights many battles in this book – proving himself to not necessarily be a good man – but not the bad one he fears he is. He cannot forget what he has done in his life, and is completely unable to forgive himself.

“…it gives Ada a fright to catch Wesley staring into the barber’s mirror as if it were a window, as if he cannot see himself there, as if his gaze was boring clear through the blindly staring man in the glass to some point hidden from her sight.”

It is Ada Tarr, a woman he meets after he leaves his former life, that gives him hope that someone might see the good in him that he does not. She has a clear vision of the world, of the frailty of human beings and how actions are rarely all good or all bad – how honesty can help heal past wounds and prevent future ones.

He also encounters other people who are so much more than they seem – so very different than he supposes them to be upon first meeting. He has a very complex and complicated relationship with a Major Walsh that has him reexamining his initial impressions of people. Walsh, seemingly an easy to read blowhard, turns out to be far more emotional and multi-faceted than Case first believed him to be, which provides yet another window into Case’s own soul.

“Walsh’s jaw clenches as if he is afraid to continue, fears he will surrender to an unmanly display of emotion. Case suddenly senses the large soul of the man, something easily obscured when the Major has an outbreak of petulance or vanity.”

Given my low level of interest in the history of this period, the book was a bit too long and detailed for me, but when I finished it, I found myself turning back to the beginning, to advice Case was given by his mother, and found that much of the path of the story was encapsulated in her wise words.

“…each year on my birthday, I draw up a summation of my character. Where I have failed, where I have succeeded. I recommend the practice to you. It need be no more than a few lines, but they must be unsparingly honest, which means you must bear witness to all your qualities – both good and bad. The mind has a way of making a detour around uncomfortable truths unless it is forced to focus on them. And putting something down in ink – well, I think it concentrates the mind wonderfully – like the prospect of hanging,” she said. “And ink has another advantage. It is permanent. It does not permit you to escape it or yourself…”

Many of the most significant aspects of this book come in the form of the written word – permanent and concentrated – both good and bad.

[Mary E Trimble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Man, an epic historical novel by Guy Vanderhaeghe, takes place mostly in the western United States shortly after the Sioux victory at Little Bighorn in the late 1800s.

Wesley Case bears the burden of being a big disappointment to his father, a Canadian lumber baron. He joins the North West Mounted Police and while with them experiences a tragedy that will haunt him the rest of his life. He settles in Montana, buys a cattle ranch while serving as a liaison between the United States and Canadian militaries in an effort to contain Native Americans.

Ada Tarr, recently widowed, is Case’s neighbor and teaches school to augment her dwindling finances. Wesley and Ada fall in love, but their romance is threatened by a secret admirer of Ada’s, a man who comes across as a bungling ne'er-do-well, but who actually commits evil acts toward anyone who gets in his way.

While Case works with American and Canadian militaries, he befriends Sitting Bull, a Lakota Sioux warrior. Case sees the humiliation Natives experience, and sympathizes with their betrayal by the whites. He witnesses starvation among the tribes as whites systematically kill the buffalo, either by shooting them or burning fields where they graze. Case sees the mistrust resulting from lies, broken treaties, and the unreasonable demand that Indians live on reservations, giving up their way of life.

A Good Man is an earthy, realistic novel of depth. Vanderhaeghe, a Canadian, paints a stark picture of the plight of Indians and their resulting bitterness. Battle scenes are shown in vivid detail. The author’s extensive research has brought to light the attitudes and realities of the times, a period of mistrust and deceit. I highly recommend this novel to those who yearn for the truth of those violent years.

[Larry Kloth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and beautifully -written historical novel set in the mid-1870's in Montana and across the Medicine Line into Canada, with some background flashbacks to the American Civil War, in its aftermath, the Fenian Raids into Canada by Irish Union veterans in the United States.

Wesley Case is the son of a Canadian lumber baron who heads to Montana to start over as a rancher, fleeing the guilt of an incident during his service with the Canadian Mounted Police. Michael Dunne is a man-for-hire: if you need spy or a bodyguard or if you need someone rubbed out, he is your man. He know Case's secret, which causes part of the conflict between the two. The other part of the conflict comes from the fact that both men have fallen in love with the same woman, the schoolteacher Ada Tarr.

A large part of the story has to do with Case's role as a liaison between American and Canadian military officials in the conflict with Sitting Bull's Sioux following the defeat of Custer. It is here that the real history shines: in showing the fundamental difference between American and Canadian policies toward indigenous peoples. The American policy was clear and aggressive. The Canadian was more accommodating until it no longer became convenient or advisable considering Canada's powerful neighbor to the south. The Sioux, who had fled to Canada for safety, were eventually forced back south and to surrender.

Not an easy read, but well worth the time and effort.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last of a trilogy depicting the North American west at the end of the 19th century. It masterfully weaves historical people and events with a central plot line centring of Wesley Case, a young man running away from an event for which he feels great shame but also from his overbearing fathers ambitions for him.
He wants to lead a good and honourable life, hence the title.
Woven into this plot line are various historical plots ranging from the Fenian raids on Canada to the American (and ultimately Canadian) treatment of the plains Indians in the years following the slaughter of General Custer and his army. It includes a very nuanced and rather sympathetic portrayal of the Indian tribes and particularly of Sitting Bull. As with Case and Major Walsh, the Canadian who negotiated with Sitting Bull to bring him to Canada, honour and honesty are major themes.
The best writers of historical fiction are able go go beyond the central plot line to enrich the story being told. Vanderhage is among the best of 5hose writers.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't find this book as compelling a read as The Last Crossing as it seems to include more than its share of what I would term melodramatic effects, but it is nevertheless a compelling and exciting read, so lovers of the Western genre will find more than enough here to hold their interest, and those with an interest in historical fiction will find the details of the flight and plight of the Lakota and the Nez Perce to be well-researched and sympathetically told. The only group I that I felt is dealt with somewhat tendentiously is the Fenian (Irish) rebels/invaders, who are portrayed as uniformly loutish and cruel, as though seen through the eyes of a Tory. The character of Wesley Case is well-drawn, warts and all, though in the end it was a little unclear to me whether he is the one designated by the title or whether it is his supportive friend Joe McMullen. Both are good candidates.

[Vikki Ascuena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several Good Men

Yes, this is historical fiction, but do not look to plot. The many good men drive this tale of what the times demanded of men on the Canadian frontier. The Irish Fenian invasions and the struggles of the Sioux and Nez Pearce are the big historical events, the men who confront the political powers each seek to rectify their individual choices. Sitting Bull has his legend, but he is also a grieving father. The RCMP officer, Walsh offends everyone with his blunt assessments, but he is driven to do what he feels is right and suffers. Wesley Case, the central character, lives under the shadow of a decision made years before. Perhaps, we are all dragged to our destiny by the many decisions we made. This book will enhance your awareness of what goodness or lack thereof does to others.

[Nancy Whited · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gulp down this man's books. They are addictive and interesting and pull at your gut and mind. I just finished the trilogy and wished there were more.
Mr. Vanderhaeghe fleshes out characters to make them very real and identifiable. Not all men are totally good and not all men are totally bad. There is a line in this book that gave me shivers and such a scared feeling that surpasses any Steven King horror.
The story of Sitting Bull and the history of what was done to the indigenous peoples is very enlightening as to what is current today. It educated me to the differences between Canada and the USA and how each country dealt with our native people.
I will go on a search to find more books from this author because they are golden nuggets in a world of fluffy trash.

[Melissa S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love books where I can devour a satisfying plot and learn something at the same time. Set just after the battle of Little Bighorn, this is ostensibly the story of an off-kilter love triangle set in the West. But what elevates it are the real historical figures and the tension of actual events woven around that story. Walsh and Sitting Bull, the friction between Americans and Canadians and First Nations, the threat of IRA attacks, all of these add amazing colour and depth to the story. I feel like I've always taken my local history for granted, but Vanderhaeghe brings it to life in a vital and engaging way.