The Gunsmith's Daughter

by Margaret Sweatman

1971. Lilac Welsh lives an isolated life with her parents at Rough Rock on the Winnipeg River. Her father, Kal, stern and controlling, has built his wealth by designing powerful guns and ammunition. He’s on the cusp of producing a .50 calibre assault rifle that can shoot down an airplane with a single bullet, when a young stranger named Gavin appears at their door, wanting to meet him before enlisting for the war in Vietnam. Gavin’s arrival sparks an emotional explosion in Lilac’s home and inspires her to begin her own life as a journalist, reporting on the war that’s making her family rich.

The Gunsmith’s Daughter is both a coming-of-age story and an allegorical novel about Canada-US relations. Psychologically and politically astute, and gorgeously written, Margaret Sweatman’s portrait of a brilliant gunsmith and his eighteen-year-old daughter tells an engrossing story of ruthless ambition, and one young woman’s journey toward independence.

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2022

About the author

Margaret Sweatman is a novelist, playwright, and lyricist. She teaches literature and creative writing and performs with the Broken Songs Band. Her three previous novels garnered Sweatman the McNally Robinson Prize for the Manitoba Book of the Year, the John Hirsch Award for the most promising Manitoba writer, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Award. She has also won a Genie for the song "When Wintertime" which she co-wrote with her husband Glenn Buhr for the film, Seven Times Lucky. She was born in Winnipeg where now makes her home.

Reviews

[Shaniah Tamayose]

I wish it would have explained that it was a war book. I don’t really have anything against the storyline I just find anything WWll related very flat for the most part.
Not my cup of tea.

[Melanie]

3.5/5

Vietnam War, a gunsmith who is obsessed with his killing machines for monetary reasons and disregards his wife and daughter for his own desires. I had a hard time “loving” this book.

While the writing was good, the character of Lilac interesting and her journey more based on her own principles than those of her parents, this is what kept me reading to the end.

[Ian]

In The Gunsmith’s Daughter, Margaret Sweatman’s sixth novel, it is 1971. Lilac Welsh is eighteen. She lives with her parents, Ruby and Kal, sharing with them a life of splendid isolation in a luxurious house that Kal designed and had built in Rough Rock, on the Winnipeg River. Lilac has spent her youth sheltered in comfort and bounty, thanks to her father’s lucrative work as a designer and manufacturer of high-end weapons that are in demand in hot spots around the globe. She has never troubled herself with the moral implications of her father’s chosen profession. But that is about to change.

Kal’s latest project has driven a wedge into the family. He boasts that the “Stalker,” his new .50 calibre assault rifle, can take down an airplane with a single shot. He’s preparing to bring it to market, but the gun makes Ruby uneasy (she sneeringly calls it “butt ugly”). Lilac, though young, is not blind to the emotional divide that’s opened up between her parents. Then a young man arrives on their doorstep. Gavin McLean worships Kal Welsh and harbours a respectful admiration for his work. Moreover, Gavin, despite being Canadian, has decided to enlist in the US army so he can serve in Vietnam: his aim, to make something of himself. Gavin’s presence in the Welsh home is brief, but he and Lilac strike up a close spiritual and intimate physical connection, and she’s bereft when he gets on a bus bound for the US and whatever fate awaits him. For Lilac, the war in Vietnam has been an abstract concept: despite her father’s stories of being there in the early 1960s, the deadly conflict remains comfortably remote: the stuff of newspaper headlines. But Gavin’s determination to participate in a war that’s growing more controversial by the moment makes it tangible in a way she’s never experienced and sets her on a path she never saw coming.

From this intriguing setup, Sweatman fashions a gripping coming-of-age / adventure story of a young woman’s awakening into a world much larger and more dangerous and morally complex than she’d imagined. After Gavin leaves for a recruiting centre in the US, Lilac wangles a position as junior reporter with the Winnipeg Tribune, which, through tenacity, bravado and sheer force of will, she transforms into an assignment as a Vietnam War correspondent. Naïve and perhaps more confident than she should be, she travels to Saigon armed with tape recorder and notebook, convinced she wants to find Gavin so she can tell his story. But what she’s really looking for is the person she’s meant to be.

The bulk of Sweatman’s taut narrative chronicles Lilac’s efforts to distance herself from everything her domineering father stands for and assert her independence. Along the way she meets a variety of compelling characters who aid in her effort to tell the stories of those serving on the front line of a conflict that people all over the world have realized is not only unjust and brazenly mercenary, but also a lost cause.

The historical novel presents unique challenges to fiction writers. But Margaret Sweatman, who has evidently immersed herself in the history of the Vietnam War, seamlessly incorporates details gleaned from her research into a relentlessly engaging and suspenseful novel. The Gunsmith’s Daughter, possessing the forward thrust of a whodunit, makes for compulsive reading and is clearly the work of a seasoned writer who knows what she’s doing every step of the way.

[Digitally Lit]

Ariela- I read the Gunsmith’s Daughter by Margret Sweatman, from a digital ARC sent to me by Goose Lane Editions.

Eighteen-year-old Lilac Welsh lives in the woods with her parents. Her dad is a gunsmith, and he makes guns that he hopes for them to be used in the Vietnam war. When a cute guy comes to Lilac’s home in the woods as a pilgrimage to her father’s legendary gunsmithing skills, she falls for him. And then she follows him over to Vietnam when he goes as a soldier. Lilac aspires to be a journalist, and going into a war zone she’s bound to sniff out a good story. The thing is, her dad is making all the guns for the war, right? Welp, she’s over there writing about all the casualties those very same guns are causing. I really liked Lilac's character, she was very independent and strong, and she had that “I don’t NEED a man” mindset that I LOVED. As for Gavin… (the guy she was chasing), He doesn’t die. Or does he? Read it to find out 😀

I think this book was very well written, and the characters were also really good, the settings were very easy to imagine (or maybe my parents have just dragged me to a lot of war movies 🤔), and the plot was also very nice. And let me say, Lilac’s character development was just *chefs kiss*. At first, she was this innocent girl who packed her things to go after a boy without a second thought, but then it turned out to be an adventure for self-discovery, and I was NOT expecting that.

When I say I like historical fiction… this is what I mean 😄
_______
Savannah: The Gunsmith’s Daughter was an incredibly well written novel that I’m so happy I got the chance to read! I got this book as an ARC (advanced reader copy).

This book had amazing details and very amazing writing! I loved the character development and how I felt like I could connect with all the characters. This was a compelling coming of age/ adventure/ historical fiction that I could not put down. Even though I don’t usually like historical fictions this was incredible!

I loved Lilac drive for independence and how she acted. She reminded me of myself and I think that’s why I liked her so much. This book is unique and has a very interesting plot. I’d say if you like strong independent characters and/or love a good historical fiction this is definitely the book for you!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Lindy Clubb]

I really appreciate well written books that shine light on an issue. This was not only a good read, it was set in the '70's, in familiar landscapes in Canada, introduced me to Vietnam, and informed me about weapons made, manufactured and used. The contrast between a war torn country and one at peace but profiting from conflict was a revelation. It's an important book and a very worthwhile read.

[ccap]

3.5 stars. Nice easy read. Would definitely read more by her. But did not really have as much of an "awakening" or resolution as I expected.

[Cindy]

True rating - 3.5 stars

[Errick]

2.5

[Ruth]

This is Margaret Sweatman’s 6th novel, so I am ashamed to say that I had not heard of her. She’s already won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year award, as well as a Genie for one of her songs, “Winter When,” from the film Seven Times Lucky. The Gunsmith’s Daughter was shortlisted for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.
In The Gunsmith’s Daughter, Sweatman explores the war in Vietnam, the human impulse to prove oneself, and the dark forces that underlie conflict. Lilac is an 18-year-old who shakes off the influence of her parents by leaving home, first to Winnipeg and then to Vietnam, to become a journalist. The fact that what she will see will be disturbing is understood.
This is an excellent historical novel that does not overload the reader with research but instead paints with a lighter touch, leaving us the emotional breathing space to process the horrors rather than be flattened by them.