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Roman Hasford #3
Come Winter
In post-Civil War Arkansas, wealthy Roman Hasford tries to forget an unhappy marriage by entering politics and wielding power
418 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 23, 2018
This is my fourth Douglas C. Jones book, and each one impresses me more. His ability to write history from the point of view of everyday life is just amazing. "Roman Hasford", the novel that preceded this one, had me understanding the hows and whys and whos of western expansion in the story of Roman, who left Arkansas as a young man needing to find his own way in the world and ends up in Kansas. He worked hard, had adventures, made friends, and eventually returned home to settle down.
This book tells that story, and gets us back in touch with his parents, Ora and Martin, gives a us a brief visit with his sister Calpurnia, and shows us how the little crossroads of Gourdville, just by Elkhorn Tavern, embraced progress and became a bustling town. There's even a Greek chorus of sorts, townspeople in the barbershop and pool halls, who inform us of public opinion as the years go by.
But this is Roman's story. Taking place from 1870-1899, his history and the town's are closely aligned. Because Roman is the richest man in town, and because much of the progress is directly attributable to what he does and doesn't do. Love and revenge, hopes and dreams realized and destroyed, friendship and loyalty from unlikely people; in short, everything that goes into making a life. Written by the author into a page turning tale that's hard to put down.
One of my favorite genres of books are pioneer stories, but as I was reading this it occurred to me that immigrants on the great plains were not the only pioneers. So too were the men and women willing to pull up stakes and take a chance on something new in order to make a town civilized. The ones selling ties to the new railroad, opening drugstores and banks, opening mercantile establishments, newspaper offices, restaurants, hotels, etc. That's how progress happens.
There's much more to say praising this book, but in the interest of brevity I'll stop here. My only complaint is that I wanted more for Roman in the end. I felt he deserved more happiness, but then we wouldn't have had a story, or at least not this one. And once again, a big thank you to Howard, who introduced me to this author through his own excellent reviews. Jones is one of the better discoveries of my reading life.
This book tells that story, and gets us back in touch with his parents, Ora and Martin, gives a us a brief visit with his sister Calpurnia, and shows us how the little crossroads of Gourdville, just by Elkhorn Tavern, embraced progress and became a bustling town. There's even a Greek chorus of sorts, townspeople in the barbershop and pool halls, who inform us of public opinion as the years go by.
But this is Roman's story. Taking place from 1870-1899, his history and the town's are closely aligned. Because Roman is the richest man in town, and because much of the progress is directly attributable to what he does and doesn't do. Love and revenge, hopes and dreams realized and destroyed, friendship and loyalty from unlikely people; in short, everything that goes into making a life. Written by the author into a page turning tale that's hard to put down.
One of my favorite genres of books are pioneer stories, but as I was reading this it occurred to me that immigrants on the great plains were not the only pioneers. So too were the men and women willing to pull up stakes and take a chance on something new in order to make a town civilized. The ones selling ties to the new railroad, opening drugstores and banks, opening mercantile establishments, newspaper offices, restaurants, hotels, etc. That's how progress happens.
There's much more to say praising this book, but in the interest of brevity I'll stop here. My only complaint is that I wanted more for Roman in the end. I felt he deserved more happiness, but then we wouldn't have had a story, or at least not this one. And once again, a big thank you to Howard, who introduced me to this author through his own excellent reviews. Jones is one of the better discoveries of my reading life.
August 8, 2016
It was late April and there had been a hard little rain in the afternoon, then clearing, the clouds running off toward White River in the east and the sun coming through ebullient blue sky from the Indian Territory. It was that magic time in the Ozarks when everyone leaned forward, expecting the next instant to hear larks or see north-migrating yellow warblers.
Roman Hasford is returning home to take charge of the family farm. His father has entered the early stages of dementia, brought on by his horrifying experiences during the Civil War, and his mother is no longer able to cope with the burdens of caring for him and the farm.
Roman had left the farm in northwestern Arkansas after his father had returned from the war. He made his way to Leavenworth, Kansas where through skill, hard work, a little luck, and good connections he amassed a sizeable fortune, even though he was still only in his twenties.
This was his second trip back home, but the first had been for only a short spell. He had not returned alone that time, but brought with him a little black-eyed girl named Catrina Peel, who had endured an abused existence in Leavenworth at the hands of a no-account father. Leaving her under the care of his mother, Roman returned to Leavenworth to tie up the loose ends that would allow him to settle permanently in Gourdville, the town near the Hasford farm.
Now he is returning, and not alone this time either. With him are two people: Orvile Tucker, an ex-slave who is a blacksmith and the “best horse man” Roman had ever known and Elmer Scaggs, an illiterate, unintelligent, but extremely loyal employee, who “protected Roman Hasford from hurt, from bullies, as if Roman was a little boy on a school ground….”
But Roman didn’t just settle down. He bought that old limestone building on the north side of the town square, and men went to work there with lumber and brick and mortar and glass to make a bank out of it, some said the second bank in the whole state of Arkansas, the first being down in Fayetteville, established only the year before. And the word went out that a man could borrow money in that new bank in this money-starved county. With appropriate interest.
The bank allowed Roman to become a power broker in his community and the surrounding area, not just because he had the means to influence events through his control of his neighbor’s financial well-being, but because he was also able to dictate what individuals occupied what political offices.
Then came the day that Roman married the little black-eyed girl….
Almost everybody who counted in the county came. It was springtime and the black locusts along Wire Road were in bloom. Everything smelled like honeysuckle, and there were already larks calling from the fields across the road….
As soon as the “I now pronounce you man and wife” part was said, Catrina Peel Hasford went into the house and up to her loft room and stayed there the rest of the day.
Roman had returned home. He had wealth, power, and a wife. But what did it all mean? And how would it all end?
But in winter the colors died and the smells dried up. The only place such things were sustained was inside snug walls. The orange flame of the fireplace, the aroma of roasting chicken or frying ham creating a sense of well-being, sheltered from the great world beyond the frosty windows. Outside, it was bleak, making the inside all the more safe and comfortable.
So things that happened in the outside world, beyond those sheltering walls, were always remembered as harsher and more bitter than they would have if they’d happened in the spring, summer, or fall.
And the trouble came back in winter.
Roman Hasford is returning home to take charge of the family farm. His father has entered the early stages of dementia, brought on by his horrifying experiences during the Civil War, and his mother is no longer able to cope with the burdens of caring for him and the farm.
Roman had left the farm in northwestern Arkansas after his father had returned from the war. He made his way to Leavenworth, Kansas where through skill, hard work, a little luck, and good connections he amassed a sizeable fortune, even though he was still only in his twenties.
This was his second trip back home, but the first had been for only a short spell. He had not returned alone that time, but brought with him a little black-eyed girl named Catrina Peel, who had endured an abused existence in Leavenworth at the hands of a no-account father. Leaving her under the care of his mother, Roman returned to Leavenworth to tie up the loose ends that would allow him to settle permanently in Gourdville, the town near the Hasford farm.
Now he is returning, and not alone this time either. With him are two people: Orvile Tucker, an ex-slave who is a blacksmith and the “best horse man” Roman had ever known and Elmer Scaggs, an illiterate, unintelligent, but extremely loyal employee, who “protected Roman Hasford from hurt, from bullies, as if Roman was a little boy on a school ground….”
But Roman didn’t just settle down. He bought that old limestone building on the north side of the town square, and men went to work there with lumber and brick and mortar and glass to make a bank out of it, some said the second bank in the whole state of Arkansas, the first being down in Fayetteville, established only the year before. And the word went out that a man could borrow money in that new bank in this money-starved county. With appropriate interest.
The bank allowed Roman to become a power broker in his community and the surrounding area, not just because he had the means to influence events through his control of his neighbor’s financial well-being, but because he was also able to dictate what individuals occupied what political offices.
Then came the day that Roman married the little black-eyed girl….
Almost everybody who counted in the county came. It was springtime and the black locusts along Wire Road were in bloom. Everything smelled like honeysuckle, and there were already larks calling from the fields across the road….
As soon as the “I now pronounce you man and wife” part was said, Catrina Peel Hasford went into the house and up to her loft room and stayed there the rest of the day.
Roman had returned home. He had wealth, power, and a wife. But what did it all mean? And how would it all end?
But in winter the colors died and the smells dried up. The only place such things were sustained was inside snug walls. The orange flame of the fireplace, the aroma of roasting chicken or frying ham creating a sense of well-being, sheltered from the great world beyond the frosty windows. Outside, it was bleak, making the inside all the more safe and comfortable.
So things that happened in the outside world, beyond those sheltering walls, were always remembered as harsher and more bitter than they would have if they’d happened in the spring, summer, or fall.
And the trouble came back in winter.
June 7, 2020
With Coming Winter, DCJ wraps up several of his previous stories. At times, it seemed like the book had too many components, but the ending was certainly 5-star level.
While I highly recommend it to people who have read Elkhorn Tavern and Roman, I think readers unfamiliar with DCJ's novels might appreciate the rich tale more after reading the earlier books first.
***
The linked and quoted review from the New York Times does contain spoilers. (Caveat - the review contains at least one notable mistake.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/02/boo...
"Books of The Times; Defining the Western, and Two Current Examples
By Herbert Mitgang
Published: December 2, 1989
Come Winter By Douglas C. Jones 418 pages. Donald Hutter Book/Henry Holt. $19.95 Outlaw By Warren Kiefer 518 pages. Donald I. Fine Inc. $19.95.
To get into the right frame of mind for a couple of westerns - normally not my patch of sagebrush - I reread ''The Virginian'' by Owen Wister. The 1902 novel, ancestor of the classic western, turned out to be not only corny and flag-waving but also intolerant and reactionary by today's standards. The story includes sentimental lectures on Americanism that sound like a jingoist speech by Theodore Roosevelt, to whom the book is dedicated. It does have two scenes -of the toe-kicking cowpoke meeting the pretty New England schoolmarm and the traditional walk-down with pistols in the last reel - that have often been copied and, of course, one enduring line: ''When you call me that, smile!'' It's hard to disagree with Alexander Woollcott, who branded him ''Owen Wisteria.''
Westerns have come a long way since Wister. As with other genre fiction, the best are really full-fledged novels and not strictly western except in their locales. In ''Come Winter,'' Douglas C. Jones proves himself a strong storyteller who knows the territory - in this case, rural Arkansas, where he lives. In this novel he has created a family drama set against national events at the end of the 19th century, when clashing views about Reconstruction still existed between traditionalists and freebooters moving into the Western territories. ''Come Winter'' is the last of several novels in a saga, but the story stands on its own. Among his previous books - not part of the saga - are ''The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer'' and ''Arrest Sitting Bull.''
The family patriarch is a man named Roman Hasford, a former cavalryman with memories of chasing the Cheyenne in Kansas. The novel swings from the end of the Civil War to the Spanish-American War. The wealthy Hasford, a banker and political power broker, has a childhood friend who is black. Hasford insists that his friend be entitled to hold property, which does not sit well with many of his neighbors. Nor do they appreciate Hasford's employment of a Jewish bookkeeper at his bank. A confrontation builds between Hasford and the narrow-minded proprietor of the local newspaper, who - in those days of free-swinging, libelous journalism - calls Hasford money-grubbing and a turncoat who believes in racial mixing.
After the black man is murdered, the town, including the local prostitute, clams up. Hasford decides to get to the bottom of the case in his own way. From Kansas he imports a professional killer, a cool one-armed veteran who knows how to make people talk. In one of the most dramatic scenes in the novel, the hired killer tosses a roll of greenbacks on the prostitute's table and then takes out his sheath knife and plunges it into hot coals. Hasford's man gets the evidence he needs to avenge the black man's murder.
''Come Winter'' includes a townful of characters, with women as tough as the men, building fortunes in new businesses where the railroads reach. Mr. Jones has created real people in a sympathetic story that covers an authentic corner of the West."
While I highly recommend it to people who have read Elkhorn Tavern and Roman, I think readers unfamiliar with DCJ's novels might appreciate the rich tale more after reading the earlier books first.
***
The linked and quoted review from the New York Times does contain spoilers. (Caveat - the review contains at least one notable mistake.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/02/boo...
"Books of The Times; Defining the Western, and Two Current Examples
By Herbert Mitgang
Published: December 2, 1989
Come Winter By Douglas C. Jones 418 pages. Donald Hutter Book/Henry Holt. $19.95 Outlaw By Warren Kiefer 518 pages. Donald I. Fine Inc. $19.95.
To get into the right frame of mind for a couple of westerns - normally not my patch of sagebrush - I reread ''The Virginian'' by Owen Wister. The 1902 novel, ancestor of the classic western, turned out to be not only corny and flag-waving but also intolerant and reactionary by today's standards. The story includes sentimental lectures on Americanism that sound like a jingoist speech by Theodore Roosevelt, to whom the book is dedicated. It does have two scenes -of the toe-kicking cowpoke meeting the pretty New England schoolmarm and the traditional walk-down with pistols in the last reel - that have often been copied and, of course, one enduring line: ''When you call me that, smile!'' It's hard to disagree with Alexander Woollcott, who branded him ''Owen Wisteria.''
Westerns have come a long way since Wister. As with other genre fiction, the best are really full-fledged novels and not strictly western except in their locales. In ''Come Winter,'' Douglas C. Jones proves himself a strong storyteller who knows the territory - in this case, rural Arkansas, where he lives. In this novel he has created a family drama set against national events at the end of the 19th century, when clashing views about Reconstruction still existed between traditionalists and freebooters moving into the Western territories. ''Come Winter'' is the last of several novels in a saga, but the story stands on its own. Among his previous books - not part of the saga - are ''The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer'' and ''Arrest Sitting Bull.''
The family patriarch is a man named Roman Hasford, a former cavalryman with memories of chasing the Cheyenne in Kansas. The novel swings from the end of the Civil War to the Spanish-American War. The wealthy Hasford, a banker and political power broker, has a childhood friend who is black. Hasford insists that his friend be entitled to hold property, which does not sit well with many of his neighbors. Nor do they appreciate Hasford's employment of a Jewish bookkeeper at his bank. A confrontation builds between Hasford and the narrow-minded proprietor of the local newspaper, who - in those days of free-swinging, libelous journalism - calls Hasford money-grubbing and a turncoat who believes in racial mixing.
After the black man is murdered, the town, including the local prostitute, clams up. Hasford decides to get to the bottom of the case in his own way. From Kansas he imports a professional killer, a cool one-armed veteran who knows how to make people talk. In one of the most dramatic scenes in the novel, the hired killer tosses a roll of greenbacks on the prostitute's table and then takes out his sheath knife and plunges it into hot coals. Hasford's man gets the evidence he needs to avenge the black man's murder.
''Come Winter'' includes a townful of characters, with women as tough as the men, building fortunes in new businesses where the railroads reach. Mr. Jones has created real people in a sympathetic story that covers an authentic corner of the West."
September 24, 2022
This book wrapped up the saga of Roman Hasford's life, and I will admit that I shed a few tears at the end. I had gotten attached to the characters and reading about their lives. Can't wait to read more of this fantastic author.
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August 2, 2019Whilst previous novels in this series kept my eyes glued to the pages, this one did not. It was not the urge to know the fate of the characters in whom I was steadily losing interest that kept me reading; it was quite simply Douglas C. Jones's good writing.
What I also liked was the description of actual events at that time. Chapter 14 describes the new railroad being opened and the arrival of the first train. It truly captures the excitement of the grand event. Locals mutter and gossip at the barber shop about Jesse James being shot, as well as "President Garfield shot almost before the Bible had cooled off from his hand being on it at the swearing-in ceremony, and all the details of the hanging afterwards."
The town was booming, and there was even a new drugstore where the proprietor not only sold a variety of goods, but also performed minor surgery and pulled teeth. "A very popular item was Dr. Epson's Teething Compound, a thick oily liquid to be rubbed on the gums of tots cutting molars. It worked wonders because in addition to mineral water it contained grain alcohol, tincture of morphine, and cocaine. On the first application, kids stopped fussing and whining, stupefied with joy over the glorious colors flashing through their little heads". Poor little mites...
Yes, but what about Roman Hasford? After all, this story continues his life and tells about his disastrous marriage, and also what happened to his family. Roman is by now very wealthy and influential, and realises that "Political power was not necessarily held by those in office, but by the ones who put them there." Unfortunately I stopped caring somewhere along the line.
What I also liked was the description of actual events at that time. Chapter 14 describes the new railroad being opened and the arrival of the first train. It truly captures the excitement of the grand event. Locals mutter and gossip at the barber shop about Jesse James being shot, as well as "President Garfield shot almost before the Bible had cooled off from his hand being on it at the swearing-in ceremony, and all the details of the hanging afterwards."
The town was booming, and there was even a new drugstore where the proprietor not only sold a variety of goods, but also performed minor surgery and pulled teeth. "A very popular item was Dr. Epson's Teething Compound, a thick oily liquid to be rubbed on the gums of tots cutting molars. It worked wonders because in addition to mineral water it contained grain alcohol, tincture of morphine, and cocaine. On the first application, kids stopped fussing and whining, stupefied with joy over the glorious colors flashing through their little heads". Poor little mites...
Yes, but what about Roman Hasford? After all, this story continues his life and tells about his disastrous marriage, and also what happened to his family. Roman is by now very wealthy and influential, and realises that "Political power was not necessarily held by those in office, but by the ones who put them there." Unfortunately I stopped caring somewhere along the line.
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September 3, 2008F Jon
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