Customer Reviews

Honey in the Horn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A well-told tale of settling of Oregon in the first decade of the 20th Century. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel captures the spirit of the times as those hardy pioneers struggle to settle a difficult land. Mr. Davis' wry humor makes this a reader's delight. Having lived in the general area as a youth I found many of the incidents sounding like the seemingly endless tales that my father and his collegues would spend hours swapping.

This book was impossible to put down. It is an absorbing novel set in (apparently) early 1900s Oregon. It is well researched as to the history and conditions prevailing in a country always hard to live in. And it is a rollicking good story.

I have enjoyed extremely some other works by H. L. Davis, most notably the novel Winds of Morning and the beautifully executed short story, "The Homestead Orchard." It was with pleasurable anticipation that I obtained Davis's prizewinning magnum opus.

But this monstrosity totally surprised me. The rendering of Oregon's history and geography is too far removed from the truth for a novel that is supposed to be a fanciful tapestry of Oregon's history and geography--it's so fanciful as to merely annoy. The characters are not well-developed and are cartoonish. I can stand fantasy sequences (loved Dickens's Little Dorrit), but this endless ramble exhausted my patience. I kept waiting to reach the good part. I should have given up after the first 100 pages.

H. L. Davis is a little-known and under-appreciated author whose works are not of even quality. Following is my list of his works that I've read, in order of my esteem from highest to lowest.

1. The Homestead Orchard--Humorous, sad, joyous, beautifully crafted short story about a father and son.
2. Old Man Isbell's Wife--Humorous short story
3. Harp of a Thousand Strings--sweeping novel of the French Revolution related to the American experience
4. Open Winter--sweet & realistic sheep-herding short story
5. Winds Of Morning--novel
6. The Distant Music
7. Beulah Land
8. All of Davis's essays--not profound but they reveal Davis's thinking
9. The Kettle of Fire--a fictional legend that doesn't really work
10. Honey in the Horn--spare yourself! Overlong, random, Pulitzer-prize winning, historically inaccurate, pointless

To access the short stories, get a copy of his Collected Essays and Short Stories, published by the University of Idaho Press.

The book tells and interesting story of a young man in southern and eastern Oregon in about 1910 after the big pioneer rush. Very well written with good characters. It won the Pulitzer prize in 1935.

I used to have this long speech I'd give about 'literature' and how much more concerned with quality of content I am than the topic of the content. I used to say that I'd read a 1,000 page book written on the history of a couch, if the writing was done interestingly enough, because I am not typically very concerned with plots, suspense or other manipulative techniques that are typically used to make me forget / not notice that the writing is sub par.

It's been a long time since that speech and a long time since I've read something on a topic that bored me to tears, yet I remained completely absorbed. This book did manage to do that for me though.

Honey in the Horn takes place in the Pacific Northwest, when it was still half overrun by indigenous people and almost everyone in the area was transient. There was a lot of farming business, killing of people business and jail-breaking business. None of these topics are ones that I'm ever particularly interested in, but H.L. Davis held my attention well.

I am typically anti-flowery descriptions in books. I am typically anti-two-pages-of-description-about-a-character-we're-only-going-to-read-one-line-of-dialogue-from-and-then-never-see-again. However, H.L. Davis could write a 1,000 page book about the history of a couch and I'd read it.

What I'm trying to tell you is that the man has his chops and I dug it.

I ordered this for my book club and it took over 3 weeks to receive it, consequently didn't make the book club review. The story is interesting, especially for those familiar with the NW. Does drag on but descriptions are humorous and vivid.