Customer Reviews

The Outlander

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The Outlander is one of the most perfectly titled books I've ever read. Every character, every location, even every major event in the plot is somehow isolated from the real world. Gil Adamson's wonderful prose carries with it a sense of otherness, making this debut novel a fine read.

We don't learn the actual name of the protagonist, Mary Boulton, until over 100 pages into the book. Until then, and mostly thereafter, she is referred to as "the widow," which not only gives her a slightly off-center identity, but describes her situation as well. Mary wants to be anonymous, and with good reason: she killed her worthless husband and is pursued by his revenge-seeking twin brothers. The details of her past unfold slowly as Mary tries to disappear into the wilderness of Idaho and Montana, dragging along her memories of a loveless childhood, a brutally unhappy marriage, and a dead child of her own. Her fragile mental state teeters on a razor's edge between reality and hallucination throughout her journey and eventual liberation.

The other characters in the book are "outlanders" too. The evil twins--gawked at by the superstitious citizens of the time--are relentless in their pursuit, driven by their need to avenge their brother's death to gain the approval of their aloof and demanding father. The various people who help Mary along the way, Mrs. Cawthra-Elliot (a widow herself), the Crow Indian Henry (actually born in Baltimore) and his white wife Helen who helps her, the Reverend Bonnycastle and the dwarf saloon keeper who befriend her in an isolated mining camp, all are apart from society in some way. The most isolated of all is William Moreland, the Ridgerunner, who has been living in the mountains as a hermit for so long he doesn't know what year it is. He becomes Mary's lover and eventual salvation.

Gil Adamson's talents as a poet translate well into long prose. Her scene-setting descriptions in particular have cadence and structure that make them lyrical but never cloying:

"In the early morning, amid the trembling of mountain aspen, three horsemen came. They crested a rise one by one, the horses blowing, for they were heavily packed, and their riders were large."

When we see it like this--through Mary Bouton's haunted eyes--we become outlanders, too. The experience is very rewarding.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Outlander by Gil Adamson is one of those novels that somehow gets under you skin a little. You find yourself somehow colored by the story and catch yourself remembering an incident in the story during the day while your at work and not reading. Not all books come to mind at odd times during the day, but this one does.

Set in 1903, young Mary Boulton is living in an isolated cabin. After losing her baby, and suffering from depression she kills her husband when she learns of his infidelity. Pursued by her dead husband's brothers, Mary is faced daily with life and death situations. Not really being equipped with survival skills each day is a test, but she proves herself to be resilient and manages to evade her pursuers.

As she makes her way to an uncertain freedom through Idaho and Montana, she manages to run into quite a mixture of individuals; some pretty unsavory outcasts, but others that prove to be helpful. With the little help she receives from these unwitting characters Mary manages to survive....at least for a while. In spite of the fact that Mary is a murder it is difficult not to see her in a sympathetic light.

Gil Adamson is a wonderful novelist and reminds me of Andrea Barrett author of Ship Fever, Voyage of the Narwal, Servant of the Map and others. Though the author of Primitive, a book of poetry, and Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, a book of short stories Outlander is Gil Adamson's first novel.

Do novelists who are poets first make better storytellers than those who aren't? In addition to Adamson, I'm thinking of Ron Rash, author of One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight. There is a gift for dialogue and a playfulness with the language that just seems special by these authors.

In 1903, a newly widowed young woman of 19 is escaping the consequences of both the murder of her husband and the events surrounding it. Her brothers-in-law are intent on catching her to make her face justice. This sets the scene for a brutal journey through the cold western wilderness of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. The widow (as she is generally referred to throughout the novel) carries with her the demons of her past and some of her recollections are not entirely reliable. The widow knows that there is no safe place for her within the confines of what passes for civilisation and so she flees across the Rocky Mountains.

There are a number of different themes in this novel and the setting itself is important. The environment is both beautiful and harsh. In order to survive, the widow needs to appreciate both and to adapt. Along her journey she meets some interesting characters, most of them outlanders in their own way, and learns how to survive. Can she find an enduring happiness?

At times the widow's mind is a confused and confusing space. It isn't always clear where reality begins and ends but this is integral to the story itself. This may not be an easy novel to read, but it is beautifully written and well worth the journey. I found myself reading slowly in order to appreciate the journey while simultaneously wanting to rush ahead to find out the ultimate destination.

This is Ms Adamson's first novel, and I'll certainly be looking to read more of her work.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I read this book last fall, when it came out in Canada, and I was ABSOLUTELY mesmerised by it. Adamson can write, there is no question! Not since Anne Michael's book, "Fugitive Pieces", have I been so completely enthralled by an author's use of the English language. Adamson has, until now, been a poet and that is evident in every sentence she writes. And yet, the book does not get bogged down in flowery description. Instead, one is drawn into a beautifully crafted world; a world populated with interesting, FEELING characters - characters which are fully formed and which deserve our interest.

There are a couple of moments in the novel that I particularly loved. The first is the moment when Mary dreams of her father fishing. At one moment, Adamson writes: "The sun was sharp on the corded water, dancing like pennies on a blanket." Simply beautiful.

The second, and possibly most powerful moment in the novel, occurs in Chapter 19 when Mary recalls the moment of her mother's death and her father's response to it. She writes: "Her father, too, was sleepless in those days. And staggering. Rum was his drink, and so a sweet reek followed him about the house, burnt toffee cut with piss, and his breath was rank. He would go whole days without responding to anyone; he would not even meet his daughter's eye, but stared dully ahead, too deep in the smoking ruin of his hear to see the world." The passage goes on and through it we see a husband and father torn apart and destroyed by grief. A grief which leaves a lasting effect on the daughter.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you read only one book this season, make it "The Outlander."

This book captured me from the first sentence to the last. The authors' use of language is rare in todays "formula driven mass marketing of books".
Her ability to paint word pictures of landscapes and moods is refreshing and I hope to read more of her work when it is published.

In 1903, nineteen years old Mary Boulton calmly grabs her husband's rifle and fires killing him. The widow knows she cannot hang around not because she fears the law, but her abusive brother in laws would enact vengeance in their vicious style.

Mary flees across wintry isolated Idaho and Montana while knowing in her composed gut they pursue her. On her trek, she reflects on her unhappy but thankfully short marriage exacerbated by the dead child. As her deep depression enables her to remain eerily unruffled, she meets people along the way. First there is the Frontiersman who admits creeping civilization makes him depressingly feel like an anachronism; then there is the Reverend who treats her like an adored daughter. There are others some not as kind towards the itinerant female especially after a mining disaster that the locals feel she caused by being there. However, the worst is coming as the brothers are nearing and the Reverend wants to change their relationship to that of more of equal partners.

An allegory of a way of life that seems all but vanished, THE OUTLANDER is an excellent historical thriller starring a strong support cast, a spirited lead female, and a vivid picturesque setting. Readers anticipate High Noon is coming, but it is the trip to the final showdown that makes for a deep look at early twentieth century America in a remote part of the northwest.

Harriet Klausner

My husband bought this book, but since he reads more slowly than I do I snuck it out of his pile. I couldn't put it down. I'll agree with other reviewers that the author gets a little wordy at times, but most of the time it's elegantly written and not overwritten. It's a very unusual novel in many respects- it's a western, but with a woman as the protagonist. She's constantly referred to as "the widow"- but as the book progresses and she gains a greater sense of self, her name is used more often. She's running madly away from her brothers-in-law, but she understands why they must hunt her. Nearly all of the characters are finely drawn and compelling in their own rights. I was a little surprised by the ending- but in a good way. I'm looking forward to my husband finishing it so we can talk about it. Right now I'm having a hard time keeping my mouth shut, but I don't want to ruin it for him!

This book opens in media res, with "the widow" on the run from her brothers-in-law; she's nineteen and has killed her husband, and flees headlong into the wilds of Canada's mountains. The year is 1903, and her survival skills will be tested by nature and by her own propensity to see visions and hear voices- an ability she has come to accept since childhood. At first, we aren't sure if the widow, Mary Boulton, has lost her mind, but it becomes clear in snippets of her past that she had reason to act as she did. From the start, the young girl is a sympathetic protagonist, and we root for her success in eluding her pursuers.

Mary's trek leads her to the Ridgerunner, William Moreland, a man who rescues her when she is at her lowest, starving and dying on the mountain. Moreland is surprised as he grows to love her and she him, but he is also too entrenched to embrace `civilized' life and leaves her alone with no warning. A stunned Mary finds a kind but stern Indian and his wife who direct her to the Rev. Bonnycastle, who leads a congregation of ragtag miners in a town called Frank - one store and a few ramshackle homes. The cast of characters who come to care for and accept Mary in the town are richly filled in.

Eventually, the implacable brothers-in-law's search leads them to their target, but they are not the only ones who seek Mary out by the book's end.
Adamson writes of nature and the human struggle with lovely language and makes Mary's struggle palpable. She creates an endearing cast of characters and describes nature beautifully. Mary's backstory is filled in in measured segments, and moves the story forward in a meaningful way. This is a good read - good story, well paced, satisfying conclusion.

After stopping several times to read aloud particularly powerful passages in Gil Adamson's "The Outlander," I suddenly recognized that every page had passages that I wanted to read aloud to others. Adamson's language is stunningly beautiful, and her details of ordinary and extraordinary life in the mountainous West of 1903, are sometimes totally surprising while perfectly natural. More particularly, I can't think of another work that so perfectly captures the looks and behaviors of horses. The characters are involving and the setting dramatic, but it is the glorious language that sets this novel above most others.

Gil Adamson has published Primitive, 1991, a book of poetry, Help Me Jacques Cousteau, 1995, a collection of short stories, and Ashland, 2003, a second collection of poetry. "The Outlander" is Adamson's first novel, a 400 page chase scene through the mountains of Alberta Canada in 1903.

[Adamson maintains an excellent website and has corrected a number of reviews that place the chase in the mountains of Idaho and Montana: "(FYI, it's Alberta, not Idaho and Montana. Very similar parts of the world, though.)" Her note was in response to this sentence in the "Publisher's Weekly Review": "Set in 1903, Adamson's compelling debut tells the wintry tale of 19-year-old Mary Boulton ("[w]idowed by her own hand") and her frantic odyssey across Idaho and Montana."]

Mary Boulton, a 19 year old "widow", has killed her husband and is fleeing from her husband's brothers, "their identical faces vigilant and sober [with] the keen, predatory look of hyenas." The "widow" wears a black mourning dress made from curtains. She has no idea of where she is or how long she has been running, a "peculiar trajectory into the wild. The route like a skittering mouse, light-footed and almost aimless."

The "widow" has been "trained for another life ... sonatas and etudes; the art of a good menu." She discovers through trial and error which plants are edible or how sick rotten food can make her. "The widow felt the burden of her own existence, the endless labour of it."

Before beginning her novel, Adamson says that she formed the image of "a young woman, dressed in black, running like hell." She wrote poems about the woman, deciding that she was in flight after blowing away her cheating husband with a hunting rifle. Some of the poems did appear in Ashland; "Mary" describes men dreaming of a woman who murdered her husband:

"They wake yelping like dogs,
striking out terrified in the dark
defending against the quick, descending fury."

Adamson's novel is a combination of descriptive narrative and poetic imagery. The book begs to be read slowly and savored. It captured my imagination and the images return to me time and time again.

Robert C. Ross 2008