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125 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stegner's "Mountain" of memories., July 30, 2000
Reading fiction does not get better than reading Wallace Stegner (1909-1993). His Pulitzer Prize winner, ANGLE OF REPOSE (1971) is my favorite novel, and the earlier BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN (1943) (hereafter "BRCM") is an equally moving book. There is no one-sentence way to summarize Stegner's somewhat autobiographical BRCM. It is as much a novel about family as it is about transience, rootlessness, and a nation that has been "footloose too long" (460). The Masons are a family troubled with tensions. They move frequently throughout the American West in the early 1900s--from North Dakota to Seattle, Salt Lake City to Reno--always in chase of their dreams. As in his other books, Stegner's characters resist description inasmuch as they are often subject to contradiction by their own characteristics. In BRCM, the Masons are no different. Bo Mason is the book's most dominant character, later eclipsed by his son, Bruce. Bo is a bootlegger, haunted all his life "by dreams of quick wealth" (p. 437). As a husband and father, he is miserly, impatient, "easily irritated" and abusive, yet not without "occasional spells of intense good spirits" (p. 437). Feminist readers may have a problem with his wife, Elsa Mason. "Misused" (p. 439) by her husband, Elsa is a "self-sacrificing" and "kindly-wise" wife and mother (p. 442). Despite her husband's faults--and the list is long--Elsa is unceasingly loyal to Bo. Even after "a dozen years of living among bootleggers and pimps and bellhops and all the little scummy riffraff on the edge of the criminal class," Elsa remains untouched by that way of life. "She only gives up her wishes," her son, Bruce notes, "never herself" (p. 447). BRCM is also a father-son story. Stegner shows his reader Bruce's dark and tormented childhood, the hatred he feels toward his father, and Bruce's lifelong attempt to come to terms with his troubled family. "If a man could understand himself and his own family," Bruce reflects, "he'd have a good start toward understanding everything he'd ever need to know" (p. 436). Bo's domination of his son even after his death, and the "incurable damage" done to Bruce become the subjects of Stegner's sequel to BRCM, RECAPITULATION (1979). BRCM is also about finding one's home, establishing roots, and living life authentically in a nation otherwise obsessed with finding "the Big Rock Candy Mountain," where "the bluebird sings to the lemonade springs" (p. 461), a land of futile dreams. We find Bruce questioning, "so when . . .do we get enough sense to quit looking for something for nothing?" Although it moves with powerful feelings, BRCM is by no means a "feel-good" novel. Rather, it is a "feel-real" novel full of conflict. Stegner's writing here is honest, rich with human experience, and marked with many memorable moments. G. Merritt
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58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The powerful lure and tragedy of the American Dream, October 10, 1997
Wallace Stegner is different than most famous American writers, eschewing colorful literary activities like drug use, wife-swapping, and gross public displays of antisocial behavior. After a most difficult childhood, which is essentially chronicled in The Big Rock Candy Mountain, he married and stayed married, and received appointments to the faculties of prestigious universities.
Yet Stegner's childhood, on the harsh plains of Saskatchewan, in the timber camps of the Northwest, and as the son of a bootlegger, marked Stegner as the survivor of a headlong and foolhardy quest after the American dream. That dream, and the belief that it could easily be found in the Plains and mountains of the North American West is abstracted in the mind of Bo Mason, the literary doppelganger for Stegner's father, as the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Much of Stegner's work focused on the choices we make in life, and the effect those choices have on our loved ones. In many ways, his urge towards moderation in personal affairs mirrored his burgeoning interest in conservation, and both were born of his childhood, where he saw precious commodities like love and timber misused and wasted.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain captures the drive, much lost in recent years, towards the frontiers of our existence. The frontier myth--and after reading Stegner's work you'll realize it is to a certain extent a myth--is perhaps the single defining attribute of what it means to be American. Stegner realizes this, and he realizes what can happen to our reality when the quest for a dream is taken too far.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A bold and raw work by one of America's greatest writers, March 5, 2005
Wallace Stegner wrote "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" relatively early in his career (1943, at age 34), and the book reflects the author's enormous talents, which were still developing at that time. Stegner tells the tale of Bo Mason, who leads a rootless life on the fringes of the law. Mason is a bootlegger, gambler and precious metals speculator. Each peak he achieves is higher than his last, and each valley is deeper. This is true both financially and in his relationship with his wife, Elsa, and two sons, Chet and Bruce. Some reviewers point out that the story is somewhat autobiographical. That's probably a safe assumption. But it's also the story of the American West a century ago, where raw optimism, the struggle for acceptance, and harsh realities shaped people's existence.
The harsh reality of "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" is that it isn't one of Stegner's best works. Of course, that's a very high standard. Readers will understandably have great expectations when diving into this book, and some may be disappointed. For example, the younger son's seething hatred towards his father is introduced early in the book and is central to the conclusion, but is poorly developed in the interim chapters. Likewise, the voice of the book drifts between the 3rd person and the 2nd person. This gives the reader a voyeuristic glimpse into each character's personal thoughts. It's a nice gimmick, but awkwardly executed.
On an absolute scale, this book is a no-brainer 5 stars. But relative to other Stegner novels, "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" has some minor flaws. Read it and you'll certainly enjoy it. But you'll appreciate even more the experience of reading the early efforts of one of America's greatest 20th century writers.
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