Let Him Go

Starred review from September 2, 2013
A consummate chronicler of the American West, Watson (American Boy) sets his slyly suspenseful, highly engaging new novel in the early 1950s in rural Dalton, N.Dak., where George Blackledge, a retired sheriff, returns home to find his wife Margaret packing to leaveâwith or without him. She's embarking on an honorable, valiant journey to reclaim her young grandson Jimmy from Lorna, the widow of her tragically deceased son, and Lorna's sketchy new husband, Donnie Weboy. Margaret, who witnessed but didn't immediately act on the couple's cruelty toward Jimmy, is sure that he deserves better than Donnie and Lorna. George joins his determined wife for the long road trip across the Dakota Badlands into Montana, where they become embroiled in the violence of the Weboy clan, beginning with tense negotiations with Donnie's foul-mouthed father, who compares Margaret's "pretty bird" appearance to the "hard bark" of George's. Margaret wants desperately for Lorna to return with them to Dalton with Jimmy in tow, but the ever-intimidating Weboys and their nasty extended family network have other plans for everyone involved and put up a bloody fightâuntil George turns the tables in the nail-biting denouement. Known for crisp images, resonant backdrops, and sharp characterizations drawn without flashy over-accessorizing, Watson's latest traces the desperate lengths families will go to in order to protect their own. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit.

May 15, 2013
Spartan prose for a Spartan tale of badlands justice set in North Dakota and eastern Montana in the fall of 1951. Watson's writing (American Boy, 2011, etc.) is the principal pleasure here. The story is simple, ageless. Margaret Blackledge wants her grandson, Jimmy, back in Dalton, N.D. Daughter-in-law Lorna, her husband dead, has hooked up with the suave Donnie Weboy. Weboys are clannish, violent. Margaret appears prepared to undertake this adventure alone. Her husband, George, former sheriff, strong and silent, not quite the man he used to be, agrees to come. They set off in their old car, period details used sparingly, to wrest from a mother her child, to preserve a family broken by circumstance and hardship, to tempt fate. Grief has marked this fool's errand from the outset--indelibly. To call the voice that narrates this novel omniscient is accurate only in so far as it describes the fictional convention. We hear an uninflected human voice that knows the outcome of this dark tale and tales like it. No one we meet, and no action taken, is beyond the expected conventions of a bleak American West: "[I]f I never hear again about what's hard for a man, it'll be too goddamn soon." The sort of book that puts the shine back on genre as an adjective to describe fiction.

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Starred review from September 15, 2013
Watson returns to North Dakota, setting of his Sundown, Yellow Moon (2007), and like that brooding tale of people trapped by the past, this latest novel concerns an aging couple, George and Margaret Blackledge, trying but failing to deal with loss, in their case, the death of their only son, who was thrown from a horse. In September 1951, years after the accident, Margaret decides it's time to act and vows to travel to Bentrock, Montanawith or without Georgeand retrieve her only grandson from her former daughter-in-law, Lorna, who has remarried and cut off all contact with the Blackledges. Reluctantly, George joins his determined wife (who, until this journey, has never stayed in a hotel for two nights in a row) on what will quickly become a transformative road trip. Their mission proves more complicated than they'd imagined, as Lorna has become a virtual hostage in the home of her new in-laws. The violent finale has the doomed feel of country noir, but what emerges most forcefully is the profound, if largely unspoken, love shared by a taciturn man and woman who dig deeply into long-dormant reservoirs of grit ( George Blackledge, despite his white-whiskered pallor . . . still has eyes that burn with a wild, blue desperation ) for one last attempt to take on an unbending world. Superb storytelling from a writer who continues to find a special kind of melancholy poetry in the unforgiving landscape of the mountain states.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

April 15, 2013

From the author of the fiercely lyrical, fiercely ethical Montana 1948. In early 1950s North Dakota, George and Margaret Blackledge are desperate to see their grandson.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2013

Two decades after Montana 1948 (Milkweed National Fiction Prize winner), Watson returns with a powerful story of two headstrong women, each with an unshakable resolve to hold on to what family means. Set against the backdrop of North Dakota and Montana in 1951, the story takes us to a dark place of parental love and its tragic end. Margaret and George Blackledge disagree over Margaret's decision to rescue their grandson, Jimmy, from flighty daughter-in-law Lorna, who has married Donnie Weboy after the death of her husband, the Blackledges' son, James. Reluctantly, George packs the family's old Hudson for the long drive from their home in North Dakota to Montana, unaware they are embarking on a life-changing journey. In charge of the criminal Weboy clan is tougher-than-nails Blanche, who controls Donnie and two other thick-headed sons. With Margaret determined to save her grandson absolute, tension builds, the Weboys' behavior goes beyond threatening, and George and Margaret belatedly discover the hard-edged truths of what the Weboys might do. VERDICT Bold writing holds the reader's attention right up to the book's shattering conclusion. An outstanding work that is sure to expand Watson's audience of devoted readers. Not to be missed. [See Prepub Alert, 3/18/13.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Palisade, CO

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.