Bozeman News

New West Book Review

Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri
Edited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton, foreword by Rick Bass
University of Texas Press, 268 pages, $19.95

Best of the West 2009 is a welcome revival of anthology series that ran from 1988 through 1992, collecting outstanding stories set in “the Wide Side of the Missouri” that previously appeared in literary journals.  Unlike some recent one-off Western story anthologies, such as New Stories from the Southwest (also edited by D. Seth Horton) and Forge Books’ Best Stories of the American West, Volume I, the editors plan to make this an annual publication, and in the 2009 edition, the quality of the stories is just as high as those in the well-known national Best American Short Stories series.

In the foreword, Rick Bass tries to put his finger on “what constitutes a Western short story,” and although he notes, “Is it my imagination, or are there extra teaspoonfuls of loneliness in these stories, extra pinches of desperation?” and “a good many Western short stories tend to possess a kind of intensity or power of the felt physical senses,” he decides, “I’m not convinced there is a Western short story, yet.” Bass doesn’t remark on it, but in this year’s anthology, the overwhelming common theme is sex: the people in these stories might be lonely, but they manage to partner up pretty well.

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From the Flathead Beacon

A request by the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors calling for a special session of the state Legislature to address “current inadequacies” in the property tax reappraisal carried out in the 2009 regular session was immediately swatted down by Gov. Brian Schweitzer last week.

The letter, written by NMAR President Barb Funk, states that 11 counties, including Flathead and Lake, will be “disproportionally affected by higher than expected residential property values,” and asks Schweitzer to convene a special session to immediately adopt a “stop gap” measure to solve current reappraisal problems, and establish an interim committee to deal with long-term property tax issues and draw up a bill for the 2011 session.

In an interview with the Beacon, Schweitzer criticized NMAR’s letter for using inaccurate figures and questioned why the reappraisal legislation, HB 658, received the broad support of Realtors during the session and afterward, citing a story that appeared Sept. 29 in NewWest.Net where a lobbyist for the Montana Association of Realtors called it, “a pretty darn good bill.”

The governor also took aim squarely at Republicans, who led the Senate Taxation Committee in crafting the final iteration of the reappraisal bill, saying he would not spend taxpayer dollars at a rate of $80,000 per day, the rough cost of a special session, to bring lawmakers back to Helena when there wasn’t a plan in place beforehand to fix any shortcomings in the current bill.

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NEW PROGRAM NEEDS MORE PRIORITY

Open Fields was a “major victory” for hunters and wildlife conservation, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and many other green groups that lobbied for it. It passed back in December 2008, but almost a year later, this innovative hunter access program is still mired in the administrative rule making process.

Now, predictably, conservationists who struggled mightily for the program are asking Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for a little more priority.

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Election '09

The elections that attracted national attention Tuesday were all on the East Coast, with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine (suddenly burdened by his previous job as head of Goldman Sachs) going down to defeat and conservative Republican activists like Sarah Palin failing in their effort to override the local party and elect a fellow-traveler to an open Congressional seat in upstate New York. Unsurprisingly, voters across the country were worried about the economy, not too keen on incumbent office-holders, and wary about measures that might cost them money.

In Colorado, open space and marijuana were the issues of the night, in Boise, the streetcar desire played a role in the elections and in Montana, the liberal bastion that is Missoula finally has a liberal city council.

Here’s a quick and dirty roundup of highlights from election night: 

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Western Book Roundup

As I’ve mentioned on a couple of occasions over the years I’ve written the Roundup, when I’m not reading other people’s books, I’m trying to write my own, and after many, many years of effort, I have some good news: my first novel, The Ringer, will be published by The Permanent Press in 2011.  I am delighted about it.  Now I just need to edit the book and figure out how to convince people to read it.  (Beg?  Bribe?  Cajole?) Check out my new website for more information.

• The winners of the Utah and Oregon Book Awards were announced recently.  In Utah, the winners included David McGlynn in fiction for The End of the Straight and Narrow, Stephen Trimble in nonfiction for Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America, and in the poetry category, Craig Arnold won the award posthumously for his collection Made Flesh.  Ben Fulton of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote in greater detail about all the winners.

Also in the Roundup: Oregon Book Award winners, events at the Center of the American West, and Annie Proulx donates her papers to the New York Public Library.

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Justice and the Flathead Boat Crash

The prosecution of Montana State Sen. Greg Barkus for an alleged drunken-boating accident on Flathead Lake that left five people seriously injured is not exactly off to a smooth start. First, it took an inordinately long time for police to release key evidence - namely Barkus’s blood alcohol level - and bring charges in the case, which involved a high-speed crash into the shoreline and counted U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg among the injured.

Then all three District Judges in Flathead County recused themselves from the case on the grounds that they had worked with Barkus on legislation. A Judge from Livingston was moved aside at the request of prosecutors, and a Judge from Lake County is now being replaced at the request of the defense. Barkus has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney says he’ll challenge the blood-alcohol test, which prosectors say showed Barkus to be at twice the legal limit.

It’s easy to see why judges would view the case as the worst kind of lose-lose proposition. Come down hard on Barkus, and his influential friends (who might be your friends too) will hate you for it. Go easy, and your neighbors (and the voters) will hate you for it. 

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