'Cold Mountain' writer goes from Civil War to Great Depression in new book

Asheville native Charles Frazier burst on the scene in 1997 with his debut novel, "Cold Mountain," retelling Homer's "Odyssey" as the epic tale of a Civil War soldier trying to return home to western North Carolina as the Confederacy collapsed.

"Cold Mountain" was a New York Times best seller, won the National Book Award and was made into both a 2003 motion picture and an opera.

For his latest novel, Frazier returns to the past again, this time to America's Great Depression. Once again, a hero goes on a long journey.

In 1937, Val Welch, a Southerner with Old Blood and no money, heads for the tiny town of Dawes, Wyoming, hired by the WPA to paint a mural in the local post office.

His boss arranges for him to board with friends: a wealthy rancher named Long and his much younger wife, Eve. They're a fascinating pair.

Originally a New Englander, Long served as an Army sniper in World War II, chalking up hundreds of kills. After the war, he lingered in Paris, collecting art (his family had money). Now, he owns the equivalent of a major gallery.

More: Debut novel by Wilmington native set in the smart, unstable world of a tony prep school

Long dabbles in Wyoming politics, jockeying for a U.S. Senate seat. He's helped by Eve, a former singer in cowboy swing bands who helps charm the local politicians with her looks and earthy humor.

Meanwhile, Welch gets to know Faro, Long's ranch foreman. An old cowhand with an enormous, bushy mustache, Farco is a tamer of horses, He's gentle with animals, much less so with drunk, pushy cowboys. Legend has it he rode with Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett.

Then things come to a head. One day Eve runs off, and she takes one of Long's Renoirs with her. Since Welch knows something about art, Long sends him off to track her down and, at least, to get the painting back.

It's a hard trail, leading through hobo jungles, Sam Space's San Francisco, Seattle and on to the swamps of central Florida. Along the way, a lot of secrets are dug up.

Before "Cold Mountain," Frazier began as a poet, and he still writes with a poet's precision, with swift, sure sketches of background and rich portraits with a sharp ear for dialogue.

There's a classical allusion again: One source of "The Trackers" is a fragmentary play by Sophocles, only discovered in the 1800s, which involves hunting for the rustled cattle of Apollo.

Frazier also evokes the literature and legend of the American West. (Like Owen Wister's hero, Val is a Virginian.) The subtest of much of the book is a meditation on the violent roots of the American frontier; after all, where would a classic Western be without a gunfight?

"The Trackers" will remind many readers of the fiction of Jim Harrison ("Legends of the Fall") and of Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy.

Book review

The Trackers

By Charles Frazier

Ecco, $30.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: The Trackers from NC author Charles Frazier heads to Great Depression