How does montana 1948 end

LW: Nope, I have two younger sisters. LW: I imagined that he killed her with some kind of lethal injection. Q: Why did Frank kill himself? LW: Well, this is a tough one for me. I imagined that Frank was looking to get out of a bad situation, to save himself the humiliation and shame that could come from a public trial or revelation of the accusations against him even if it's likely that he wouldn't have been convicted.

By killing himself--escaping, so to speak--he could also spare the family and its reputation. Watson employs a classic style. He sets the stage at the beginning, then launches into the story. He induces the reader to proceed by providing a new morsel of information that piques curiosity. I set out to read a chapter or two, and before I knew it, I had read the entire book.

Montana feels evergreen. It is delivered with lucidity, brevity, and humanity. It is both subtle and complex, infused with layers of meaning. It was a delight to read such a masterfully crafted work. I am adding it to my favorites, and certain it will make my top ten for the year. View all 14 comments. May 10, Michael rated it really liked it Recommended to Michael by: Richard. Shelves: montana , native-american , coming-of-age , fiction , historical-fiction , rural-life.

This novella wonderfully captures a great sense of place of growing up in a small prairie town in Montana and the loss of innocence by a boy experiencing the events and consequences of a case of abuse within his own family. She love to laugh and talk, and she was a great tease, specializing in outrageous lies about everything from strange animal behavior to bloody murders.

He also finds himself wishing his mother was happier with the more cultured life she aspired to back in North Dakota where she came from. His love of Marie is pure, but tainted as a source of early romantic visions and occasional shameful, prurient thoughts.

He is struggling to make sense of why some people in town and in his family hold Indians in such low esteem. The events that rip his family apart develops as a slow building of knowledge that he has to glean by sneaking around to overhead conversations. The adults try to divert his from gaining knowledge about what is going on. At a certain point, David goes to the woods to shoot his gun and ends up carelessly killing a magpie.

That is an almost universal experience of rural kids. Though a short book, this story is a gem that will stay in my mind for a long time. Aug 10, Jacob Appel rated it it was amazing. Montana is a delightful yet unsettling gem, more a novella than a novel, that grapples with family relationships, the mistreatment of Native Americans, and sexual abuse, but is primarily an insightful coming-of-age story.

As works of literary fiction go, Watson's narrative is as technically precise as a Mozart symphony: the voice is pitch-perfect, the pacing masterful, the characters drawn to perfection. Its easy to anticipate the major plot developments, particularly the ending, but this d Montana is a delightful yet unsettling gem, more a novella than a novel, that grapples with family relationships, the mistreatment of Native Americans, and sexual abuse, but is primarily an insightful coming-of-age story.

Its easy to anticipate the major plot developments, particularly the ending, but this does not take away from the mastery of the world as a whole -- any more than being able to anticipate the end of "To Kill a Mockingbird" undermines the pleasure of the read. I also found Watson to be one of those rare writers William Styron comes to mind as another who can write with convincing and moving authenticity about culture other than his own. A lovely work, not to be missed. View 2 comments.

Aug 10, Algernon Darth Anyan rated it it was amazing Shelves: I find history endlessly amusing, knowing, as I do, that the record of any human community might omit stories of sexual abuse, murder, suicide A white frame house on a quiet street. He presents us with a page of personal history that is at the same time a fresco of the times and of the place, capturing the atitudes, the fears, the longings and the hatreds of the people of Montana in , experiencing both the exhilaration of the end of a world war and the incertitudes about what the peace will bring.

As he points out in the opening quote, this here is not the official state history, but the hidden, intimate and painful sort of events that reveal the darker shades of the human heart, side by side with the examples of inner strength and ingrained sense of right and wrong that help people deal with tragedy and loss.

The easiest comparison I could make to describe the feel of the novel for me is To Kill A Mockinbird. In support of my argument I present to the jury the innocent young narrator, the father figure who works in the justice system, the isolated, traditional community, the racial tensions revealed by the death of a Native American young woman, the push from the powers that be to deny and to hide the facts of the case.

For my own shelving, the story belongs to a larger category of books narrated by children, describing the loss of innocence in beautiful, evocative prose, with nostalgic forays into an idyllic landscape from which they are exiled after taking a bite from the tree of knowledge — knowledge that the grown-ups are not benevolent and godlike, but weak and scared and sometimes cruel and deceitful.

Coming back to the events that precipitate the passage of David into the adult world, I find that I cannot separate them from the location and the moment in time they represent. So the chosen title is apt and descriptive of the vast empty spaces and of the extreme climate that in turn mold the temperament of the inhabitants.

Tensions between open range ranchers and farmers, between settlers and Native Americans relocated to rezervations in the most arid corners of the state are aggravated by poor crops and lack of jobs. In my father was serving his second term as sheriff of Mercer County, Montana.

We lived in Bentrock, the county seat and the only town of any size in the region. In its population was less than two thousand people. Wes missed the war due to a lame leg from a childhood accident, and lived for a long time in the shadow of his older brother Frank, a star athlete and a war hero. Frank is a doctor in town, while Wesley gives up on a law career in order to please his authorian father. Both brothers are married, Wesley to a hard-working, quiet tempered and religiously devout woman, Frank to beauty queen from down South.

Life was simply too hard, and so much of your attention and energy went into keeping not only yourself but also your family, your crops and your cattle alive, that nothing was left over for raising hell or making trouble.

This peace is threatened when Marie Little Soldier, a young Sioux woman who helps in his household and watches over David when his parents are at work, dies in suspicious circumstances. David is a witness to the events right from the start, eavesdropping and silently spying on his elders, unwittingly discovering that his mother, father, uncle and grandfather are all somehow involved in the drama.

First of all, there is the awareness of death, ready to pounce indiscriminately on the innocent and guiltless. Secondly, there is the revelation of the fallible nature of Adults, of the dark places in their souls and the weaknesses of spirit that they normally hide from the world at large.

Davd himself discovers that he can be a killer, with a hunting rifle he receives from his grandfather: I shot a magpie out of a pinon tree.

I felt the way I did when I woke from an especially disturbing and powerful dream. David must cope with this new dangerous and cruel environment, learn to accept responsibility for his actions, stand by his parents even as their world is crumbling down over their heads. I gave the highest rating for this rather short novel in part for the subject matter, but mostly for the candid, elegant and emotionally charged prose of Larry Watson. Another reason to cherish and probably revisit the story in the future is the character of David, a bright kid with a passion for outdoor living, for getting out of the city, even if it is only a small town like Bentrock, to fill his eyes and soul with the quiet and peace of nature.

I recognized my own passion for faraway places away from civilization, from noise and pollution and even from people, for a while: Wildness meant, to me, getting out of town and into the country. Out of town I could simply be, I could feel my self, firm and calm and unmalleable as I could not when I was in school or in any of the usual human communities that seemed to weaken and scatter me. David probably still thinks fondly his native Montana, even with the tragedy of Marie still fresh in his memory decades after the events.

It would be interesting to find out if Larry Watson has written another novel as good as this one. View all 7 comments. Aug 14, John Winston rated it liked it. This is a solid story with solid writing, tension, suspense, drama, characterization, and good dialogue and descriptions. Then why 3 stars which I rarely give? Well, The author went for a choice here in point of view that compromised the story. I wanted to see the conflict in the room between the Native Am This is a solid story with solid writing, tension, suspense, drama, characterization, and good dialogue and descriptions.

I wanted to hear the story that Marie told Wesley Hayden and experience his reaction. I wanted to be a part the initial confrontation between the brothers and the exchanges that followed. These scenarios are the conflict-laden scenes writers usually relish writing, although they may not necessarily be easy to write, but we get none of this. It was a short easy read, but I felt like the story was sacrifice for technique. Sometimes just tell the story. Perhaps not enough gets said at least not 4.

And not just because of the shared Montana setting. Emotions are rendered in lovely passages and serious themes arise, though the ideas behind them are never belabored. The story is immediate and moves swiftly, though I slowed down during the epilogue, the writing of which elevates the work. If you listen, you can hear your books talking to each other. View all 22 comments. I started this book almost eight months ago; I also left this book mid-chapter almost eight months ago. Perhaps I saw where the story was going and could not get myself to go there with it; perhaps I just saw some shiny object and raced after it.

Both scenarios are very plausible. Anyways, I decided to pick the book back up today and finished the last seventy or so pages that I previously abandoned. And let me say that I am so lucky to I started this book almost eight months ago; I also left this book mid-chapter almost eight months ago.

And let me say that I am so lucky to have gone back and finished this book. I wish I could go back in time and tell the Gavin of eight months ago to proceed with the story, regardless of what I was feeling and thinking at the time.

Alas, that cannot be done. So, the story. But, as we all know, family comes in many forms. For the characters of MONTANA family is centered on the Hayden clan, from the fictitious town of Bentrock, where grandfather was the sheriff, and where father Wes is currently the sheriff.

The family also contains a mix of Blackfeet Indians, Uncle Frank, who is the local doctor, and Len, who is the deputy sheriff. As the title suggests, the time is ; a time when the wounds of war were still fresh, still on the minds of adults and children alike. Wes is a noble man, full of wisdom, and lives daily with the knowledge that he was unable to fight in the war that made his brother, Frank, a war hero to the small community.

For the most part, Bentrock is a quite place—mischievous kids, some ruckus on the nearby reservation, but reserved, well-mannered. But then something comes to light. And this something tests the bonds of the Hayden clan. You see, Wes has found out something horrible that his brother did…. And when he is put to the test of being a brother or a sheriff, he chooses to be a sheriff, much to the chagrin and frustration of his own father.

This is where Larry Watson, author, shines in his storytelling. Written in a simplistic format—memories being retold through the prism of age—and language that is layered but accessible, Watson controls the feelings of the reader.

At times I wanted to kill some of the characters myself; other times, I was befuddled or amused or just plain sad at what was transpiring on the pages.

For an author to get me to feel all these emotions within such a slim novel pages is a remarkable feat. View all 4 comments. This one is told by something David "Davey" Hayden, who tells us of an incident in the summer of when he was twelve that changed the course of many lives.

Lots of layers of interest in this short pp novel. A beautifully written portrayal of how standing up for what's right can have far-reaching, unexpected and often unintended consequences.

Update: I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this book reminded me of another "looking back on life" gem, So Long, See You Tomorrow. A sort of buddy read. View all 9 comments. Oct 16, Tooter rated it it was amazing. Jan 28, David rated it it was amazing. This was a re-read of another title that I would call a perfect little book. Over the years I have recommended Montana, so many times to readers that I felt the need to go back and give it another read, just to make sure I still knew what I was talking about.

The novella is that perfect example of a suspenseful literary title, and the perfect prescription for literary readers grown bored with navel-gazing, and crime readers grown weary of the formulaic nature that even the best myster This was a re-read of another title that I would call a perfect little book.

The novella is that perfect example of a suspenseful literary title, and the perfect prescription for literary readers grown bored with navel-gazing, and crime readers grown weary of the formulaic nature that even the best mystery series can be prone to.

Soon a shameful secret is revealed, and sets in motion an unavoidable conflict between the two men, with unforeseen consequences. Yes, I agree. I wish I hadn't taken so long in starting this book which has been malingering on my TBR list for awhile upon a family recommendation.

Riveting story, austere prose, and bald-faced observances all make the revelation of hypocrisy, prejudice, and complicity by inaction horrifyingly main street. Oct 05, J. Grice rated it liked it Shelves: fiction. I liked listening to the audio book version of this novel. Sep 20, Jill rated it it was amazing Shelves: all-time-favorites.

In the very best of these stories, a young boy or girl is forced to witness the ugliness of society and then must move forward — suddenly older, wiser and sobered. And so it is here with Montana , an absolutely breathtaking and spare novel, with images so searing that the line between reality and fiction was totally blurred.

The aftermath sets brother against brother, son against father, and the plainspoken townspeople against the voiceless Indians. I cannot give enough accolades for this book. There is not one single excess word; each word reflects the purity of prose that is the mark of only the finest writers. Yet in a mere pages, Larry Watson sets up a situation of such moral complexity — and introduces characters that are so real, vibrant and flawed — that it is literally impossible to read the book in more than one sitting.

This superbly rendered novel has all the markings of a classic. It is a near-perfect book. What a terrific western novel! This is a very fast read, not because it is less than pages, but because the flow is excellent! The writing is very simple and direct. Although the topic sexual abuse is not an easy one, I thought that the story was very engaging and well developed.

I love when a book captivates me in a way that makes me totally oblivious of time and space. It was awarded the Milkw What a terrific western novel! It was awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize works of high literary quality that embody humane values and contribute to cultural understanding. The story is not told through the eyes of a boy, as most of the readers seems to think, but by a man remembering those horrible events that took place when he was 12 years old and that was devastating to his family and town.

I really did not want to put this book down. I had to finish it during my lunch break. But I really wished this book was longer. Thanks to David Putnam for recommending this great read. View 1 comment. P1: Tyler's distortion of memories is largely detrimental and therefore harmful because they are tainted with violence and thus exacerbate his suffering.

P2: However, Kirsten uses this as a coping mechanism, enabling her to move forward from the trauma associated with the collapse of society and therefore the distortion of memories is necessary in her case. P3: Further, Clark's rose-tinted view of the past world allows him to come to terms with the collapse of society and again is beneficial.

While Emily St. John Mandel's post-apocalyptic novel Station Eleven illustrates the harm which can be associated with the distortion of memories, it ultimately expounds on the benefits which can be garnered by those who alter their perceptions of reality given how this can serve as an invaluable coping mechanism to process trauma. The non-linear structure of her novel, achieved through the interweaving of pre- and post-lapsarian scenes 1 , allows her to sculpt parallels between her characters who are able to accurately recall both the positives and the negatives of the 'modern world'.

She thus advocates that whilst the distortion of memories can perpetuate and enable violence, it can alternatively result in tangible benefits when utilised in a positive manner, thus exposing Mandel's credence in how this can actually serve to benefit individuals and entire communities as a whole.

Annotations 1 It is really useful to show an understanding of how the novel has been constructed and why - so through Station Eleven not following a traditional model of time, this allows Mandel to really contrast between her characters - namely Kirsten and Tyler. Mandel expounds 2 how the distortion of memories can ultimately exacerbate the suffering experienced by vast sectors of the community, arguing that it is this which actively perpetuates harm due to the inability of humans to adequately process trauma, particularly trauma which stems from one's childhood given the loss of innocence which accompanies this.

Indeed, Tyler, who was characterised as a young boy during the 'neutron bomb' of the Georgia Flu and the subsequent destruction of civilisation 'had the misfortune of remembering everything', ultimately resulting in dire consequences for the majority of characters who interact with him.

This ultimately results in significant consequences, thus allowing her to denounce how the distortion of memories with Tyler's recollections largely being defined by extreme violence and gore can be extremely harmful. Indeed, 'ruling with a combination of charisma, violence and cherry-picked verses from the Book of Revelations', Tyler damages the overwhelming majority of people he comes into contact with, from having numerous 'child brides' to rendering the town of St.

Deborah by the Water 'unsafe' to his cult containing only a few 'true believers', 3 serving as the embodiment of humanity's insatiable lust for power.

Through his reciting of only phrases from the Book of Revelations, labelled the most exclusionary and brutal book of the New Testament 4 , Mandel condemns the selectivity of Tyler's beliefs, advocating that his internalisation of only the most harmful and violent phrases exemplifies the lack of benefits associated with violently distorting memories given the inability of humans to process such immense trauma and suffering. Whilst Mandel explains Tyler's actions as stemming from the violence underpinning his childhood, particularly given that he was raised by a 'lunatic' whom others deemed 'unsaveable', she dispels the notion that this excuses them, arguing the degree of hardships inflicted by Tyler himself are unjustifiable, thus further exposing her credence in the necessity of being able to forget harmful memories in order to overcome them.

Ultimately, through her portrayal of Tyler's inability to forget his childhood as 'a boy adrift on the road', Mandel reveals the potential for harm to be imposed due to the distortion of memories so that they are marked by violence, arguing that this can indeed be overwhelmingly dangerous. However, Mandel also displays a belief in the positives which can be gleaned by those who inherently distort their memories as a mechanism to process traumatic times in their lives, arguing this can provoke significant, tangible benefits.

Conveyed through the non-linear structure of her novel, Mandel sculpts parallels between Tyler and Kristen given their similar ages and respective connections to protagonist Arthur through him serving as their father and father figure respectively, with the significant difference being that only the latter was able to forget 'the year [she] spent on the road…the worst of it' 5. As such, only Kirsten is able to adequately move on from this extremely traumatic period in her life, exemplifying Mandel's credence in how the distortion of memories can truly serve as an invaluable coping mechanism allowing individuals to overcome significant harm, with Kirsten experiencing a large degree of post-lapsarian fulfilment given her 'friendships' with her fellow members of the Travelling Symphony, her 'only home'.

Despite Kirsten's past being underpinned by significant violence, with her having three 'knife tattoos' to commemorate those she has had to kill in order to survive, her continued ability to adapt her memories into less traumatic ones is applauded, with her murders having been portrayed as occurring 'slowly…sound drained from the earth' as a way for her to process 'these men [which she] will carry with [her] for the rest of [her] life', thereby exposing Mandel's credence in the necessity of being able to overcome trauma through distorting memories.

As such, she ironically went on to perform Romeo and Juliet following one such event which, given Mandel's depiction of the unparalleled significance of artistic forms of expressionism facilitating human wellbeing as Kirsten 'never feels more alive' than when she performs, exposes Mandel's illumination of how altering false realities 6 can ultimately provoke tangible benefits given Kirsten's ability to simply move on despite the traumatising nature of the truth.

Ultimately, through the juxtaposition between Tyler and Kirstens' distortion 7 of memories, Mandel expounds how distorting memories can wield both consequences and benefits, with the latter occurring when employed subconsciously by individuals to process harmful memories. Annotations 5 It is quite sophisticated to go back to the construction of the novel throughout the essay as opposed to just briefly mentioning it in the introduction!

This shows you truly understand why the author structured the novel the way she did, which in this case is to highlight the similarities and differences between Kristen and Tyler. We are showing that our argument is well-structured and follows logical patterns. Furthermore, Mandel similarly explores the benefits of utilising the distortion of memories as a coping mechanism and how, especially when this is done through the lens of nostalgia, it can facilitate unprecedented satisfaction.

Indeed, Clark is depicted to be the literal embodiment of post-lapsarian fulfilment 8 given his ability to, albeit through rose-tinted glasses, appreciate the 'taken-for-granted miracles' of the 'former world' through his position as the 'Curator' at the 'Museum of Civilisation'. Subsequently, he serves to expose Mandel's belief in the benefits of altering one's recollections in an overwhelmingly positive manner.

As such, Clark 'spend[s] more time in the past…letting his memories overtake him' as he maintains integral cultural artefacts which 'had no practical use but that people wanted to preserve'. This ultimately eventuates into a significant degree of fulfilment for not only Clark himself, but also the other residents of the Severn City Airport, the children of whom 'like all educated children everywhere…. In doing so Mandel highlights her belief regarding the significance underpinning the benefits which can be gained from those whose memories are distorted to cope with losses in a positive manner, arguing this can enable a substantial increase in wellbeing.

This is exacerbated through the juxtaposition in Clark's pre- and post-lapsarian fulfilment, for in the former he is denigrated as merely an unhappy 'minimally present Overall, through her portrayal of Clark's satisfaction despite his elderly status and the loss of everyone dear to him, Mandel exposes her belief in the value of distorting one's memories in an overwhelmingly positive manner, advocating this can facilitate the forming of one's intrinsic purpose and thus fulfilment.

Annotations 8 You want to show how characters correlate to specific themes, and if one embodies a particular idea, then you should clearly state that! It shows examiners you really know your stuff. See this blog for more about the themes and characters in Station Eleven.

Ultimately, Emily St. Whilst she cautions her audience against the dangers of adhering to selective recollections, she simultaneously presents the benefits which can be garnered from this, alongside the ability to liberate oneself from such harmful memories.

Your distinctive style of writing and the concepts you present will allow you to stand out amongst your peers and thus, will ensure you reach your optimum standard of work. In order to expand your knowledge of a certain text, explore articles and videos that present alternate views.

This allows you to not only expand the depth of your ideas but additionally, the opportunity to find opinions that you relate to or those that interest you. Although it may be difficult to decipher the motives behind characters or the emotions they are feeling at a certain point in the text, insight into the minds of characters provides you with the opportunity to move beyond a black or white perception of them.

You may relate to subjects within a text such as grief or betrayal and therefore, when you explore the text focusing on these themes, your writing will reflect your beliefs in an individual way that separates your ideas from your cohorts. Whilst language analysis relies on presenting an objective essay on the intention of the author, your voice will be shown more clearly by your chosen techniques and analysis.

So previously I've done a video where I talked about how to write a thousand word, a thousand, a thousand-worded essay, and one hour. And so that segues into this particular video where I'm talking about writing three essays in three hours.

So if you haven't watched that video, then I'll pop it up in the comment. I'll pop it up in the card up above. I would recommend you go watch that first before you watch this, because pretty much all of the concepts that I talk about in that video, uh, I just expected details that you should know for this video. So instead of actually breaking down the essays as I did in the previous video, what I'm going to do this time is talk more so about, you know, how to actually write three essays in three hours and just not get burnt out and not die, basically.

So I've got a few tips for you guys, but I'll keep this short. First thing is that yes, you do want to practice at least one time writing three essays in three hours. And the reason why I say that is because inevitably there will come times where one essay will kind of overlap into another hour. And you just want to ensure that you can know how to handle those situations when we're practicing in one hour blocks.

I think it's fantastic to make sure that we can do that, but then kind of like three hours and three essays is another ballgame altogether. So I would recommend at least practicing once sitting down somewhere and just smashing out the three hours worth of work, just so that you know exactly what it's going to feel like when you go into the exam. Now, most schools will actually offer a, like a mock exam for you to do so that literally could be your one practice that you just need.

But if you were like me, you might want to do it twice. So in your own time, kind of print off your own exam paper and go ahead and just set aside three hours and just do it that way. The second thing is I heavily emphasized doing reading time. So reading time is pretty much your mental thinking game going strong.

And this is where a lot of your pre-work will be done before we actually go into the essays themselves. So make sure you practice reading time. It's 15 minutes before the actual exam, but in that 15 minutes, you can plan three of your essays and you can look up in your dictionary, any key words that you might want to define, or you could even look up the dictionary and try to find synonyms for particular keywords. So what I mean by that is when you open up a dictionary and you look up that word inside the dictionary, often the definition for it will have synonyms for it.

So that's like my little hack that I had when I was at school. And then the last thing I would say is just make sure you know what to do if you go over time.

So, like I mentioned before, there may be situations where, you know, worst case scenario, you don't finish your essay in time. And that could be because of many reasons. But first thing for you to remember is if you're running over time, sacrifice your conclusion first, do not sacrifice your third body paragraph. I think mostly what happens is students will kind of be somewhere in the third body paragraph for that essay, but rather than skipping that and just do it a little bit of a mess to finish it up and then going into the conclusion, finish off your third body paragraph.

And then just forget about the conclusion. The reason why I say that is because a conclusion is basically just the summary of what your entire essay is about. It's not really supposed to be, to add in any new information where as your third body paragraph. You're still explaining your ideas.

You're still elaborating and discussing the prompt itself. So that is way more important to get you the marks that you need than a conclusion. The next thing I would do if you're running behind is save a proofreading until very last. So in the last video I talked about doing proofreading last five minutes of every essay.

But if you do not have time for that later, leave all your proofreading until the very end and, and you might find that you only have five minutes, it's true proofread all of your essays, but at least you kind of have that reassurance was that you made yourself more time to write beforehand.

And so if you literally find yourself writing right up until the last minute and you can't perforate fine sacrifice that too. You still have at least half a paragraph to go, but you know, the first hour is over and you need to move onto your second essay.

I feel like you can either approach this two ways. The first way is just finish it off, but then move on to the next one as quick as possible. And obviously your hope there is that you will finish the second essay in time within that hour. So that by the time you get to your thing, essay, you are on track again. But in the other alternative that you could do, and probably one that I via towards a little bit more is just stop your third paragraph.

You still have maybe five more sentences you still want to write, but just move onto your next one. I think that's kind of important because what happens is once we start running into the next hour, you will find that with your first essay, you'll run maybe five minutes into your second hour, but then you might find that you run 10 minutes into the third hour with your second essay leaving only 15 minutes to finish your third essay.

And that might not be like what you want. And you might know that you just won't be able to achieve that because the third essay is maybe the hardest one that you left to last. And that's the one that usually takes you the longest. So yeah, like these are just thoughts and considerations for you guys to take away with whatever you guys do. I think just be strategic. Think about these things beforehand, because they are things that could trip you up when you are in the exam, you're stressed, you're anxious, you're under time pressure and you just need to get things done.