Prairie Nocturne
By Ivan Doig
(Scribner, Paperback, 9780743201360, 384pp.)
Publication Date: May 3, 2005
Other Editions of This Title: Hardcover
Categories: Historical - General
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Prairie Nocturne is the epic saga of two former lovers sired in the pages of Ivan Doig's acclaimed Montana Trilogy. Susan Duff -- the bossy, indomitable schoolgirl with a silver voice from Dancing at the Rascal Fair-- has reached middle age alone, teaching voice lessons to the progeny of Helena's high society. Wesley Williamson, young married heir to the Double W cattle empire, has been forced out of a political career as a result of his affair with Susan having become known. Years later, Wes and Susan have reunited to share in an extraordinary goal: launching the singing career of Monty Rathbun--a man on the wrong side of the racial divide. In this triumph of sure-footed storytelling, motives and fates dangerously entangle.
Set in Montana, France, Scotland, and New York during the Harlem Renaissance, Prairie Nocturne is a deeply longitudinal novel that raises everlasting questions of allegiance, the grip of the past, and the cost of passion.
Ivan Doig grew up in a family of Montana ranch hands during the 1940s and '50s. The author of ten books, including the acclaimed novels that make up the Montana Trilogy -- -English Creek, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, and Ride with Me, Mariah Montana- -- he lives with his wife in Seattle. Visit the author's website at www.ivandoig.com.
"Ivan Doig never disappoints those who love good writing, and Prairie Nocturne is Doig at his best."
--Tony Hillerman, author of The Wailing Wind and The Sinister Pig
"One of [Doig's] most ambitious projects yet with its complexity of social and cultural issues nestled in the deceptive serenity of the American West."
--Jennie A. Camp, Rocky Mountain News
"Ivan Doig has staked a claim as one of Montana's essential literary witnesses."
--Grace Lichtenstein, The Washington Post
"The West's pre-eminent literary novelist...Doig's characters, new and old, are unforgettable...they are becoming a part of the American mindscape."
-- Ron Franscell, The Denver Post
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