The Trackers
A Novel
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
From the New York Times bestselling author of Cold Mountain and Varina, a stunning new novel that paints a vivid portrait of life in the Great Depression
Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office.
A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations, but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives.
One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road with a mission of tracking her down. Journeying from ramshackle Hoovervilles to San Francisco nightclubs to the swamps of Florida, Val's search for Eve narrows, and he soon turns up secrets that could spark formidable changes for all of them.
In The Trackers, singular American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears uncanny resemblance to our own. With the keen perceptions of humanity and transcendent storytelling that have made him beloved for decades, Frazier has created a powerful and timeless new classic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The diverting if muddled latest from Frazier (Cold Mountain) blends a Depression-era travelogue with a noirish star-crossed love story involving an artist and a Wyoming rancher's wife. In 1937, earnest young artist Val Welch arrives in remote Dawes, Wyo., on the WPA payroll, to paint a mural on the wall of the local post office. He's taken in by wealthy rancher John Long and his wife, Eve, who has recently settled down after years roaming the country as a hobo and later as a nightclub singer, and whose beauty captures Val's heart. But Eve, feeling trapped by her cosseted new life, soon takes off, and John sends lovelorn Val on a cross-country journey to find her, trailed by another man who may or may not be Eve's first husband. Frazier is a gifted stylist, and his gritty portrait of America in the depths of the Depression rings true, as do the character details—a razor-wielding villain adds to the danger around femme fatale Eve. Unfortunately, the mélange of genres and a curious lack of romantic chemistry between Val and Eve (Frazier never establishes what Val sees in Eve besides her looks) drains the emotional power. There's fun to be had, but it's not Frazier's best.
