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'From This Valley' an enjoyable ride through a slice of Western Canadian history

From This Valley, the first novel by The Pas author Murray Harvey, not only takes you on a journey with the main character but also through some of the history of Western Canada and the United States, from Custer's last stand to the Riel rebellion wi
From this valley by Murray Harvey

From This Valley, the first novel by The Pas author Murray Harvey, not only takes you on a journey with the main character but also through some of the history of Western Canada and the United States, from Custer's last stand to the Riel rebellion with several other stops along the way.

Following the adventures of Ryan Meade, a U.S. army deserter who makes his way north into Canada after witnessing the slaughter of a Native American village as a member of Lt.-Col. George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry regiment, From This Valley includes cameos by everyone from Sitting Bull and legendary North West Mounted Police officer Sam Steele to "Buffalo Bill" Cody and the son of Charles Dickens. It touches upon historical events and themes ranging from slavery and the American Civil War to the fur trade, mistreatment of First Nations and Métis people and the efforts of the Mounties to maintain law and order in the Canadian west and ensure that the American empire didn't expand further north.

Occasions on which it is best to suspend your disbelief and just sit back to enjoy the ride include the climax, when a most unlikely encounter at Northern Manitoba's Cedar Lake ensures that almost all of the main characters end up happy at the novel's conclusion.

Inspired by the somewhat murky origin story of Harvey's great-grandfather, who lived in the Red River settlement in the 1870s and was believed by the family to have been American despite being identified as from Upper Canada in a census, From This Valley joins Meade's journey when he is a young man engaging in taboo behaviour with a servant at his father's home in Boston, which results in him being disowned and sent to join the Union army. Following the Civil War, Meade moves west to serve in the Indian Wars and then under Custer at the Battle of Washita River and beyond, before deserting when he hears that more campaigns against Native Americans are planned, thus sparing him the fate of meeting his death with the famous commander at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Fate plays a big role in Harvey's novel, with Meade meeting and later marrying a woman he saved from a fellow soldier at Washita River when she was a young girl, and then – following her death – another woman that he first encounters in a dream. While coincidences like these and the aforementioned one at the conclusion somewhat undermine the believability of Harvey's tale, it is entirely possible to overlook them and enjoy his highly readable if sometimes overly expository prose as it weaves a tale that includes shootings, lynchings, disease, drinking, drugs and even a fair bit of tastefully understated sex between Meade and the various women in his life. Harvey paints a good picture of frontier Canada at a time of great change not long after the birth of the nation and offers up sufficient material to argue against the commonly held perception that Canada's history is dull, as vanilla and bland as the modern-day idea of Canadians being nicer versions of Americans.

At just under 300 pages, From This Valley is an easy-reading tale that meanders through familiar territory including Norway House, Manitoba's major lakes and rivers and even Winnipeg during its early years. The author isn't one to let the historical context stand in the way of the story, however, and, at its heart, From This Valley is just a good old-fashioned retelling of a classic North American staple, a hero's journey to happiness through a not-yet-tamed and potentially forbidding landscape where survival depends upon absorbing the lessons taught by the those who've been there longer and, of course, a little bit of luck.

Murray Harvey's From This Valley is published by Friesen Press and is available to borrow from the Thompson Public Library. Find out more about the novel at the author's website www.murrayharvey.com.

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