The high winds today are making me edgy. I don’t have any specific anxiety about winds and storms, it’s just that my energy changes with the weather sometimes. I like to think it’s my witchy nature vibrating in tune with the seasons, but it might just be the rattling of windows and waving of branches making it hard to concentrate. Whatever the reason, I’m finding it hard to settle down and write. It’s fitting weather, though, for writing about a book largely set in the windswept wilderness of Idaho and Colorado.

The main thing I want to write is a small review of Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. A fairly famous and well-regarded novel about the development of the western U.S., this was part of the “to read” pile I resolved to get through this year. The historical parts are based on the letters and life of Mary Hallock Foote, a writer and illustrator who followed her engineer husband out west. Angle of Repose‘s main character, Susan Burling Ward, is also a writer and illustrator and her life events mirror Foote’s, but instead of writing a straightforward biography Stegner uses these real facts as a jumping off point for fictional drama and exploration.

I quite liked this book, and since it’s based so heavily on a woman’s description of her own life (it quotes her actual letters extensively) it’s better than most male-written novels at truly exploring a woman’s point of view. I found the book’s ending a bit disappointing–too simplistic and almost rushed in the way it wrapped things up–but I really enjoyed this book. Susan and her husband’s ups and downs felt real, and the tension between windswept wilderness and the attempts to get rich taming it were compelling.

The use of Foote’s letters in the novel is controversial, apparently. It’s always clear in the text when we’re reading “Susan’s” letters but there aren’t any footnotes making it clear Stegner is quoting Mary Foote’s actual letters. Stegner had permission from one of Foote’s relatives to use the letters, which had been donated to the Stanford Library, in any way he saw fit. The issue seems that other family members disagreed with this and were expecting more of a faithful biography of their ancestor. If I’m understanding the situation right, I wouldn’t consider his use actual plagiarism, but it’s unfortunate that the family wasn’t happy with Stegner’s work.

It seems the family member Stegner talked with hoped the novel would reignite interest in Mary Hallock Foote, which it did. I hope that pleased the rest of the family, at least.

With the wind still blowing and chores to be done, that’s all I have in me today. Hopefully next week will bring calm weather and a suitably cozy update. Until then, I hope you’re all well and happy. –Corvis