Burning Ground by D.A. Galloway
On a frigid New Year’s Eve in 1961, Graham Davidson just wants to join his elder brother, Frank, and skate on a frozen pond. He has to drag along little Billy per his mother’s request, but his younger brother isn’t around to inconvenience Graham for very long; he dies under the narrator’s careless watch when he falls through a hole in the ice. If that line just hit you like a ton of bricks, that was the intent, because that’s how it felt to read the scene in D.A. Galloway’s historical-fiction adventure novel Burning Ground.
Fast forward to 1965, and a slightly older but significantly guiltier version of Graham is still mourning the loss and trying to find some solace. The remaining Davidsons aren’t much help. Leroy, his father, has become a sort of beleaguered hermit, and Frank has followed suit; Helen, his mother, has thrown herself into volunteer work with a heartbreaking vengeance; Susan, his younger sister, has become the baby of the shattered family. Then, another tragedy occurs and the survivor’s guilt, plus the thorn of personal responsibility, further traumatizes Graham. Don’t get complacent, reader; a third tragedy strikes.
TRAGEDY AND TIME UNWINDING
This book has a gentle, mosaic way of meditating on time and memory, juxtaposed with the shellshock of these painful events. Here is an author who has the rare gift of manipulating the reader with tightrope precision into exactly the frame of mind for immersion in his story. But back to our protagonist, sick of his immersion in calamity, focusing on a new life and a broader perspective.
The summer of 1970 finds him between semesters at Penn State and a forestry major, working in seasonal labor. He steadily becomes enthralled by the stories of the Indigenous Crow people as told by a fellow farm worker called Redfield. Redfield isn’t perfect, but he’s the catalyst in Graham’s transformative spirit journey across the American West. Graham makes a vow and heads off to Yellowstone and into his future … or past?
While he thinks his biggest hurdle would be an off-chance encounter with a grizzly bear, little does he expect to lose consciousness while fulfilling his promise to Redfield and wake up one hundred years ago. Dazed and confused, he joins the Hayden expedition to investigate the wilderness destined to become the nation’s most famous park.
Along the way, he undergoes a crash course in survival strategies (rifles worked differently in the Civil-War era) and meets an array of eclectic characters, including the egomaniacal Lieutenant Doane, who puts his comrades in danger in more ways than one, and Rides Alone, a thoughtful Crow. Most importantly is their guide and Redfield’s half-sister named Makawee. As she shares her story, indomitable spirit, wealth of knowledge of the land, immense competence that puts the men to shame and sincerest empathy, Graham falls irretrievably in love. Naturally, this complicates his personal mission to complete his vision quest and potentially return to his proper time. If he even survives, of course. The ending is stunningly unexpected.
AS SWEEPING AS THE VAST WESTERN SKY
Science, history, myth and storytelling weave a transfixing narrative. It’s impossible to list every hidden gem within the story’s meticulous detail. Not a short or concise novel by any definition, that’s one of its strengths; brevity would negatively serve such an ambitious frontier epic.
In this multilayered book, each relationship carefully contributes to the strengths and weaknesses, and desires and insecurities, of each individual character. Racial reckoning and awakening also plays an important role, and eloquent descriptions of natural surroundings are abundant. Galloway graciously included photographs, which serve as incredible visual aides; the time period(s) are rendered with poignant nostalgia. Indeed, every detail is as impeccably placed as a Thanksgiving tablescape. Speaking of holidays and racial reckoning, Indigenous People’s Day occurred rather recently, and it’s too bad we hadn’t reviewed this book prior since it brims with valuable cultural history.
And yes, grizzly bears do play a role, because what fun would the frontier be without them?
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