A Gentleman's Guide to the Frontier [SIGNED COPY, FIRST PRINTING]

Both recovering from loss, two California men, Marsh and Reg, seek comfort as they explore unfamiliar trails in a tableau that blends the comedy of the new American West with the sacred myths of old frontier

An unlikely duo search for new beginnings and the real America in Meschery's ( In A High Place ) unconventional road novel. One is 50ish Andrew Marsh, devastated by his wife's death from cancer. The other, octogenarian Reginald Vickers, who has just lost a son to cancer, is prone to eloquent reminiscences of his father, Algernon, hero of an all-black cavalry regiment in the U.S. government's wars against the Indians. Roaming in a trailer from California to Wyoming, the twosome have adventures and pick up assorted roadies. Eventually they are joined by Marsh's frantic daughter-in-law, fresh from a split-up with his lawyer son. Meanwhile, Vickers spins yarns about Algie, born on a slave ship in 1860, a contemporary of General George Custer--tales whose accuracy Marsh checks out through local archives or conversations with descendants of people who knew the old soldier. It's an inspired idea for a novel, but it doesn't come off, partly because of Meschery's digressive narrative style, partly because she doesn't make us care deeply enough about the characters.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Marsh's life has centered around his wife and his cancer for years, when he suddenly takes two trips: just before her death he sails solo to Hawaii; just after, he roams the inland with Reg, aging father of another cancer victim. Although the earlier passages are the most affecting, the second journey--where the two face the "frontiers" of other cultures, of grief and loss--occupies most of the book. A shifting cast of retired singles in RVs, a welfare family, modern Indians, German and black Kansans, and Marsh's own daughter-in-law accompany them, united as audience to Reg's immigrant father's journal ("A Gentleman's Guide"). Although the rambling is eventually wearying for reader as well as characters, the book is reminiscent of Walker Percy's stories. Like her character Reg, Meschery has the sure hand of a wonderful storyteller.
- Molly McCluer, Alameda Cty. Law Lib., Oakland
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.