FICTION

In Calamity's Wake

by Natalee Caple
Bloomsbury USA. Oct. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9781620401859. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781620401866. F
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Categorizing her third novel (after Mackerel Sky and The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World) as "metahistoriographic fiction" and using touches of magical realism and dime novel sensationalism, Caple succeeds in spinning a wild and wooly tale of the American West in the late 1800s. Readers meet Calamity Jane's daughter, Miette, at her adoptive father's deathbed when he implores her to find her mother. Miette has never met her legendary mother and dreads the task. Alternating chapters present Miette's journey and tales from Calamity Jane's life as an army scout, sharpshooter, hard-core drinker, bear killer, and charitable soul. Spirits and ghosts appear, facts are slippery (Buffalo Bill may or may not be Miette's father), and variety in the form of poems, songs and dreams add zest to the literary mix.
VERDICT The many sides of Calamity Jane (born Martha Jane Canary) have been presented before by contemporary authors, including Larry McMurtry (Buffalo Girls) and Pete Dexter (Deadwood), but the archetype of the wild woman never dies and receives colorful treatment here. Readers looking for fresh Western fiction will be well satisfied.
Reviewed by Keddy Ann Outlaw, Houston , Sep 15, 2013
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