The Winter Family

The Winter Family opens like a hyperkinetic Tarantino-directed Western (there's even a German character for Christoph Waltz to sink his teeth into), with blood and gore and mayhem. The setting is 1889 Oklahoma and it's obvious that an era is drawing to a close: As Augustus Winter (leader of his eponymous gang) says –

Ten years ago if the law was on you, why, you'd just run into the woods. There was always more country. Wasn't there, Freddy? You remember that feeling right after the war? Like you could just keep moving forever? Now it's just Oklahoma. And after the big land run in April, Oklahoma's not even Oklahoma anymore...We need to cash out. And this is it. Right now.

Having started with an ending, author Clifford Jackman then sends us back to the gang's origin as a small unit of Union soldiers who, while participating in Sherman's March to the Sea, extend their role as “foragers” to include rape and mutilation, the destruction of industry and agriculture, the fomenting of violence amongst freed slaves, murder (even of those within their own unit who don't go with the flow), and the spreading of general terror. Although these acts were all carried out under the direct orders of their sociopathic lieutenant Quentin Ross, it is while being waterboarded (?!) by some Confederate soldiers that Winter becomes the man – the leader – he is destined to be: All they were doing was baptizing him. Along the way they pick up a giant of a freed slave and an alcoholic Indian, and when the Civil War is finally over, officialdom denies having given this unit their orders and the gang becomes outlaws; mercenaries for hire.

What's most important about the Winter Family is that they are entirely free of ideology – they'll ride against the KKK or join them to rob a train (okay, only Winter himself actually joined that holdup, to the disgust of some of the others) – and their services are often paid for by the same “civilised” people who must officially denounce their thuggery. They are brought into the Chicago municipal election of 1872 by the Republican Party in order to prevent the Democrats from rigging yet another vote, they're used as bounty hunters in the 1880s to track down Geronimo and collect scalps along the way, and if compensated, they're not opposed to wiping out entire Indian villages that stand in the way of “progress”. The point is made repeatedly that the Winter Family is simply the flipside of the coin that represents democracy and capitalism and civilisation, and if the folks who officially run the show in America don't like what they see when they look at the Winter Family, it's because they don't like what they recognise in themselves.

In the big picture, I did enjoy this story in a guilty-pleasure-Tarantino-bloodbath-kind-of-way; I enjoyed that the Winter Family were neither heroes nor anti-heroes that we're meant to cheer for – there's never any doubt that these are bad men doing bad things – but while often subtle, the overlay of politics (like ending with a view of oil derricks pumping away inexorably into an unknown future) seems an imposition from our own time: no matter how Winter philosophises that the march of progress is “meaner than me”, I don't think I buy it as an authentic point-of-view for him. And some of the writing seems a bit clunky, with some jarring metaphors that took me out of the era:

Lukas narrowed his eyes until they were like windows in a castle through which a defender might safely fire an arrow.

He grinned a terrible grin that had nothing to do with humor or happiness. It was more like a monkey showing its teeth to a rival in a dispute over a coconut.

And there were repetitious phrases that I think could have been better edited:

He could not believe, simply could not believe, that this was happening.

Reggie shook, literally trembled, in his bonds.

Now, I'm only being picky because The Winter Family was recently announced as a title on the 2015 Giller Prize longlist and it's up against some strong literary titles: if this is meant as a serious work of literature, then I'm going to treat it seriously, and to a degree, I found this book to be a bit amateurish in execution but very interesting in intent. The section set in Chicago was my favourite – with the stench of the stockyards and the dirty politics and the financier who is destroyed by the very innovations that he loves – and the character of Augustus Winter was well-drawn and fascinating to me. There is much to like about The Winter Family and it serves as an impressive debut for Clifford Jackman.

I'm pretty excited that this year I was able to find and read the entire Giller Prize longlist before the winner is announced (with weeks to spare). If I were in charge, I'd give the prize to Martin John, and here is my ranked order of the contenders:

The longlist for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize in my order of ranking is:


Anakana Schofield - Martin John 
Marina Endicott - Close to Hugh
Patrick deWitt - Undermajordomo Minor
Heather O’Neill - Daydreams of Angels
Connie Gault - A Beauty 
André Alexis - Fifteen Dogs
Clifford Jackman - The Winter Family
Alix Hawley - All True Not a Lie in It
Rachel Cusk - Outline
Russell Smith - Confidence 
Samuel Archibald - Arvida 
Michael Christie - If I Fall, If I Die

*Won by Fifteen Dogs; not my favourite but fine.

Governor General's Literary Awards English Fiction Finalists: 

Kate Cayley - How You Were Born

Rachel Cusk - Outline

Helen Humphreys - The Evening Chorus

Clifford Jackman - The Winter Family

Guy Vanderhaghe - Daddy Lenin and Other Stories

Happy to see Daddy Lenin take the GG!