CHOOSING YELLOWSTONE

After her partner’s sudden death, a widow learns to start again with the help of nature and literature in Douglas’ novel.

Pam Finch is upset that her partner, Elaine Flaherty, isn’t joining her in Jordan this summer to help assist Syrian refugees as a volunteer. Elaine is a Shakespeare professor at a university who’s been accepted as a writer-in-residence at Yellowstone National Park. Set primarily in 2014, nearly two-thirds of the novel is set amid the splendor of the Tetons, where Elaine sees wolves, grizzlies, and moose: “She loved standing in the presence of a creature being itself.” Between walks and journaling exercises for a small coterie of students, Elaine exchanges emails with Pam; they simultaneously showcase their profound love for each other while also contrasting their two environments. Pam is fatigued by the strain of her volunteer work, but Elaine supports Pam by urging her to “Remember the times we’ve gone to talks that said liberal guilt doesn’t help anyone? What counts is action, and you are acting.” At the same time, the teacher feeds her own creativity by observing the abundant beauty around her. Later, however, Elaine’s life is turned upside down by unexpected circumstances. Douglas’ book is more than a simple love story; it also aims to examine the choices that people make and how they affect others in their lives; for example, Elaine has occasion to wonder at length how her and Pam’s lives might have been different if she had joined her on her overseas trip. In the novel’s concluding chapters, the author charts the Shakespearean scholar starting anew as a retiree and creative writer while not losing sight of her deeper feelings and noting that she “still had time to plunge her hands into the clay of words.”

A sharp, emotional drama of separation.