THE FRUIT OF STONE

A debut novel by Wyoming denizen Spragg (the memoir Where Rivers Change Directions, 1999, not reviewed) describes two men who love the same woman.

The scenario behind Truffaut’s Jules and Jim travels better than you might think: there are women all across the world capable of breaking hearts by the pair. In Valentine, Wyoming, Barnum McEban grew up as much in love with his childhood pal Bennett as he was with his childhood sweetheart Gretchen. McEban is a tough character, as tough as his Scots forebears who crossed the Atlantic and didn’t stop until they found themselves on the prairies of the American West in 1917, and he isn’t one to fall to pieces when fate deals him a bad hand. So he takes it on the chin when Gretchen marries Bennett and stays in touch with him over the next 20 years—only to find the wound still fresh and raw when Gretchen tells him she is leaving Bennett for a physicist in Denver. As distraught for Bennett’s sake as for his own, McEban convinces the jilted husband to follow after Gretchen—and hits the road beside him. There is a symbiotic side to McEban’s personality that may be the result of having been born a twin (and having lost his baby brother while still in the crib). At any rate, he’s definitely one for joint action. While on their quest to win back Gretchen, McEban learns that Gretchen had been pregnant with his child (lost in a miscarriage) before she married Bennett, and he begins to wonder whether he or Bennett is the more aggrieved party. By the time they find Gretchen, the alliances are more confusing than ever.

Quite powerful in a restrained kind of way. A fine beginning for a talented new hand.