BookBrowse Reviews Where Coyotes Howl by Sandra Dallas

BookBrowse:

A stark and tender account of the harsh realities of homesteading out West in the early 1900s.

Where Coyotes Howl may appear to be a classically conventional historical novel — a wide-eyed young woman travels out West to work as a teacher, but falls in love at first sight with a cowboy. Boy meets girl, they get married, they build a home together and plan on living happily ever after. Ellen only intends to stay in Wallace, Wyoming for a year, until she meets and falls in love with Charlie. With this simple story, Sandra Dallas conveys a depth and authenticity that overcomes the cynicism some might feel about romantic narratives. She also explores a wide spectrum (including some cruel realities) of women's experiences out West in the early 20th century.

The purity of the romance between Ellen and Charlie, combined with Dallas' simplicity and matter-of-factness (both in language and narrative), comfortably transports modern readers into a world that can be difficult to understand, and to stomach. Ellen maintains a close friendship with her boarder, Ruth, who suffers from extreme domestic violence. We see misogyny and cruelty set against the Wyoming landscape with its own cold brutality, but also wild beauty. The people building the town of Wallace toil almost nonstop to deal with the extreme weather conditions and the difficulties of scratching out a living from the land. The women suffer doubly at the hands of a patriarchal and survivalist society that provides little to no choice or freedom. While the main character, Ellen, is fortunately spared from being treated as a beast of burden, this is the reality of many of her female friends, such as her neighbor Mrs. Brownell.

Some of these details could be hard to bear, if not for Dallas's stylistic simplicity. She holds back from delving into complex or tortured internal narratives or ruminations on the underlying causes and emotions that are undoubtedly a part of domestic abuse, rape, mental illness and subsistence living. Instead, there is an innocent positivity threaded throughout — represented by Ellen and Charlie's relationship. Where Coyotes Howl is essentially a grown-up version of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series. It is mature, as it doesn't turn a blind eye to the harsh conditions of its world, but it also refuses to be consumed by them, focusing instead on hope, love and kinship.

There are moments when it veers into being trite — it is a fine and difficult line the author walks. For example, bookending the novel with one of the character's recollections seems unnecessary. Yet these moments do not detract from the impact, and likely will not hinder the reader's enjoyment. Overall, it is a classic love story, but also one of friendships, communal kinship and love of life that keeps the characters enduring, despite the hardships they face.

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in May 2023, and has been updated for the May 2024 edition. Click here to go to this issue.