Review: The Man From The Creeks
An Entertaining Novel Set in the Days of the Klondike Gold Rush
Robert Service fans familiar with his poem, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," will delight in this novel that explores the characters in Service's original story.
Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out,
and two guns blazed in the dark,
And a woman screamed, and the lights went up,
and two men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead,
was Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast
of the lady that's know as Lou.
Exert: The Shooting of Dan McGrew, by Robert Service
Who was Dan McGrew? What relationship did he have with Lou, and why was he shot down in cold blood by a stranger from out of town?
If you've ever asked yourself these questions, than this novel by Robert Kroetsch is a must read. If the characters are unfamiliar with you, read The Shooting of Dan McGrew -- it's a Canadian Classic. Neither the book, nor the poem will disappoint.
Part historical fiction, part imagination, The Man From The Creeks, takes the reader back to the late 1800's when gold was first discovered on Bonanza Creek in the Yukon Territory; back to a time when only the most determined survived, and when men were willing to sell their souls for gold and then sacrifice it all for the love of a good woman.
Told from the point of view of Lou's young son, Peek, the novel begins on the steamship The Delta Queen, where Peek and Lou have stowed away, determined to reach Alaska and the gold fields beyond. Lou is a tough women, and Peek is fiercely proud and protective of her, as he makes clear, when he protests she is not the thief that Service labeled her: "What I want to set straight before I kick the bucket is the matter of Mr. Robert Service and his saying that Lou pinched the stranger's poke -- the corpse's poke -- and all the gold that was in it. Poets are liars. We know that. They'll say just about anything to make themselves sound good."
Through Peek's eyes, the reader travels backwards in time, following the footsteps of the Stampeders that rushed to the gold fields over a hundred years ago.Together we travel up the coast to Alaska and then over the Chilkoot Pass -- the steep mountain route that claimed the lives of thousands of horses and men in a twelve month period in 1897. The reader discovers the many ways that the men and women of that time found and made and lost fortunes.
Part fiction, part historical fiction laced with a heavy dose of imagination, colorful language and humor, The Man From The Creeks, is a truly Canadian novel that will be enjoyed by all age groups from teens to senior citizens. For readers who have been to the North, are going to the North or are fans of Robert Service, this book is a must-read.
And why did the Man from the Creeks gun down Sam Mcgrew? Read Kroetsch's book to solve this mystery and to answer many more questions about the characters of the Klondike Gold Rush.
The Man From The Creeks
Robert Kroetsch
Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0-679-30982-9
$17.95
307 pages
