Bucking the Sun

"Bucking the Sun" makes even clearer Ivan Doig's worthiness to succeed Wallace Stegner as the foremost chronicler of lives in the American West, though in fact they weren't that far apart in age; Doig just got a later start. This fine novel about the construction of the Fort Peck Dam in Montana, a 1......more

"Bucking the Sun" starts with the discovery of two bodies and the promise of a mystery to be solved. This "mystery" was hardly mentioned again and turned out to be little more than a footnote. In the meantime, I learned about dam building, New Deal projects , and Communist politics of the era. This......more

I love Ivan Doig's writing! He captures Montana like no other writer I've come across. This book is slightly different than the others I've read in that it's kind of historical fiction. It's set during the depression, when the WPA decided to build a dam on the Missouri River, in northeastern Montana......more

Fort Peck Dam building in the late 30’s. Interesting themes of the times- interest in the Communist Party in that area, the impact of the New Deal programs (this one of the biggest), the impact of bringing everyone in the area to a specific location, particularly for farmers and folks not used to be......more

Bucking the sun is the expression given to riding, or driving, into the sun and maintaining your gaze forward enough to see your immediate path while averting your eyes from being blinded by the horizon. There are many layers to this work and each character has a struggle and point of view the the a......more