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In a story set after the Civil War, readers meet Patrick, a man who wants the best for his family. His parents died when he was a child back in Ireland. When he comes of age, he emigrates to America, works on a farm in Pennsylvania, and meets the love of his life, as well as his best friends. But a controversy on the farm convinces him that he could fare better out West. In Colorado, he joins a group of Irish gold miners. Silas, an outlier of the group, takes Patrick under his wing and into his confidence.
The threads of this novella are woven into one tight plot. Patrick is caught between his past on the farm (where a controversy still looms), waiting to strike a vein of gold in the present, and the yet-to-be-revealed inheritance Silas leaves him. These each inform how Patrick works toward building a new home for his family. A few choice details, such as signs on Denver City storefronts prohibiting Irish job applicants, the brogue accents coupled with the Western drawl of those who do welcome Patrick and family, and the mysterious top-hatted figure Patrick spots and about whom Silas warns him, evoke vivid scenes the adventurous narrative moves through with swiftness. Letters from Pennsylvania explain the controversy in the characters’ own words: Patrick’s friend, a Confederate soldier in Yankee land, is unduly blamed for a crime. Rebels and underdogs with ambition in common form the plot’s basis.
The characters display heroism and virtue in unconventional and wily ways. As such, the book keeps with the rest of Hawkins’ oeuvre of Civil War stories from a Confederate perspective. Although deferential, Patrick’s wife works hard to ensure her children aren’t taken advantage of by her boss (also their landlady). Patrick looks up to his mentor, Silas, but Silas is not entirely admirable. Sick and unwilling to get help, he unpredictably enters the bar where Patrick works when not mining. He doesn’t get around to telling Patrick all the secrets he promises to reveal. The promise Patrick makes Silas on his deathbed puts Patrick in a bind. The expense of keeping his word to Silas is keeping a secret from his wife. Knowing the law is not always on their side and that danger lurks, Patrick and his wife keep guns handy. The characters define a new kind of exciting and thought-provoking convention, taking the rules into their own hands.
In a twist, Patrick learns after Silas dies that maybe his friend wasn’t exactly who he said he was. As the title implies, this is a humorous tale. However, Patrick isn’t the butt of the joke. For example, he can laugh at how Silas uses him to get revenge because Patrick also benefits. The fool goes unnamed, an inside joke the reader and Patrick understand. As historical fiction, this book is an insight into the specific hardships, landscape, and inequalities of the Wild West and carries a timeless message. Research about dress, culture, and morays courtesy of Colorado historical organizations is evident and acknowledged. Each chapter begins with a quote about gold mining as a metaphor, suggesting that the story is a parable whose message is both comic and a nugget of wisdom.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review