Boss of the Namko Drive by Paul St. Pierre ~ 1965. This edition: Ryerson Press, circa 1970. Hardcover. ISBN: 0-7700-3024-6. 117 pages.
My rating: 9.5/10. Paul St. Pierre perfectly captures the atmosphere and people of Interior British Columbia’s “Cariboo Country” Chilcotin Plateau. He’s dramatized things to make “good fiction”, but not so much as you would think. I live here. I know people – heck, I’m related to people (by marriage, that is – my husband’s family is venerable Cariboo-Chilcotin pioneer, 1860’s gold rush era) – who could have stepped into or out of this story.
My husband says he remembers reading this as an English class novel in the early 1970s, and I also remember a class set in one of my Williams Lake schoolrooms, though I never personally “studied” it. Reading this novel for the first time as an adult was a real treat, for I had read so much regional literature by then – stellar and otherwise – about our personal stretch of country that I realized how good this fictional vignette really is; if not a sparkling gemstone, then at least a nicely polished, glowing golden agate from the banks of the Fraser River.
The story moves right along; a quick little read for teens and adults. Highly recommended.
*****
Author’s Note:
Young people for whom this story is written should not try to find Namko on the map of British Columbia. It is fictional. So are the characters in this book.
There is such a region, however. It is the westernmost extent of Canada’s cattle country, lying between the Fraser River and the Coast Mountains. The story is my attempt to tell the truth about life on these remote ranches. If it does not, the fault is mine.
15-year-old Delore Bernard starts out as the lowest hand on the 200-mile cattle drive led by his father Frenchie from the high Chilcotin to the stockyards in Williams Lake. Soon into the trip, before they’ve cleared the home ranch meadows, Frenchie breaks his leg as his horse bucks him off and falls on him. Frenchie, to everyone’s surprise, appoints Delore as “boss” in his place, a decision unquestioned by the rest of the cowboys, who for various personal reasons, are perhaps quite happy to have a young and green official leader.
Delore’s trip to the Lake is complicated by a stampede, cows caught in bogholes, packhorse wrecks, a runaway or two, an encounter with a murderer on the run, and the cowboys’ weakness for strong liquor, among other things. But, as Delore implies on the other end, it’s all in a day’s work for a Chilcotin cow boss: “Nothing to report.”
Oh wow! This is so cool! I had, and read, this book when we lived in AB. I thought it was a wonderful little read as well. It was one of the books that didn’t make the cross country move with us but I’ve never seen the book anywhere else in my life! Thanks so much for reviewing, for posterity, one of the golden oldies of Canadian historical fiction.
Yes, it’s a great little book, and Paul St. Pierre totally gets it right. We swear we know some of those cowboys, lol! There used to be quite a few of this title showing up in used book stores here, probably because they were used in the BC high school English curriculum & since then were likely discarded – I doubt that novel is still used. And it was doubly good because it was “local”. Not too many around now, just saw one in Prince George for $30 which seemed a bit high (!) Nice nostalgic period piece.
And just curious, Nicola – did you used to have a history-reading homeschool site? Some years back I remember using a site as a great reference; the writer was in Alberta. She also (I think) had a 2nd hand book store.
Yes! That’s me! Amazing that someone would pop-up and remember me from back then! I’ve had a web-page of some sort since time began I think! I did have a homeschooling website with all sorts of history/Sonlight/WTM/Canadian history book lists and information and my little business of selling 2nd hand books lasted 10 years. We moved to ON about 7 years ago. I’m down to homeschooling one son half/days this school year. We are thinking he’ll go to Catholic school full-time starting 7th grade, next year. So that will have made a grand total of 21 years homeschooling!
That was a great site! I hope you still have all that info somewhere – it must have been a complete labour of love. Very inspiring, I remember being so in awe of all the info you had assembled there. We used Sonlight for a few years, until it got too hard to “secularize” it, plus we found the schedules a bit too much to get our heads around – we were always very eclectic/unschooly. But loved a lot of the books they used and the discussion material.
Almost done homeschooling here – Grades 10 & 12, and now they’re doing online courses through Self Design High (based in Nelson, B.C.) so suddenly I am much more of a free person, but still need to be fairly close by, hence my own foray into blogging.
Love books, reading & history – always have! And the rest of the family the same. Very nice, we always have something to talk about.
21 years. Wow. Is that your last student going into Grade 7? Will sure be a change. But a good one, I’m sure. 🙂