princessleia4life's review against another edition
1.0
It really didn't grab me. The synopsis on the back made the novel seem fun, but the book didn't live up to it for me.
chrislatray's review against another edition
4.0
I wrote the following for the Missoula Independent:
One of the advantages of a review queue that focuses primarily on Western literature is that often what I’m reading is set in a locale I’ve visited, or am familiar with. This is certainly the case in the latest work of historical fiction from Livingston’s Richard S. Wheeler, Anything Goes. Even though his story is set more than 100 years in the past (roughly somewhere in the first decade of the 20th century), the beauty of it is that, particularly in smaller towns and cities around Montana and Idaho, one need only squint a little bit at the modern view on the street to see something of what once was. History feels much closer here, especially when the winter skies are gray, and the air smells of wood smoke.
Anything Goes is the story of a few weeks in the life of the Beausoleil Brothers Follies, a traveling vaudeville show working their way west from Chicago as winter settles in. While the name of the act suggests multiple Beausoleils, there is only one — August Beausoleil. The first of two owners, he is also the master of ceremonies for the troupe, and manages the day-to-day business of keeping the show on the road. His partner and co-owner, Charles Pomerantz, operates a city or two ahead of the troupe to make sure hotels are booked, venues confirmed, advertisements are posted, etc. The two employ a variety of acts; singers and dancers, a juggler, an orator, and even a woman who performs with a pair of trained capuchin monkeys. It is a complicated process, and Wheeler does an excellent job portraying the difficulties faced by such an undertaking plying the rough boards of working class mining towns in the mountain west.
If there was ever a book that should not be judged by its cover, though, it is Anything Goes. I like this cover — a lovely young red-headed woman with a smoldering gaze who hints of femme fatale, standing with an older gentleman whose sidearm suggests a career gunfighting — but only the mountains and opera house in the background are relevant to the story. There isn’t a femme fatale here, and though Wheeler’s story can support a label of “Western” there’s no gunplay or other tropes typical of the genre. Even the description in the front of the book jacket suggests a mystery focused on a single woman, and how her shadowy history may create a desperate situation for the troupe, but that is misleading. I was expecting a rollicking story; a desperate chase across the landscape, a bold adventure, or maybe even something of a comedy. It’s none of that.
I was more of a third of the way into the story before I realized the book is really something of a road (or, in this case, railroad) novel, with a rotating ensemble cast. It was then that I was able to settle in and start to enjoy it. There isn’t a character of singular focus, there are several, and points of view — including reliability of narrator — shift throughout. Not all of these characters remain with the Follies to the end, which is at best bittersweet, and some are added as the story proceeds. If there is a singular character, it is the Follies as a whole, a unit comprised of multiple personalities and backgrounds, and how they interact. Most of the performers are of a second tier of skill, or have careers on the decline, and that makes for interesting reading as they attempt to hold things together and improve their station. Most are immigrants, or come from difficult backgrounds, and the entertainer’s life is all they know.
Wheeler, who owns a body of work most writers can only dream of, including fifty-plus novels and a shelf full of awards for Western fiction, captures a setting as well as anyone. Every city — Butte, Missoula, Pocatello — is slightly different depending on the industry that drives its existence. Each stop creates unique difficulties for the Follies, and how they take on the challenges, or adjust their acts to compensate for peculiarities of the cultural environment, are enjoyable to see play out. Meanwhile, change is in the air for the entertainment industry, as massive syndicates are buying up theaters and opera houses to create circuits that allow them to control all the entertainment themselves, forcing independent acts like the Beausoleil Brothers Follies to either surrender or die. At times I laughed out loud, and I even teared up a little at a couple scenes, something I can’t remember happening in some time.
Wheeler ultimately delivers a narrative that is a mix of sadness and triumph. If it leans more to the former, it is of no issue; Anything Goes is a complete pleasure.
One of the advantages of a review queue that focuses primarily on Western literature is that often what I’m reading is set in a locale I’ve visited, or am familiar with. This is certainly the case in the latest work of historical fiction from Livingston’s Richard S. Wheeler, Anything Goes. Even though his story is set more than 100 years in the past (roughly somewhere in the first decade of the 20th century), the beauty of it is that, particularly in smaller towns and cities around Montana and Idaho, one need only squint a little bit at the modern view on the street to see something of what once was. History feels much closer here, especially when the winter skies are gray, and the air smells of wood smoke.
Anything Goes is the story of a few weeks in the life of the Beausoleil Brothers Follies, a traveling vaudeville show working their way west from Chicago as winter settles in. While the name of the act suggests multiple Beausoleils, there is only one — August Beausoleil. The first of two owners, he is also the master of ceremonies for the troupe, and manages the day-to-day business of keeping the show on the road. His partner and co-owner, Charles Pomerantz, operates a city or two ahead of the troupe to make sure hotels are booked, venues confirmed, advertisements are posted, etc. The two employ a variety of acts; singers and dancers, a juggler, an orator, and even a woman who performs with a pair of trained capuchin monkeys. It is a complicated process, and Wheeler does an excellent job portraying the difficulties faced by such an undertaking plying the rough boards of working class mining towns in the mountain west.
If there was ever a book that should not be judged by its cover, though, it is Anything Goes. I like this cover — a lovely young red-headed woman with a smoldering gaze who hints of femme fatale, standing with an older gentleman whose sidearm suggests a career gunfighting — but only the mountains and opera house in the background are relevant to the story. There isn’t a femme fatale here, and though Wheeler’s story can support a label of “Western” there’s no gunplay or other tropes typical of the genre. Even the description in the front of the book jacket suggests a mystery focused on a single woman, and how her shadowy history may create a desperate situation for the troupe, but that is misleading. I was expecting a rollicking story; a desperate chase across the landscape, a bold adventure, or maybe even something of a comedy. It’s none of that.
I was more of a third of the way into the story before I realized the book is really something of a road (or, in this case, railroad) novel, with a rotating ensemble cast. It was then that I was able to settle in and start to enjoy it. There isn’t a character of singular focus, there are several, and points of view — including reliability of narrator — shift throughout. Not all of these characters remain with the Follies to the end, which is at best bittersweet, and some are added as the story proceeds. If there is a singular character, it is the Follies as a whole, a unit comprised of multiple personalities and backgrounds, and how they interact. Most of the performers are of a second tier of skill, or have careers on the decline, and that makes for interesting reading as they attempt to hold things together and improve their station. Most are immigrants, or come from difficult backgrounds, and the entertainer’s life is all they know.
Wheeler, who owns a body of work most writers can only dream of, including fifty-plus novels and a shelf full of awards for Western fiction, captures a setting as well as anyone. Every city — Butte, Missoula, Pocatello — is slightly different depending on the industry that drives its existence. Each stop creates unique difficulties for the Follies, and how they take on the challenges, or adjust their acts to compensate for peculiarities of the cultural environment, are enjoyable to see play out. Meanwhile, change is in the air for the entertainment industry, as massive syndicates are buying up theaters and opera houses to create circuits that allow them to control all the entertainment themselves, forcing independent acts like the Beausoleil Brothers Follies to either surrender or die. At times I laughed out loud, and I even teared up a little at a couple scenes, something I can’t remember happening in some time.
Wheeler ultimately delivers a narrative that is a mix of sadness and triumph. If it leans more to the former, it is of no issue; Anything Goes is a complete pleasure.
More...