Where Coyotes Howl, by Sandra Dallas

An elegant mural of the difficulties of life in early Twentieth Century Wyoming.

The story in Where Coyotes Howl concerns the happiness and tragedies that befall its two protagonists, Ellen and Charlie, on the High Plains of eastern Wyoming. Living on the High Plains during the time in which the novel takes place was hard. There were blizzards, drought, snakes, sicknesses, and, of course, coyotes. And there were also the human dangers posed by several of the inhabitants of Wallace, Wyoming. The reminders of all these things were the deserted shacks formerly inhabited by people who had failed.

The plot of Where Coyotes Howl moves through a progression of calamities that occur over a period of two years. Calamity is certainly not a stranger to those trying to make a life in the years around 1915 near a small town built on the hardscrabble prairie. There are accidents, diseases, and bad fathers who kill children. Husbands abuse, and try to murder, their wives. And nature brings its own misfortunes, like blizzards and drought, black snakes that devour chicken eggs, and skunks that kill chicks. Ranchers have few resources to ward off calamity. Sometimes all they have is good luck.

Sandra Dallas brilliantly depicts the optimism with which her characters move their lives forward and the despair that comes when their fortunes reverse. Her portrait of the hard life of the times is both realistic and beautiful. She doesn’t hold her punches when tragedy occurs. Nor does she overstate the periods of joy that slide in between.

As with all Sandra Dallas novels, the story is about the characters. The early Twentieth Century prairie life is only a backdrop for a sensitive rendition of the joy and suffering that occurred during the adversities Ellen and Charlie faced. They stand up to metaphorical coyotes in their story with bravery. Time and again they pick themselves up off their knees after horrible events to face new challenges. There are no superhuman feats. What is particularly brilliant about the author’s storytelling is its very human characterization of its character’s lives and feelings. Charlie says early in their relationship, “Don’t you ever serve me vinegar pie. I don’t ever want us to think we’re so broke we have to eat vinegar pie.” Ellen remembers their first summer together “like a talisman, holding on to the memories in hopes those times would come again.”

Ellen clutched her talisman many times during the novel. And she was often philosophical in an understated way about her misfortunes. It was the way of the high plains, a life captured so beautifully in the novel by Sandra Dallas. The sky was in Ellen’s eyes a “bluebird blue,” but sunsets could be “violent,” which she remarked “mirrored her passion for Charlie and his for her.” This novel never lapses into moral commentary. The events are presented in a straightforward fashion, the same as the manner in which the characters approach their lives. The book is an elegant mural of the difficulties of life on the Wyoming high plains. Readers can stand back and draw their own conclusions about the meaning of life, the presence of god, and why coyotes howl.