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Title: Montana, 1948
Author:
Larry Watson
Age level: High School
Recommended by: Craig Akey, Clintonville High School, Wisconsin Summary:
All families have secrets. In a reflective narrative a history teacher reviews an event in his family history. His father, a sheriff in a rural Montana community, must arrest his brother, Frank. Frank is a doctor who has been molesting his women Native American patients. The narrator recalls the father's conflict, recounting the other factors that make resolving the conflict so difficult. The family name is significant to the community. Frank has been the favorite son throughout the two men's lives and their father is alive. The narrator as history teacher now must decide if his students should be told the real history of events.
Teaching suggestions:
The discussion and subsequent writing assignments may attack the sheriff's issue. Should we know about Mickey Mantle's alcoholism or President Clinton's philandering, for example. Or, are sixteen-year-olds better off to learn the "secrets" later? Of special interest was an interview with author Watson, something that could be done on a conference phone.
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