Beartooth by Callan Wink
Broken Back Mountain
I’d consider myself the outdoorsy type, as long as that outdoors has a roof, 4 walls, air conditioning, easily accessible snacks, a TV, a bookshelf, and a hot shower. With those bonafides, I was really excited to read Beartooth by Callan Wink, a modern day Western about the most rural of rural Montana. Good news - I won’t be trying my hand at living off the land anytime soon.
Spoiler-Free Summary
Thad and Hazen are brothers living far, far off the grid in Montana, just outside of Yellowstone. They find themselves in troubled times: their commanding father recently died, their mother hasn’t been seen in years, they’re deep in debt, and every day seems to come with some new hardship to overcome. They’re scraping by selling firewood and poaching, but a path to ease their troubles opens when a shady character presents them with a dangerous but lucrative opportunity to steal from Yellowstone National Park.
If you are still on the grid, and want to be more on my grid, here’s some delectable clickables:
The Good
My summary above does justice to the plot, but not really the themes of Beartooth. This is a novel about family, survival, and isolation. Thad and Hazen are adrift, with no family, no serious connections to the larger world, and the duality of unbridled freedom, but also the responsibility that comes along with it. Thad in particular feels the weight of this, and while he never explicitly spells it out, the author really imbues the pressure into the text. You can feel Thad’s mounting, crushing stress, even if he’s not equipped to articulate it. Hazen, in contrast, has all the skills to live wild but leaves the mental load to Thad. You might think this leaves him happier, but it’s also clear that this self-absolution of responsibility comes with its own weight - Hazen has to give up some of his treasured freedom to Thad almost as a currency, “paying” Thad in ways like Hazen not having his own car, having slightly less say in their plans, and even who he can or can’t talk to. It’s such an interesting and compelling dynamic, and Beartooth explores it wonderfully.
Beartooth zips. According to Bookly, I read its 241 pages in a little under 3 hours, so it is certainly readable in a single sitting. It has less to do with the fast-moving plot (though it does have that) and more to do with writing that is trimmed of all fat. Callan Wink comes from the Hemmingway school of simple words with big impacts. I was a fan of the approach, particularly in a story set as this one is. It matches the tone and feel of the novel.
The Bad
I debated where to talk about the setting of Beartooth, whether it should be in this section or the previous one. Here’s the thing. Beartooth has a unique, fascinating setting. It’ll stick with you, particularly if you’re a city or suburban dweller like myself. At times the backwoods of Montana feel so vastly removed from my own frame of reference that it might as well be set on another planet.
But therein lies the problem: relatability. Even with the sparse prose, I found it hard to sometimes fully understand what was going on. This comes in two forms. The first is understanding the character’s motivations. In the beginning of the novel, Thad and Hazen are removing a bear’s gallbladder. Do you know why, or how they feel about it? Because I sure didn’t.1 You can intuit this was a good thing for them (they’re going through the trouble for a reason, one presumes), but are they going to eat it? Sell it? Use it as bait? Especially in the beginning of the book, when we’re just getting to know the characters, this was a bit confusing for a guy who just took up pickleball.
The second form this takes is in the action sequences. There’s a large action scene in the middle of the book, as Thad and Hazen attempt to pull off a heist in Yellowstone. I’ll try not to spoil anything here, but its a little hard to imagine why they need the tools they use, or how difficult certain actions are, or why one move is riskier than another. I got the gist, and I guess ultimately it didn’t detract from my understanding of the set up and consequences, but the particular meaning behind the series of events is a little murky.
One last note, and this could really go either way depending on the kind of reader you are. Beartooth ends with a pretty big loose end remaining unravelled. If you like your stories tied up with a bow, and that’s perfectly legitimate, you might be frustrated. I liked it, and thought it fit with the rest of the novel, but reader be-warned.
Memorable Quotes
In one of the last conversations Thad had with his father, before his death, his father had told him that he wasn’t much scared of what was coming next. He said that, as far as he knew, 100 percent of the folks who died preferred to stay that way. Death had a perfect record. Not one unhappy customer. It couldn’t be that bad.
It’s not that I discredit this man’s superstitions; in fact I think a curse can be a real thing, but it only works if you believe in it, if that makes sense. A curse is nothing more than an evil placebo.
I remember when you were young, you used to like to skip stones. We’d go to that big pool on the river right above the bridge and you’d look for the perfect rock. Sometimes you’d find one so good, so flat and smooth, that you wouldn’t even want to throw it. I always thought that was a funny thing. That you’d find something that was perfectly suited for exactly what you wanted to do, but something about that fact, that it was perfect, made you unable to actually do it.
It was painful, but Thad knew that sometimes you had to swallow the bone, force it down rather than risk having it lodge… “I apologize,” he said.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes there are books where you don’t fully appreciate it until a few days after you read it, and for me, this was one of them. On the surface, Beartooth was a heist caper with an unusual setting, but a few days after reading I really felt Thad and Hazen’s inner turmoil. In some ways, it’s similar to Havoc, by Christopher Bollen - a deep story dressed up in an action filled caper. While I had some difficulty relating to the outward actions of the characters in Beartooth, I very much related to their inside world…even if it does seem like a nightmare.
5/1 Star
Chris Bissette gives 5 stars:
People say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but I'm not at all ashamed to say that I requested an ARC of this from the publisher entirely based on the cover art and the title.
That’s what I said, Chris! I’ll see you in court!
Bryngel gives 1 star:
All I kept thinking throughout the book was How is it possible to point in every direction and not manage to "close" any of them? Also, it's not helping that it is moving in snail pace. This went nowhere fast. No, not fast, slow, very slow indeed. (So disappointed - I need closure. Give me closure!)
Are you ok there, Bryngel? You sound like you need a hug.
Who Should Read This?
Rating
Beartooth, I bestow upon you 3.75/5 Yogi Bears. Or, more accurately, 3 Yogi Bears and a Boo-Boo.
Until next time, stay off the grid.
Some extracurricular research finds that bear gallbladders (specifically, the bile inside of them) are prized in alternative medicine circles, and fetch a high price on the black market. Thad and Hazen were poaching bears, in part, to sell off these organs.
I found the review illuminating and intriguing. The survival of desperate people at stake. Especially liked Hemingway reference … as I agree that 4 paragraphs about a tree is beyond! Write on!