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    Fall Back Down When I Die
    Fall Back Down When I Die
    Fall Back Down When I Die
    Audiobook7 hours

    Fall Back Down When I Die

    Written by Joe Wilkins

    Narrated by MacLeod Andrews

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    For readers of My Absolute Darling and Fourth of July Creek, a "riveting and timely" Montana story about the unbreakable bond between a young man and the abandoned boy put in his care (Jess Walter), as old grievances of land and blood are visited upon them.
    Wendell Newman, a young ranch hand in Montana, has recently lost his mother, leaving him an orphan. His bank account holds less than a hundred dollars, and he owes back taxes on what remains of the land his parents owned, as well as money for the surgeries that failed to save his mother's life.
    An unexpected deliverance arrives in the form of seven-year-old Rowdy Burns, the mute and traumatized son of Wendell's incarcerated cousin. When Rowdy is put under his care, what begins as an ordeal for Wendell turns into a powerful bond, as he comes to love the boy more than he ever thought possible. That bond will be stretched to the breaking point during the first legal wolf hunt in Montana in more than thirty years, when a murder ignites a desperate chase.
    Caught on the wrong side of a disaffected fringe group, Wendell is determined both to protect Rowdy and to avoid the same violent fate that claimed his own father. A gripping story set in a fractured and misunderstood community, Fall Back Down When I Die is a haunting and unforgettable tale of sacrificial love.
    Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateMar 12, 2019
    ISBN9781478994176
    Fall Back Down When I Die

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    Reviews for Fall Back Down When I Die

    3.5/5

    10 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Author Joe Wilkins does not cut eastern Montana any slack: "The land where the failures of the nation, the failures of myth, met the failures of men." The men and women he conjures for us do fail in entirely human ways. The steady pace of most of the book is deceptive as it all seems to have gone by too quickly once the final action starts.
    • 4/5
      FALL BACK DOWN WHEN I DIE is Joe Wilkins’ tightly plotted allegorical Western about poverty, family history, and fate where the "failures of the nation, the failures of myth, met the failures of men.” The themes are all too common. Ranchers, still cling to outdated notions of the “old West.” Government intrudes with measures that are often ill-conceived. Resistance inevitably turns violent. And hatred festers over the years. Haven’t we seen this scenario played out repeatedly (e.g. Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, the American South, and so it goes)?

      Wilkins alternates between three narrators to tell his story. Verl Newman writes to his son in a grade school composition booklet while hiding out in the rugged Bull Mountains of Eastern Montana following the murder of a BLM game warden who confronts him about illegally shooting a wolf. Verl is a metaphor for the old school Montanans who see their lifestyle threatened from all sides. Their sole solution comes down to violence. Verl is a folk hero to the ranchers, characterized by a local militia called the Bull Mountain Resistance.

      Verl’s son, Wendell has less than $100 to his name following his mother’s fatal illness. He owes back taxes on his land and is barely getting by as a ranch hand. His cousin, Lacy, is a meth addict who was incarcerated for child endangerment and neglect of her 7-year-old son, Rowdy. Wendell, haunted by his own troubled childhood, is compelled to provide some stability to Rowdy. Clearly, Rowdy is damaged. He is mute and developmentally delayed. Wilkins portrays him as a boy who may be on the autism spectrum, nevertheless redeemable.

      The third narrator is Gillian Houlton. Her husband was the game warden killed by Verl several years ago. She is the widowed mother of Maddy. Despite having made her way as a teacher and school administrator, Gillian is still bitter and opinionated. She is particularly judgmental toward the ranchers, thus serving as a counterpoint to Verl.

      The three plotlines converge in a tragic incident resulting in an accidental death and the unfortunate recurrence of Verl’s fate.

      The novel evokes a dark and pessimistic mood depicted by its bleak setting in rural Eastern Montana and a cast of damaged characters struggling to overcome their personal histories and fates.