Set in the Two Medicine country of Montana during the late 19th century, American author Ivan Doig’s literary Western Dancing at the Rascal Fair (1987) follows two Scottish immigrants, Angus McCaskill and Rob Barclay, as they make new lives on the frontier. The novel is a prequel to Doig’s English Creek (1984). The novel opens as Angus and Rob leave their sooty Scottish hometown and board a ship on the River Clyde bound for the United States. Their plan is to track down Rob’s uncle, Lucas Barclay, who left for America many years ago and has never since failed to send his family money for Christmas. This money is what lures Angus and Rob. With precious little opportunity to be had in Scotland, they plan to make more fruitful lives overseas. Lucas’s last letter home was sent from Helena, Montana, but when they get there, they can’t find Rob’s uncle, and no one knows where he has gone. Montana turns out to be a big place and hard to get around. They spend months searching, with no success. That Christmas, Rob’s family in Scotland receives the usual letter from Lucas. They forward it to Rob, and the two men learn that Lucas is in Gros Ventre, on the very frontier of the frontier. Rob and Lucas board a freight stage heading that way—the only means of transport that will take them that far. When they get there, they find Uncle Lucas at the Medicine Lodge Saloon, of which he is the proprietor, having lost both hands in a mining accident. Lucas is living with a part-Native American woman, Nancy, and Rob quickly falls in love with her. Fearing that uncle and nephew will fall out, Angus makes plans to leave and take Rob with him. However, Lucas forestalls him by offering to loan both men enough money to buy some land and sheep. Rob and Angus accept the offer and establish neighboring homesteads outside Gros Ventre. Times are hard. The homesteaders endure disease, harsh winters, and fires. There is also conflict with other settlers. Cattlemen dispute the sheep farmers’ use of the land. The Forest Service steps in to stop the homesteaders’ unchecked felling of the trees. Rob marries a young woman named Judith Findlater, and together they begin to make a going concern of their farm. Angus, finding farming more of a struggle, eventually takes a job as a schoolteacher. At school, Angus falls in love with a colleague, Anna Ramsey, and proposes to her. She asks him to wait, arguing that they shouldn’t rush into such a big step. She is moving away for the summer and will give him her answer when she returns. While Angus is pining for Anna, Rob’s little sister Adair comes out from Scotland. Adair and Rob hope that she will marry Angus, but Angus takes little notice of her. Anna returns to the valley and tells Angus that she is marrying someone else, a horse dealer named Isaac Reese. Heartbroken, Angus goes to Adair and explains that the love of his life has refused his proposal, and he is prepared to marry her. Adair, having few other options, accepts, and they work Angus’s land together. More hardships follow, including the terrible “Spanish Flu” epidemic of 1918. Adair has two miscarriages. Although he tries, Angus cannot shake his infatuation with Anna. As the years go by, Angus continues to spend as much time with Anna as he can, although neither pursues a sexual affair. Anna has two children, and Angus and Adair have a son, Varick. Still, Angus continues to pine for Anna. Eventually, it becomes clear to Adair that Angus’s affection lies elsewhere, and finally, Rob realizes it too. The two men have continued in friendship and cooperation ever since they came to America, and now Rob goes to his old friend and tells him that he must abandon his unrequited love and take proper care of his wife. Angus tries, but nothing can shift his lovesickness. He begins to hope that Anna will return to him when her daughters are grown. Rob turns against Angus, and to avenge his sister, Rob tells Angus’s son, Varick, about his father’s emotional infidelity to his mother. Heartbroken, Varick grows to hate his father. When Angus learns the reason, he fights Rob, punching him to the ground. The two men begin a deep and bitter feud. As Varick grows older, he comes to understand his father’s struggle and is reconciled with him. He marries Anna’s daughter Lisbeth. Nevertheless, Angus and Rob remain enemies. Uncle Lucas dies. In his will, he leaves a fortune in sheep to Angus, Rob, and Adair. However, his will stipulates that they must run the farm together for a minimum of three years before they can sell unless all three agree to the sale. Rob and Angus, still feuding, want to sell, but Adair refuses on the grounds that Lucas was trying to effect a reconciliation. The three years go by without Rob and Angus repairing their friendship. When the time is up, the friends fight. In the aftermath, an enraged Rob takes Angus’s horse, intending to round up the flock. In the water of their reservoir, the horse stumbles and Rob drowns.

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Ivan Doig

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