In post-Depression America, people are still fighting to survive. FDR’s New Deal is throwing out a life line with jobs provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Millions are employed to help construct buildings and roads, while the Federal Arts Project’s goal is to produce paying assignments for artists. Many famous artists receive commissions to give the program a boost, but the unknown painters are the ones who truly need the money. Valentine Welch III is one such artist who travels to Dawes, Wyoming to create a mural for the local post office. His room and board will be provided by a wealthy art lover, John Long, and his wife, Eve, who live on a sprawling ranch nearby.
John and Eve are an odd couple, separated not only by their ages, but by their life experiences. A sniper during World War I, John stayed in Paris after the conflict ended, supported by monthly funds from his father. “I stayed in Paris as long as the money kept coming, which was closer to three years,” he tells Val during one of their long, wine-fueled dinners. (Very expensive wine, of course.) “I had a great time and bought a few paintings with little thought of value or bargain.” In addition to a Renoir, he also purchased a Matisse.
A war hero from a storied family, John has the perfect resume for politics and, indeed, the powers that be in Cheyenne hope to appoint him to the Senate seat whose current occupant is in failing health. One evening, John hosts a dinner for natural gas producers (Eve calls them gas passers) and asks Val to come. Eve seems sad and subdued and leaving with Val after dessert tells him, “Right this minute, I feel less like I have a home than I did five years ago in some hobo camp.” A few days later, she’s gone, taking with her the Renoir.
Eve was born dirt poor and was forced to drop out of high school to work and support the family. She took odd jobs picking fruits and vegetables. But soon her itinerant lifestyle became the norm and when she finally was able to return home, she found she no longer fit in there. Blessed with good looks and a singing voice, she joined musical groups, singing in halls, bars, wherever they could find work. Despite the hard scrapple existence, Eve enjoyed the freedom and, most of all, loved singing, even when there were very few people sitting there to listen.
Afraid of what the news about Eve absconding could do to his political ambitions, John asks Val to help. John’s main concern is that Eve may have gone back to her former husband, Jake. Worse yet, Eve and Jake may not have been divorced, which would make John a bigamist. John is generous in bankrolling Val’s travels, making reservations at the best hotels and arranging air travel when necessary. (The descriptions of early air travel are horrific.) Armed with a photo of Eve and a small pistol from John, Val follows whatever leads he manages to scrounge up. In the evening he can return to a posh hotel, but during the day his travels take him to rundown Hoovervilles where the locals are less than welcoming, to dark and dim clubs, where he finds people drowning their sorrows, but no Eve. When he turns up a tip that Jake might be in Florida, he ventures into truly dangerous territory, escaping with his life, but little else.
He finally finds Eve and is not surprised that she’s not eager to return to Dawes. Val has gotten a glimpse of what Eve’s past life was like, the shabby boarding rooms she stays in, the danger she encounters as a beautiful young woman fending for herself. He also knows what her life with John on the ranch was like. She enjoyed the horses and her riding lessons with Faro, the tough ranch hand, but living with John made her feel like a caged bird. And, Val realizes that he never once heard her sing while she was on the ranch.
Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain was a bestseller and the film was a critical success, winning Renée Zellweger her first Oscar. It’s easy to see the film potential in The Trackers, not only because the scenery Frazier describes is so vidid and the characters so believable, but also because our country still faces many of the same problems we experienced digging out of a depression. The south back then and now remains inhospitable to minorities. And after enduring a long world war, many wanted to see the U.S. tend to business at home and ignore what’s happening in other countries. Those voices are still raised with regard to Ukraine. And, dare I say, that for all the improvements, air travel still is a challenge.
Top: Charles Frazier – Photo credit Mallory Cash
