“Author, professor uses ‘draft horse’ mentality when writing books”
By Kris Kerzman on Sep 21, 2014 at 10:43 p.m.
MOORHEAD – Lin Enger had just gotten off the phone with a reviewer of his new book, “The High Divide.”
It wasn’t the kind of reviewer you might expect. Instead, it was an acquaintance who lent him some ladders and helped him with the daunting task of painting the exterior of his Moorhead home. While they were working, he noticed a box of advance-review copies of the book and got curious, so Enger gave him a copy.
As they arranged a time for the ladders to be picked up, Enger asked his opinion. The verdict?
“He hasn’t read it yet,” Enger says with a chuckle. “But he was reading the blurbs and said it sounds pretty good.”
Hard work, along with a dash of curiosity and expectation, is a good place to start in the story of “The High Divide,” Enger’s second novel after 2008’s “Undiscovered Country.”
He says he conceived of the basic plot of the book in the mid-’90s, scratched out a rough first draft over six months beginning in January of 2008, and then spent the next three and a half years honing that draft, completing five full revisions before settling on the final version, published this month by Algonquin.
At the same time, he’s held down his duties as a professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead, just a couple blocks from his freshly painted house.
“Novelists, more than anything, are draft horses,” he says. “Put the blinders on me, strap me up, and I’ll pull.”
Poet Mark Vinz, a former colleague now retired from MSUM’s English Department, says he admires that work ethic.
“He really spends a lot of time rewriting. This is what we tell our students to do, and he embodies it so well,” Vinz says, holding himself up in contrast to that workhorse mentality.
“The thing about poetry, it’s much more portable. With fiction, you have to be a draft horse,” Vinz says.
“The High Divide” focuses on the Pope family and is set in 1880s-era western Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. In its opening scene, the father, Ulysses, leaves his family behind and embarks on a trip to St. Paul to find work. Or so he says.
His eldest son, Eli, intercepts a sweet-smelling letter to his father from a woman in Bismarck. Against his worried and overworked mother’s wishes, Eli hops a train west to find his father only to find that his sickly younger brother, Danny, has tagged along. Eventually, the mother, Gretta, also strikes out to find her own answers.
The narrative focus shifts among each of the characters as they piece together the untold story of Ulysses’ involvement with Custer’s 7th Cavalry, an experience that had a profound effect.
“I was interested in exploring how his dilemma affects the people who love him and whom he loves,” Enger says. “It’s a war story, and war stories are about war and battle and physical and mental scarring. But they’re also about the brokenness that is left behind.”
Enger says the pegs to regional history serve to set the stage for deep characters and complex relationships, not to overwhelm the reader with a detailed atmosphere.
“I always had the idea to write a novel about children who have to go in search of a missing parent and how in that search they would have to rely on their instincts as that person’s child to figure out where that person has gone,” Enger says.
He adds that he heavily researched books from the time period to get a handle on the historical climate and reflected on the stories of his grandparents, who were alive then, to learn their ways of speech.
John Early, a retired English professor who worked alongside Enger at MSUM for about 20 years, likes Enger’s use of the region and time period but respects him for focusing more on the characters than the trappings of historical fiction.
“I think much of Lin’s writing is character based and not dependent on the place where they are,” Early says, “He’s good at creating a hook right away. He doesn’t fool around. He gets things on the table right away, and you want to follow along.”
Early also applauds the attention to detail Enger applies to both his writing and his teaching.
“Writing-wise, students have a lot of respect for him and value his advice. His critique is always thoughtful and intelligent, and he’s very meticulous and careful in his response,” Early says.
Even though the book – and the house – are done, the work continues for Enger, who will tour behind “The High Divide” for the next few months with stops in Minneapolis, Iowa City, Wichita, Austin’s Texas Book Festival and more.
IF YOU GO: What: “The High Divide” reading and book signing
Where: Zandbroz Variety, 420 Broadway, Fargo
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Info: www.zandbroz.com/fargo-events.html or call (701) 239-4729
This article is part of a content partnership with The Arts Partnership, a nonprofit organization cultivating the arts in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo, and its online publication, ARTSpulse. For more information, visit http://theartspartnership.net/artspulse.