Cowboys Don't Cry

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Marilyn Halvorson, Alberta cattle rancher and teacher, won the Clarke Irwin/Alberta Culture Writing for Youth Competition with this novel, her first. Accustomed to the nomadic life of the rodeo circuit, 14-year-old Shane Morgan and his rodeo clown father settle on a small Alberta farm. Shane is lonely, defensive, and somewhat hardened by the tragic death of his mother four years earlier and by the consequent breakdown of communication with his father, now a drunk. Valiantly Shane enters yet another new school where he fights the bully, participates in cross-country racing, and falls for a beautiful classmate and neighbour, Casey.

The story focuses on father and son coping with each other after the death of the wife/mother. First-person narrative permits Shane ample space for introspection and speculation on his father’s behaviour and feelings. Halvorson has done a good job: Shane emerges as a credible 14-year-old boy. The prose flows freely, whisking the reader through an interesting story which combines just the right amount of action and episode, well-drawn characters, and smooth, natural dialogue. Sex, violence, drugs, racist or anti-feminist opinions, and other censorious opinions have no place in the story. The theme is handled expertly with a light hand and, although the beginning and end suffer a touch of melodrama, there is not enough to spoil the interest of most young adult boys and girls.