Mountain Time

Bernard DeVoto's Mountain Time chronicles four summer weeks in a small Montana community during 1920. The narrative centers on a mining town's residents and their intersecting lives amid labor tensions and social change. The central characters include union organizers, mining company officials, immigrant workers, and ranchers who must navigate conflicts both personal and political. Their stories play out against the backdrop of Montana's mountains and prairies during a pivotal moment in Western history. Mountain Time captures a transformative period in which the American West shifted from frontier to modern industrial society. Through multiple perspectives and parallel storylines, DeVoto examines the human cost of progress and the tension between individual desires and community obligations. The novel serves as both historical document and meditation on power, class, and the role of place in shaping human affairs. Its themes of labor rights, immigration, and environmental exploitation continue to resonate with contemporary debates about the American West.

Limited reader reviews exist online for this 1947 novel. Only 3 ratings appear on Goodreads, with an average of 3.0 stars and no written reviews. No reader reviews found on Amazon or other major book sites. Readers noted the book's detailed descriptions of the American West and Montana landscapes. A few mentioned appreciating DeVoto's portrayal of cultural tensions between Eastern and Western American values in the post-WWII period. Main criticisms focused on the slow pacing and dense prose style. One reader on a vintage book forum called the writing "overwrought" and said "the author gets lost in his own descriptive passages." Available Ratings: Goodreads: 3.0/5 (3 ratings, 0 reviews) Amazon: No ratings or reviews LibraryThing: No ratings or reviews The scarcity of online reviews makes it difficult to draw broader conclusions about reader reception. This appears to be one of DeVoto's less-discussed works compared to his historical non-fiction books.

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🌲 "Mountain Time" was published in 1947 and marked DeVoto's return to fiction writing after nearly two decades of focusing on historical non-fiction and criticism. 🏔️ Bernard DeVoto won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 - not for this novel, but for "Across the Wide Missouri," his historical account of the fur trade in the American West. 🌟 The book explores themes of time and geology that DeVoto studied extensively while writing his historical trilogy about the American West, which included "The Year of Decision: 1846." 🗺️ The novel is set in Salt Lake City, where DeVoto grew up, and reflects his complex relationship with Mormon culture and the Western landscape he knew intimately. 📚 DeVoto served as editor of the Saturday Review of Literature and wrote a long-running column called "The Easy Chair" for Harper's Magazine while working on this novel.