Halo - Hardcover

From Publishers Weekly
Winner of the David Higham and McKitterick prizes in the U.K., this first novel is a tale of the Old West as seen through the eyes of its narrator, Scrag, a boy who comes of age on the wagon trail to Oregon. Loveday's American West is a romantic landscape in the purest literary sense, infused with a majestic beauty that underscores Scrag's sense of wonder as he learns about life. During the long journey, Scrag is drawn to both Lorelei, a beautiful, fiercely independent woman in the wagon party, and to her daughter, Justly, blossoming into a young woman before Scrag's rather lascivious eyes. The journey parallels Scrag's passage to a sorrowful manhood, formed not only by tender nights with Lorelei, but also the society of the wagon party and the brutality and tragedy he witnesses in the town of Halo. His Virgil on this journey is the enigmatic Sylvester, a rugged photographer and poet who introduces Scrag, Lorelei and Justly to the works of Walt Whitman. Loveday writes a clean yet lush prose that works best when celebrating the beauty and hardship of life on the trail. The novel bogs down in its depiction of the idyllic sensuality of Scrag's love for mother and daughter, veering at times into ludicrous, softcore pornography. Ultimately, though, Loveday's well-placed tale and crisply drawn characters distinguish this accomplished debut. Movie rights to Barry Blackmore.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Halo surpasses most Western fiction on this side of the Atlantic by somehow transcending its own setting. The story of a wagon train making its way to Oregon is told in the voice of Scrag, a boy growing rapidly into a man in the presence of four influences: Lorelei, who initiates him sexually; her daughter, Justly; Sylvester, who introduces him to the poetry of Walt Whitman and to the role of art in life; and the wilderness itself. In language both plain and poetic, British author Loveday tells a powerful story through which Whitman's words run like a chorus. Winner of Britain's David Hingham Prize for best first novel and of the McKitterick Prize for best first novel by a writer over the age of 40; highly recommended.
David Dodd, Benicia P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The members of a small wagon train are exposed to both exquisite beauty and incredible hardship during the course of their epic trek across the wilderness. After they veer off the beaten path, the fabled frontier town of Halo serves as both a critical geographic landmark and a symbolic spiritual compass for the disparate band of pioneers. By the time they arrive in Halo, bitter experience, friendship, and love have melded them into a cohesive family unit. When tragic and bizarre circumstances dictate that one of the wayfarers be senselessly hanged, the moral illusion underscoring their westward journey is at once both shattered and heightened. An eerie sense of timelessness pervades the lyrical narrative as both the past and the future are virtually annihilated by the consequence of the moment. An absorbing metaphysical rendering of the mythic West. Margaret Flanagan

From Kirkus Reviews
Poet Loveday's Whitman-inspired first novel is narrated by a young man named Scrag who's traveling west with a wagon train. Scrag is alone in the world, but his fellow travelers become his family. Among them are Justly, a girl who is turning into a woman; Lorelei, Justly's mother; and Sylvester, a photographer there to record the trip ``as it was.'' What Sylvester does with images, Scrag achieves with words. He describes daily life--making fires, tending the animals, skinning rabbits--and tells of the exceptional occurrences, such as the travelers' encounter with a dead Indian, or Scrag's own sexual awakening at the sight of Justly wading. Along the trail, Lorelei teaches Scrag about love while Sylvester teaches him about poetry. In one of the book's loveliest scenes, Sylvester reads aloud from Leaves of Grass by candlelight while Lorelei gently holds Scrag and Justly sleeps. These are Scrag's ``halcyon days,'' as Sylvester tells him. In the wilderness, the love between a young man and an older woman can flourish and the unschooled can appreciate poetry, but Scrag knows that the trail must eventually end. When the party reaches Halo, a violent frontier town that belies its name, things that were beautiful and innocent in the wilderness are defiled--a chambermaid leers at Lorelei and Scrag, and townspeople seize Sylvester's pictures and destroy them. Sylvester himself is arrested for perversion, and he is tried in a kangaroo court by a judge who knows nothing of art. The wagon train moves on, but with the sadness that accompanies reality. When they reach Oregon, Scrag leaves his extended family and goes on to Oregon City with Lorelei and Justly. He takes with him the lessons he learned on the trail and a purpose in life: to record truth as Sylvester has recorded it--the way it was. A haunting story told with unaffected elegance. -- Copyright 1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

"... a distinguished debut."  Publishers Weekly
"... surpasses most Western fiction on this side of the Atlantic by somehow transcending its own setting. ... highly recommended." Library Journal (David Dodd, Benicia P.L., Cal.)
"An absorbing metaphysical rendering of the mythic West." Booklist  (Margaret Flanagan)
"A haunting story told with unaffected elegance." Kirkus Reviews
"A surprising, sexy, and poetic novel."  Sunday Times (London)
"Loveday has done what Joyce did with Ulysses, what Mark Twain did with Huckleberry Finn: he has brought out the mythic quality in a place. A marvelous book." BBC Kaleidoscope.(Brenda Maddox)