Jack Todd's Sun Going Down 2008) is an intergenerational novel inspired by the author's own family. Names and other details have been changed — this is a novel, not a family history — yet a reader can sense Todd's affection for his characters and the truth behind his fiction.
Following four generations of the Paint family from the Civil War to the Depression, the novel tells of their struggles against the elements, their rivals, tough economic conditions and sometimes each other. Ebenezer Paint sells his Mississippi riverboat early in the novel and buys land in Nebraska. Despite a loving wife and twin sons, he cannot control his wanderlust and frequently leaves them to fend for themselves.
As for the sons, Ezra inherits his father's need to keep moving, while Eli settles down, raises a large family (mostly girls) and builds up a huge, successful ranch. One of his daughters, Velma, carries the ball for most of the rest of the novel. She is not yet 16 when pregnancy forces her to marry a handsome cowboy, and Eli tells her he doesn't want to see her again. He regrets that decision, for she was his favorite daughter, but he is too stubborn to backtrack.
Velma develops TB and marries three times in her short life. One of her children, Emaline, fills in much of the rest of the story.
Except for the Eli-Velma split, the novel has little of what could be called a plot, yet the episodes in these characters' lives keep the reader engrossed from one chapter to the next, even when years pass in between.
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