The real West

Right up to the end of his prolific career, Richard S. Wheeler wrote western novels that didn't seem like western novels. They were more about the real West than the fantasy West. His 2015 novel (he died in 2019), Anything Goes, must be one of those least like a typical western novel. Not among his best, it nevertheless offers a rich reading experience.

The West has been all but tamed early in the 20th century when a small vaudeville troupe braves harsh winter weather to bring entertainment to towns in the upper Rockies. The Beausoleil Brothers Follies is run by August Beausoleil, who has no brother and has put together a variety show composed of singers, dancers, comics, an animal act and a juggler. The show barely breaks even, but keeps going and usually finds an audience starved for entertainment.

Then troubles come, one after the other. The lead singer dies. One of the monkeys in the animal act dies because of the cold weather. Several of the performers get sick. Then  the Orpheum Circuit, which has taken over the best theaters in the East, starts doing the same in the West, spelling doom for this independent group of performers. Prominent theaters begin canceling August's bookings.

Then there's Ginger, an 18-year-old girl who has run away from home, or more specifically, from her dominating mother who wants her to become an opera star. Ginger, who has also changed her name, has other ideas. She joins the Follies and soon becomes its star, but then forced changes in the schedule take her unwillingly back to her hometown in Idaho.

Wheeler's story may be weaker than usual, but his characters are vivid and memorable. Show business novels usually turn me off, but not this one.