Book: Travers Corners

Scott Waldie’s final installation in his Travers Corners series is a sweet, observant picture of small-town life in Montana. Travers Corners: The Final Chapters tells the story of two residents of a small, beautiful fishing community which proves that a love of place, friends, and family can be just as powerful a century after it started. While many of the town’s population were born and raised on this small dot on the map, other residents and visitors come from afar: citified runaways of New York City, big-hearted millionaires from Florida, various disenchanted suburbanites from across the country. Even aloof novelists from Chicago find a home in Travers Corners. They’re all drawn by the fishing but get hooked on something else entirely. Perhaps it is a need to be there: a place, a feeling, an emotion brought about by a few casts to rising fish on a favorite stretch of water, a warm seat next to a furry friend on a cold winter’s day, or love found through the embrace of a best friend. Waldie effectively throws the reader into everyday life in Travers Corners, into the ups and downs of a pristine, almost untouched piece of the world where everyone is searching for his or her personal there—a place where they’ll have a chance to realize their worth and reason for being.