A Stranger in the Kingdom
Howard Frank Mosher (1989, Mariner edition 2002)
The late Howard Frank Mosher had a fine long career as chronicler of a fictionalized Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. You may think of downstate Vermont as rural and remote already, but the upper corner tucked between the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont is significantly more so. Mosher populates his background history with indigenous people, escaped survivors of the Underground Railroad, the occasional Gypsy, and six or so generations of the Kinneson family.
Kingdom County would be renowned, if anyone had ever heard of it, for deer hunting and fly fishing. In spring, when the mayflies hatch, the county judge “had been observed wearing waders in court under his judicial robes in order not to waste precious seconds getting onto his beloved river.” Mosher has a tender appreciation for such seasonal details; his meadows bloom with the flowers in their turn.
For this book, our narrator is thirteen-year-old James Kinneson. His father, Charles, is owner and editor of the local weekly paper; his brother, Charlie, is a feisty young lawyer in town. The Charleses are hard-headed and prone to argument “...over history and literature, politics and religion, current events and what they were pleased to call ‘the King’s English...” It’s their habit to put young Jimmy in the middle, yelling their points at him for the other’s benefit. Since Jimmy adores them both, it’s vexing, but it’s an amusing narrative device.
Into this bucolic backcountry comes the church’s new minister for the United Protestant Church of Kingdom Common, “one Walter Andrews from Montreal, Canada, a former chaplain in the Royal Canadian Air Force.” The Rev. Mr. Andrews is the first minister the church has contrived to call in two years, since the previous incumbent’s unfortunate experience at the local cock fights. Mr. Andrews is extremely well educated and well spoken; he’s also black, which is a subject of considerable interest around Kingdom Common. He brings his son, Nathan, who’s a few years ahead of Jimmy in school. They form a friendship of sorts, but Jimmy knows that Nathan would rather be back in Montreal, even if it meant moving back in with his grandmother. He’s not destined to fall in love with trout fishing.
The other new face in town that summer is Claire LaRiviere, a young woman who left Montreal after answering an ad for a housekeeper, placed by the senior Charles Kinneson’s disreputable cousins. Such a position is not a workable plan in any way, and Claire doesn’t have the money to get to Hollywood, which is her dream, so she winds up taking refuge in the minister’s house. That’s a touchy situation, and meat and drink for every gossip in town (none of whom, naturally, offer to take Claire in.)
She comes to a tragic end, and Walter Andrews is accused of killing her. Charles, Jr., puts on his best Perry Mason defense, including a large dash of good luck in his witnesses. Walter and Nathan leave town, leaving young James with a story for the ages. He will grow up to take over the newspaper, but he’s a novelist at heart.
This is a magnificently old-fashioned book, which tells of a time we can never otherwise come back to. The people are the ordinary run of scoundrels and saints, in interesting ways. I’m glad I’ll have a few more chances to visit Kingdom Common, if Thriftbooks doesn’t let me down.
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