They eventually see in her a means of taking revenge on Hank. As the increasingly senile Henry, the sullen Hank and the friendly cousin Joe-Bob teach Lee the ropes of the lumber business, Lee develops a relationship with Viv. When he gets there, he discovers a kindred spirit in Viv, Hank's young, sensitive wife. Lee returns home with the intention of taking revenge on Hank for what he did to his (Lee's) mother. There's a strike in the lumber industry, but the Stampers are scabbing (filling the contracts of the striking workers). Lee doesn't see his family for over a dozen years, and his mother commits suicide.Ī few months after his mother's death, Lee receives a postcard insisting that he come home and help the family in a time of need. She takes Lee back east to attend school and never returns home. It culminates in Lee's discovery that Hank is having a sexual relationship with his (Lee's) mother. Tensions between Hank and Lee emerge during their childhood and increase into their adolescence. Hank's mother dies Henry takes another bride, and then fathers Leland (Lee). Henry Stamper moves into the position of head of the family following his father's return to a family farm in Kansas, takes a young bride, and fathers Henry Junior (Hank). They stayed there and worked their way into the lumber business. Being on the west coast, there was no further they could go. The story of the Stampers begins with recollections of how the male members of the family have always been restless, moving ever further west until settled in Oregon. This makes up the action of most of the novel's remaining chapters. Her comments on some of the photographs it contains trigger a transition into an extended flashback. He finds her in a local bar studying a family photo album. After being confronted with a powerful symbol of the Stamper family's contempt, Draeger seeks out Hank's wife, Viv. Union organizer, Draeger, arrives at the Stamper family home to confront Hank Stamper, who seems to have gone back on a deal he made with the union. The novel begins with a scene of confrontation. Narrative voice and perspective shifts frequently between time periods and between characters, creating the thematically-relevant sense that there is no core truth, only interpretations of events. More important than the novel's substance, however, is its style. Throughout the novel, tension-filled relationships within the family are echoed by the relationship the family has with a nearby town and its citizens, most of whom harbor generations-old resentments of the Stampers. This innovative novel tells the multi-generational story of the Stampers, a lumber family in Oregon.
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