By Claire Dietz
Although he began college intending to be a poet, Larry Watson became a short-story writer and then soon after that, a novelist.
Now, 10 novels later, it is safe to say he has found his preferred form of writing.
Watson, who grew up in the ’60s, is a man of the Midwest, born in Bismark, North Dakota. A majority of his novels, however, are set in Montana, which he describes as “terribly dissimilar” to his home state.
At 7 p.m. today, Larry Watson will read from his new book, As Good as Gone, at Prairie Lights, 15 S. Dubuque St. As Good as Gone tells the story of Calvin Sidey, one of the last cowboys living in 1960s Montana. When his son returns to ask him to watch his grandchildren, Calvin reluctantly agrees. While there, he encounters some trouble in the family and does his best to help solve it.
“He tries to take care of those problems in his sort of clumsy way,” Watson said. “He kind of lives by Old West code, where you’re self-reliant and take care of your problems yourself. If they involve violence, so be it.”
Watson wanted to show that this era in American — and particularly Western — history was not just a period littered with emotionless men and women and restricted lives.
“I think of my characters as having passions and desires, but they try to tone them down,” Watson said. “The tension that it creates is interesting.”
After receiving a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of North Dakota, Watson went on to the University of Utah to study in its creative-writing program. After graduating, he was unable to find a publisher for another 13 years until Milkweed Editions picked up his first novel, Montana 1948.
“I had no idea that in the wake of Montana 1948 that this would happen,” he said. “Foreign editions, paperback sales, none of those things.” Now, having released 10 novels, he said one thing never changes: getting the words right. He said he works slowly and diligently to make sure that the words he chooses are the right ones.
“Every novel, every story has its own demands,” Watson said. “Sometimes, it takes a while to figure out just exactly what it is the book itself wants you to do. For me, I go word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph.”