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“Escape”, by Mary Sanders Smith
Marick Press, 2010, 228 pages

A novel set in the natural wilderness of Wisconsin.

A review of “Escape” by Friends Board Member William H. Salot, M.D.

Reviewer William H. Salot, M.D.

This is Mary Sanders Smith’s third novel, and it is her best work to date. She takes us on an exciting journey to a penal colony in the north woods of Wisconsin where a strong man attempts unsuccessfully to continue control over his life. This is not a prison novel. The action occurs very much in the outdoors, with an admixture of Indian lore.

Carl Weston is the prison superintendent of the Northwoods Minimum Security Prison, situated along the Eau Claire River in northwest Wisconsin. Weston is a tough man who takes pride in a long career of domination over those under his responsibility. One gets the impression that he has not always played exactly by the Marquis of Queensbury rules of prison warden conduct, but at this late date he has always come out on top. Weston’s personal life has been tragic. He is a widower whose late wife was a Native American whose family never quite welcomed him into the tribal society. His young son Matt was killed in a motorcycle accident. He’s been left with his daughter Evie, who loves her father but is also anxious to learn more about her Indian background.

Enter Jeffrey Brand. Jeffrey is a young man, the product of a dysfunctional family, and who like Evie, is part Native American. He is a convict, and except for the confinement is actually content at Northwoods Prison. However, as the result of a couple of “wrong place, wrong time” events, he is faced with being transferred back to the big state prison, where bad things happen to men of Jeffrey’s youth, body build, and demeanor. Faced with this impossible situation, he plans an escape. He is aided in this by Evie, who has met him while he was playing for the prison baseball team, and who sees in him the spirit of her late brother Matt.

Jeffrey, with Evie’s aid, jumps the prison wall and, availing himself of one of her father’s canoes, sets off down the river for freedom. Carl Weston, who has never had a convict successfully escape, impulsively, and in the face of deteriorating weather, takes chase. The pursuer and his quarry are soon in trouble. This comes in the form of an Alberta Clipper, a November storm which howls out of the Canadian prairies, dropping temperatures with heavy accumulations of snow.

Carl, exhausted, finally captures Jeffrey (who has been injured) and provides him with first aid and sustenance while they ride out the storm. Jeffrey responds by drugging Carl and once again escaping. This time he walks out and heads for town and a rendezvous with Evie. Carl awakes, staggers home…. only to find Jeffrey and his daughter.

“Escape” begins and ends in a Wisconsin courtroom, where Carl faces sentencing. The book represents a statement of the struggle of a powerful man to keep control of his life. For the reader, the winning points of this excellent novel will be the tension of the chase with its magnificent description of this wilderness area and its inhabitants under the onslaught of a winter storm. The author’s reverence for and knowledge of Native American culture lend authenticity to the unique geographic setting of this work.