PORT ANGELES — West of Here, Jonathan Evison’s epic tome about life beneath the Olympic Mountains, could mean “pennies from heaven,” as Diane Schostak sees it.
“We hope it will be a driver for people to discover the Olympic Peninsula,” said Schostak, the West End native who is executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau.
She and bureau communications manager Mary Brelsford are busy compiling a list of places named in the novel — Hollywood Beach, the Bushwhacker restaurant, the mouth of the Elwha River, to name a few — for literary travelers to visit.
“Westies and Twihards can come together and tour the Peninsula,” said Brelsford, referring to readers of West of Here and of the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer.
She and Schostak aren’t taking this too seriously: They’re putting Walmart, another prominent place in Evison’s story, on the itinerary.
“We’ll have all the iconic locations,” Brelsford quipped.
West of Here has in its cast of characters a guy who goes deep into the woods looking for Sasquatch, that mysterious wild thing also known as Bigfoot.
“Maybe,” Brelsford said, “the book will spur some more Sasquatch-hunting.”
The book is selling well at both Port Book and News and Odyssey Books in downtown Port Angeles.
Opens a conversation
Alan Turner, owner of Port Book, said West of Here opens a conversation he’s been wanting to have for years now.
It’s the conversation between the present and the past. West of Here switches to and fro between 1890, when Port Angeles — called Port Bonita in the book — is starting its growth, and 2006, when the Elwha River Restoration plan comes into view.
In both eras, readers see the town’s less-than-pretty side: exploitation of nature and of people, lives derailed by alcohol and other drugs.
West of Here may be a hard read for some who live here, Turner said.
Port Angeles’ more comfortable residents may not care for Evison’s portrayals of poverty, alcohol abuse and the despair afflicting a segment of this community.
At the same time, Turner added, readers elsewhere across America may find West of Here a ripping read about a remote, even mystical, place.
Pique locals’ interest
Evison, for his part, said he hopes to pique locals’ interest in their town’s history.
That’s exactly what happened with April Bellerud, Odyssey Books’ owner.
After reading about West of Here’s Eva Lambert, a young journalist intent on building a utopian colony in Port Angeles, Bellerud was intrigued about the real thing: the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, an experiment in collective living on Ennis Creek.
The colony, established during the 1880s, was the first of many utopian enclaves that grew up around Puget Sound over the following three decades; its founders built Port Angeles’ first sawmill, office building, homes, schools, churches and even an opera house, according to www.HistoryLink.org.
Brelsford added that the novel made her want to learn more about the Press Expedition, a journey into the Olympic Mountains in 1889-1890 financed by the Seattle Press.
For her, the book is a provocative blend of history and fiction.
“If [Evison] wanted to start a conversation,” Brelsford said, “he has definitely done that.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
