47 pages • 1 hour read
Wallace StegnerAngle of Repose
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1971A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 7: “The Canyon”
Part 7, Chapters 1-4 Summary
In June 1882, Susan writes to Augusta from a house “built by a missionary Jesuit since called to other fields” (381). In the drab town, Susan is writing another Leadville novel but lacks “stimulation or excitement” (381). Oliver’s idea has made them “people of consequence” (382) and is going well. Susan invites Thomas and Augusta to buy property in the area and help alleviate her boredom. Despite this, the country is beautiful and unspoiled. Oliver is setting up his work and has invited Frank to join him. She bids farewell to Augusta and worries that she will need to write a lot “before we have brought this valley into the civilized world” (385).
Lyman describes the effort of shifting through many documents before finding anything useful or interesting. Determined not to complain too much, she “chatters a good deal during her first year in Boise” (386). Lyman finds traces of a novel, a miscarriage, illness, and a letter to Augusta in which she describes being made to move house after Oliver’s backers have suffered a reverse in fortunes. New backers are being sought. They have help from Nellie, a young friend of the family, in their “primitive” (388) camp.
Lyman reflects on the dam that was eventually built on Oliver’s plans; Oliver’s name was not among those credited. Lyman says that he was “premature” (389). The family stayed in the canyon camp for five years. Lyman skips his narrative ahead to September 1883; after another backer falls through, they miss their digging season and must wait. Susan resents waiting; Elizabeth (nicknamed Betsy) is now 2-years-old. Oliver tries to convince his assistants—Frank and Wiley—to spend the winter elsewhere. Susan finds a solution to keep them together, building a house with her publishing money and then selling it back to the irrigation company at a profit. She writes to Thomas and describes how the house is built, which she describes as “the wildest and sweetest” (399) of their various homes. She is pregnant again and thanks Thomas and Augusta for their Christmas gifts.
Susan’s letters from this time are not properly dated, and it is difficult to construct a timeline. No backers appear. Frank and Wiley eventually depart. The parting with Frank is difficult for Susan; he still has feelings for her. Lyman jumps ahead to midsummer 1885. Heavily pregnant, Susan is annoyed that the midwife—Mrs. Briscoe—has wandered off. She sees the woman drinking alone and then sees Ollie crossing the dangerous suspicion bridge built by Oliver and his assistants. Ollie slips and Susan screams. Oliver runs to help as Ollie dangles from the bridge. Oliver saves his son and carries him to firm ground where Susan meets them. Susan berates Ollie and then turns her anger on Mrs. Briscoe and demands that Oliver fire the midwife. An hour after Mrs. Briscoe leaves, Susan’s contractions begin. With no one to help, Ollie takes it upon himself to dash across the bridge and fetch the neighbor. Lyman imagines his father speeding to get what help he could. He brings Mrs. Olpen as quickly as he can, meeting his father on the way. When she enters the house, Oliver congratulates his son on doing “something very grown up” (423). They see a double rainbow breaking through the storm clouds. Before they can tell Susan, the doctor announces the successful birth.
Part 7, Chapters 5-7 Summary
Lyman resumes the story in midsummer 1887. Oliver is still struggling to find backers. Susan tries to read after a long day drawing. The night is silent beneath a bright moon. She wanders outside and stands beneath the moon, considering the family’s current predicament, and then walks to the water’s edge. Then, she crosses the rickety bridge, hoping to meet Oliver on his way home. She hears a strange sound approach; it is Oliver, “riding home in the midnight quiet” (430) and singing. She decides to surprise him in the barn. The shock knocks him to the ground. They talk; there is no good news and the canal idea is “dead” (432) to investors. Oliver is drunk. Susan storms back to the house, and Oliver sleeps in the shack.
Lyman acknowledges that the story is mostly “hard luck and waiting” (436); the deteriorating relationship between his grandparents saddens Lyman. Susan is being forced to work more and takes less pleasure in writing and drawing. Both Oliver and Susan are “miserable” (437). Lyman decides to skip ahead to November 1888, when a letter arrives from the post office. It is from Major John Wesley Powell, asking Oliver for help on a government survey. Taking the position means giving up the dream of the dam and leaving the cabin. They have a heated discussion about the future, including Oliver’s increasing dependence on drink. They form a tentative, unsatisfying agreement.
Shelly is annoying Lyman once again. She tells her own story, passed down through her father, of how people cheated Oliver and how he never really gave up drinking. Lyman shares his own memory of Oliver taking him down the Zodiac mine. Lyman knows Shelly wants to talk about everything but refuses to give her the satisfaction. Lyman reveals that he has a collection of Susan’s most private letters—not included in the collection—in which “that poor Victorian lady is stripped bare” (445). Lyman does not know exactly what happened to cause this. He reflects on his own broken marriage. Ellen left him for the surgeon who removed his leg, who himself then vanished and turned up dead a year later. She tried to reconcile with Lyman, but he says “to hell with her” (450).
Susan takes the children and Nellie to Vancouver Island “while Oliver leads a party into Jackson Hole” (450). Thomas and Augusta are enjoying tremendous success, close friends with millionaires and Presidents. Packing up the cabin is a profound moment, “like closing up a house after a death” (451). It makes Susan think about Frank, who appears again right at that moment. He has come to collect the items he left behind. Agnes, Susan’s youngest daughter, tells Frank that she does not like him. She reminds Frank of Susan. Lyman has trouble imagining what they said to one another. Susan and Frank walk together and talk. When they look down at the valley, Susan notes that “there lie the most wasted years of our lives” (458) and confesses her fears to Frank, that Oliver will continue to fail and be driven further and further toward alcoholism. They kiss and then, tearfully, Susan pulls herself free from “that sweet and fatal embrace” (460). The pair walk away and, on the path, meet Oliver and Ollie. Though the reunion seems to have “the outward signs of warmth” (461), Susan feels the hollowness of the moment and worries about the tears on her cheeks.
Part 7 Analysis
Though Lyman has avoided discussing Ellen, this section reveals the tragic tale: Ellen left him shortly after his amputation and ran away with the doctor who performed the surgery, leaving only a note as a means of explanation. Added to that, the surgeon vanished one day and his remains were found many months later. After leaving her husband, Ellen tries to reconcile their relationship through their son, Rodman. Lyman refuses her advances. He cannot bring himself to forgive her for what she did, and her departure has had a pronounced effect on his character. This can partly explain why he has become so vested in the history of his grandparents: He knows that his grandparents experienced many trials and difficulties as a married couple. Perhaps, in understanding Susan and Oliver's marriage, he can find some resolution or forgiveness for Ellen. In the history of his grandparents, he hopes to find the key to happiness that allowed them to remain together until both were in old age. Their tragedies become reflections of his own, and he hopes that their solutions will become equally as relevant to his own life.
Lyman has difficulty in examining the more intimate issues in his grandmother’s life, such as her relationship with Frank—a close friendship that was infused with mostly unrequited romantic interest. At moments, Lyman knows that his research does not provide him with the exact details of what occurred between Frank and Susan. He must imagine their reactions and longing for one another. This hurts him as a historian. As a writer, an empathetic grandson, and a man who hopes to learn from his grandparents’ relationship, he knows how important it is to portray the bond between Frank and Susan. As such, the prose in these moments becomes more industrial. It does not flow as easy as elsewhere in the book but rather draws attention to its own construction. Lyman comments that he wonders what each of them is doing with their hands, which dress Susan was wearing, and whether he might research their clothes further. The text is drawing attention to the act of writing, begging the reader to ask why Lyman is having such difficulty in such a moment and why he persists. The answer to that lies not in the relationship between Frank and Susan, but in Lyman himself. The writing offers him salvation and escape; if he shies away from the difficult moments, he might be surrendering himself to a lifetime of failure.
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