Salvation by C William Langsfeld

By Philippa Tracy

I didn’t really know that Western noir was a genre until I got tipped off about C William Langsfeld’s debut novel. Now, I feel foolish for my ignorance and look forward to reading more of it, even though it will probably lead to disappointment as Salvation has set the bar improbably high.

Towards the end of the novel, Marshal Tomlinson, the close-to-retirement lawman in the small Colorado town that forms the backdrop of Salvation, and also the story’s chief philosopher, comments: ‘Scares the hell out of me. The things we are capable of when pushed to the limit.’ He’s not talking about individuals, but about American society, a world pushed to breaking point by the constant striving after an unobtainable goal, where the hollowness of fractured fears controls a populace for whom God no longer provides an anchor.

But Tomlinson is also talking about individuals. And he’s also wrong. Because while the novel’s protagonist, Tom Horak, does scary things when pushed to his limit – namely, the murder of his former best friend, Rust Hawkins, which sets off the chain of events that form the novel – Horak’s counterpoint, the local pastor, Morris Green, finds that goodness and purpose and love can also be achieved when we reach and are forced beyond our limits.

What unites the two men is love for Rust’s son, Gus, whom Tom watches over/stalks because of the warped emotion he feels for the child born to the woman he loves by a man he grows to loathe. After the murder, Gus is placed with Green temporarily while a permanent family is sought for the boy, and through this experience the pastor who is grappling with a lack of faith that makes his vocation a hollow charade finds a path to love and family, to the salvation that makes Green ultimately the novel’s hero.

The plot and premise are good, but like all exceptional literature, what really matters is the writing. Langsfeld’s world, contained within such a slim volume, captures places and personalities, or places with personalities, in language that is resonant and evocative. This is a book that stays with you, whose stark Colorado winter and the largely harrowing events that take place within it make a reader oddly yearn to linger inside its stark beauty.

It feels needless to remark that I am excited by the prospect of Langsfeld’s future work, but just in case you hadn’t realised, I am. You should be too.