Five Skies: A Synopsis with Commentary
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The Barnes & Noble Web site describes Five Skies as a novel "about a transformative friendship among three troubled men. Refugees from the painful past, a ranch foreman and two hired hands are drawn together one summer by a bizarre construction project in the Idaho Rockies – a motorcycle stunt ramp for a spectacularly ill conceived feat of daredevilry."

The theme of people living in close proximity significantly influencing each other is not a new one; in the movie "Enchanted April," for example, four women from England spend time together in an English villa and gain a clearer view of their own lives as they become acquainted with each other. What for me is engaging about Five Skies is the crispness and clarity with which the men are described. We read "The first time Arthur Key saw the plateau at the far edge of the ranch called Rio Difficulto, he was lying in a sleeping bag in the frigid open air at dawn, or a little before it, in the deep gray light through which so many creatures jostled in the sage. He was a big man and had slept in rough sections, shouldering the oversize Coleman sleeping bag up over his right arm and then his left by turns."

The language of the book is rich in color, texture, and scent. Darwin Gallegos, the foreman of the group, is also the cook for the summer project. We read "Darwin could cook a breakfast fry like no one Arthur had ever seen. He was quick and quiet and before a person had his boots tied right, the sound and smell of bacon was in the morning air and then the skillet eggs with onions and ham, sometimes with the sharp cheddar he bought in the village in a big brick, and the thick fried bread, close to burned the way Darwin had learned the other two men liked it."

The vivid descriptions of their time together and the problems they reveal to each other give the men dimensionality. The loss of beloved spouse, feelings of betrayal of a brother, and difficulties with the law have caused them great pain. We care about them, just as they begin to care about and seek to help each other.

In the story they are central – but against the vast backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, which creates yet another engaging perspective.

Maxine Williams

Note: The quotations from Five Skies appear on pages 1 and 53.

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