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6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Times a Changin' Dec 05, 2008
By William Walters
Times were changing! It was in the early 1900s and electricity, automobiles, plumbing, cities, society........were crashing onto the old frontier West. And for Cowboy Artist Charles Russell it was almost too much for him to witness the loss of his country of cowboying, cattle ranching and frontiering. Losing the world he lived and loved was dramatically offset and preserved by his superbly created style of western ¨action art¨. Despite his many distractions he was driven to visually document and paint this romantic era of American history.
Through the eyes and ears of teenage Norweigian immigrant Ovidia, who householded for the Russells in Montana you see the panoramic dynamics of this ¨CHANGE¨. This craftily written novel portrays the unique relationships of the ensemble characters surrounding Charlie Russell and his life in the Western-Cowboy art world. I especially liked author Winfield's use of the cowpunchers slanguage along with the inclusion of the resident Indian characters who became part of Charlie Russell's life to get you into the mood and lifestyle of this era of the early West.
This fascinating page-turner is an entertaining, historical glimpse of the West and an easy to read biographical sketch of Russell and his unique place in Western art. You'll love hard-driving Nancy Russell who guided and absolutely believed in Charlie's art and made him an international art celebrity, sweet Ovidia who was honed by the harsh reality of making it in the new world as an immigrant with her colorful language, skills at the gambling tables and pragmatic good sense of ¨fixing¨things.along with the endless entourage of cowboys called, ¨The Bunch¨.
Block off some time when you get started on this one because you won't want to put it down!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Gallop into Buffaloed Dec 04, 2008
By Marcia Melton
"Librarian"
Fairlee Winfield's book is a great gallop of a read. This fictionalized account of events in the life of cowboy artist Charlie Russell engages the reader on page one as Ovidia Odegard, a lively, straight-talking Norwegian maid in the Russell household, begins to spin a story for her grandson Billy. And spin she does -- until by the last page, the reader is thoroughly living in Charlie's world of dusty cowboys, the streets of Great Falls, Montana in 1904, and Charlie's outback studio with its friendships, yarns, and myths. Winfield's immigrant grandmother is the story's narrator and she is a delight of honest observation and the kinds of "insider info" that only the household help of famous people truly see. Through Ovidia's eyes we see all the larger than life characters: the appealing, incorrigible Charlie; his manager wife, Nancy; Teddy Blue Abbott, just one of Charlie's many cowboy pals; Miss Josephine, Charlie's "friend;" the writer, Frank Linderman; Little Joe, Charlie's apprentice; and many others. This story is creative, fascinating, and "Montana lively" with language and voices that are authentic and raw. The ending mystery keeps the reader pondering long after the last page. A side effect of reading this book will be that wherever you are, you'll be ready to start out right away on a trip to Helena, Montana, to see for yourself if the mystery holds true. It is evident that a good deal of research underlies this book. It is a wonderful western gem to be enjoyed, as attested to by its recent First Prize in the Arizona Authors' Association 2008 Literary Contest.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
There's More to the Mural than Meets the Eye Feb 02, 2009
By C. Carroll
In this vivid story of a plucky immigrant girl, Fairlee Winfield brings her characters to life in living color and fascinating detail. She relates the story behind the story of the famous mural hanging in the Montana state house. Could it be true? The Charles Russell household is portrayed in loving, no-holds-barred detail with Ovidia taking the role of housekeeper extraordinaire who is able to use her special talents at the poker table to help the Russells fulfill their wildest ambitions. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the turn-of-the-century wild west. I just wish the author had included the recipe for those famous Norwegian waffles Ovidia used to whip up for the Russell household.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
superb and exciting story telling Jan 25, 2010
By Malcolm R. Campbell
"The Sun Singer"
When teenager Ovidia Odegard arrives in the United States in 1904, her first duty is to find suitable work so she can begin paying back her uncle for his out-of-pocket costs in sponsoring her immigration from Norway. Her dream, though is not only to be an American, but a Westerner, and that includes wearing a fancy buckskin jacket.
Providentially, Nancy Russell-the wife of the famed Montana cowboy artist Charles M. Russell-is looking for a housemaid at the couple's home in Great Falls. When Ovida sees a copy of Russell's pictorial "Studies of Western Life," she can't wait to board the train and head for the West she's seen at the Nickelodeon.
When she arrives in Great Falls, she finds a dirty, modern city, and once she meets Charlie Russell, she begins discovering that the idealized West as it exists in books and movies is gone-if it ever existed. While Nancy Russell wants contracts and sales for Charlie's art, Charlie would rather spend his time spinning yarns about the old days with his "bunch" down at the saloon. Not surprisingly, the house is a mess.
"Buffaloed" is Ovidia's story as told to her grandson just before she died at 94, and it all begins when she mentions a secret she has never shared with anyone: the famous Charles M. Russell mural "Lewis and Clark Meeting the Indians at Ross' Hole" at the Montana State House of Representatives" wasn't really painted by Russell. It was a con, or so Ovidia claims.
Ovidia dangles this con before her grandson's eyes throughout her remembrances because, as she sees it, he wouldn't understand it if he didn't know what happened in the Russell household from the moment she reported for work. What had she gotten herself into?
This well-researched book is just the kind of yarn that the master of tall tales, one Charles Marion Russell (1862-1926), would endorse without hesitation. The dialogue, the atmosphere, and the historical period in "Buffaloed" are superb. Fans of Russell and Montana history will discover that the book includes real events and places along with a supporting cast of historical personages.
In his book "Montana Adventure," a friend and contemporary of Russell, Frank B. Linderman, writes that "Charlie Russell was the most lovable man I have ever known." This is the Charlie Russell who emerges in Fairlee Winfield's wonderful novel.
Now, if you live in Montana, mostly everything having to do with Charlie Russell is sacred, and that includes a lot of living and story telling that was also delightfully profane. Ovidia does have a confession to make in regard to that mural, but this is a novel, of course.
Winfield's disclaimer at the beginning of the book reminds us that "Buffaloed" is a work of fiction. In addition to the standard reference books about Charles and Nancy Russell, Winfield also had a more personal resource for this novel: her Norwegian grandmother did work in the artist's home and had a lot of humorous and gritty stories to tell.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Western Tall Tale Contains Timeless Truth Jul 22, 2009
By Dawna Rand
"Dawna"
What do you do when your PREconceptions turn out to be MISconceptions? For some people, the only answer is to take charge and forge your own reality.
That's exactly the premise behind Fairlee Winfield's BUFFALOed, the story of 16-year-old Ovidia Odegard, a Norwegian immigrant lured from her homeland by her own wanderlust and vision of a better life. At first, Ovidia journeys to Boston to work for her uncle as an indentured servant. But glimpses into the legendary American West - views afforded by the media of the day - destine her for a new Western path, in which Ovidia is initially blinded by wide-eyed idealism.
Only Ovidia's idealism quickly fades against the tawdry backdrop of the West as she never envisioned it: one of wannabe Eastern society, commercialization of the American Indian, and wanton opportunism.. So when Ovidia realizes that her employer and friend - the famed cowboy artist Charlie Russell - is destined to self-destruct his own singular opportunity for greatness, Ovidia hatches her own plan to help him succeed - and help perpetrate the greatest art fraud in the history of the American West.
Filled with characters colorful enought to stand out from the frontier's wild backdrop, BUFFALOed is a story not just of cowboy culture, the immigrant experience, and art - though it's certainly a tale of all of these. Most importantly, it's the story of what we do - and who we choose to become - when the world around us fails to live up to its own promise.
Read - and enjoy!
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