Buffaloed

In Fairlee Winfield's fascinating novel BUFFALOed, we follow the daily skirmishes of young Norwegian immigrant Ovidia Odegard as she inches her way into the home and life of a real American hero, artist Charlie Russell. It is through Ovidia's wise-beyond-her-years voice that Winfield brings to life the early 20th Century American West. Revealed as a time when Montana's cattle industry was suffering and one artist took on a monumental project that nearly buried him alive, Winfield weaves a compelling mixture of fact and fiction, and paints images with her words that carry the reader into a time when only the downright crazy survived. The reader will be thrust into the heart of a young Montana, struggling to find its place in a new America, by a hard-talking young woman telling her story only as she can. Determined to find her place and live life by her own rules, the reader will be drawn to Ovidia's strength as she not only adapts to what life deals her, but she deals her own deck.

Fairlee Winfield is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Northern Arizona University. A former Fulbright lecturer in Peru, and an exchange professor in Japan, she resides in the west. Inspiration for BUFFALOed was sparked by her grandmother’s stories of working in the renowned Cowboy Artist’s Montana home.