Ivan Doig is an outstanding writer whose prose, sometimes dense in descriptions of frontier life, nevertheless soars as he lyrically describes the mountains and vistas of Montana, before the Interstate arrives. Doig also develops strong characterizations in The ongoing friendship of Rob Barclay and Angus McCaskil(narrator). Both characters experience love, requited and unrequited. What one remembers the most is the reliable Scottish voice of the dependable narrator. Early Montana settlement novel.