Anderson's 'The Other Oregon' taps history, places close to home
The Other Oregon by Portland's Steve Anderson begins with some men, tied up and tortured, being branded on their booties with what is probably a livestock brand. There's a lot of drug abuse and at least one murder.
I almost didnt put it there, but I did, said Anderson, who tends to start chapters with a shocking action and backtrack through the characters memories of the events leading up to it.
Anderson himself grew up in Southeast Portland around Milwaukie and Clackamas in the 1980s before Portland was cool. He studied history and German, and then backpacked in Germany before the Berlin Wall came down. He returned stateside to complete his master's degree in the '90s.
Most of his other books are historical, about war, and when hes not writing novels hes translating books from German to English.
I thought, 'Lets give it a shot.' I dont usually write about myself or where Im from, but lets try it out, Anderson said. What he originally wrote as a screenplay needed some serious rewrites before his publisher accepted the manuscript as a book. You can write about emotion in a narrative, but in a screenplay you can only show it.
The Other Oregon ($14.99, Yucca Publishing) is unique for Anderson as it takes place in Oregon where he grew up, in the fictional Pineburg allegedly southeast of where Prineville really exists.
It segues into what I normally do historical fiction with crime elements and war, he said. I cover lesserknown aspects of history in a fictional context informed by my studying history.
Compared to the trendy Portland that outofstaters think of when they think of Oregon, the rest of the state's small towns are very small close in size to Estacada, an old timber town with about a fiveblock downtown, newly focusing on an urban renewal program there. These settlements, some with a population as little as 9,000 (Prineville) and getting smaller, are partly known for agriculture and drug problems, prominent in Andersons novel.
I went on a dedicated trip when I was researching, I went to towns and talked to people, he said. You see these towns out there, they have grand courthouses and streets with nice Victorian homes, and maybe a rail line that was coming out from the east a hundred years ago. Its a completely different world.
As for his characters, the men arent very likeable, which Anderson readily admits. As violent users with a hidden past trying to rebuild themselves, the only redeemable concept in the novel is the nation of Cascadia an independence movement proposing secession of Northwest America from the rest of the United States.
I dont have any affiliation with the movement, but its one of the few probably noble, wellmeaning notions in the book, Anderson said. For me in this book, it was a way of giving the main character something that was sort of hopeful and idealistic because hes trying to cover up a dark past and sort of rebuild himself.
Though the dudes might not be characters that the reader cares about or wants to follow, there are more compelling femme fatales.
The male characters turned out to be not very likeable, but they definitely have seeds of selfdestruction built into them, Anderson said. The women have turned out to be much better people at their core with their heads screwed on right, even when theyre making bad decisions.
Emily, the young girlfriend, is a fashionista from Iowa who owns her own threebedroom apartment in downtown Portland the main male character just crashes there, not even sleeping in the same room with her. She tells him hes the one whos not ready for a family despite being at least a decade older, and focuses on her career rather than the man.
Emilys the best character in the book, the purest character, Anderson said. Theres also Leann Holt, her foil the bad girl who likely has pictures of herself on motorcycles smoking cigarettes, or more.
I like Emily a lot. But I really like Leann Holt for some reason. Shes this other Portland; where theres poor people out in the east, shes that Portlander, Anderson said. She made some choices when she was young that didnt really work out.
Some of those choices in the book are drawn from Andersons own rebellious teen years, when he experienced partying at downtown warehouses (now trendy homes his nickname for the old shutdown dive Satyricon is Satyricondos) and timber towns where drug deals went down with weapons drawn.
Maybe there was that summer where you were running with the wrong crowd, hanging out with someone you know you shouldnt be with, Anderson said. One thing could have gone wrong, maybe driving drunk or getting talked into doing something stupid, and your life could change forever.
Thats what happens to the two main characters in his book, and the dark secret they share from their teen years.
Today, Anderson is 48 and lives with his wife, René, near the downtown park blocks after downsizing from a house farther from the city.
We put ourselves in positions for good luck and also for bad luck, he says. If I was a little dumber or a little unluckier, I could have been one of these guys. A lot of people I know could have been, and then you rebuild yourself.
