Quick, name some Seattle historical novels. Betcha thought of just one, David Guterson’s prizewinning Snow Falling on Cedars, set on postwar Puget Sound. Peter Donahue’s new Clara and Merritt is set in Seattle itself during the same tumultuous period. It’s also a winner, of the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction. And it’s another rare sprouting in the great blank spot in the local literary map, our own Rub al’Khali—historical fiction.

Seattle is a hotbed of many genres: science fiction, mystery, memoir, natural history, travel writing, even romance novels. But where are its Doctorows, Vidals, and Kevin Bakers? Lack of history can’t explain the dearth: Seattle’s past is as rich and raucous as that of any century-and-a-half-old city. Nor lack of interest: We’re awash in historical nonfiction, from sober chronicles to freewheeling capers.

Now Donahue, whose previous novel Madison House recaptured Gold Rush-era Seattle, steps once more into the breach. Clara and Merritt is a tale of young lovers seeking a private peace in a city at war, first with Japan and then, in the postwar Red Scare, with itself. Clara, an aspiring artist from a family of West Seattle longshoremen, studies at Cornish and illustrates Frederick & Nelson catalogs. Merritt’s a tormented ex-sailor who works for the Longshore Union’s nemesis, Teamster boss Dave Beck, and is haunted by a drunken wartime misadventure.

Donahue, who teaches in Alabama but studied at UW, is no stylist; over-explication and lumbering descriptions abound. But he’s got more important stuff going: vivid characters, persuasive storytelling, rich noirish detail, and a deep sense of time and place, despite a few picayune slips. (West Seattle Junction becomes the “Juncture,” Capitol Hill’s First Church of Christ, Scientist migrates to First Hill, and the painter Guy Anderson, who was gay, beds Clara.) Clara and Merritt may not be the great Seattle novel Seattle didn’t know it was waiting for. But it’s a ripping good read, a ride on an old Plymouth’s running board to a time of highballs, union brawls, and no shopping malls.

Peter Donahue will read from Clara and Merritt at:
University Bookstore Monday, July 19, at 7pm (accompanied by the Seattle Labor Chorus).
Riverwalk Books, Chelan, Tuesday, July 20, at 7.
Parkplace Books, Kirkland, Thursday, July 22, at 7.