What makes a tale timeless?- analyzing "Coal Black Horse"

     What is it that makes a story timeless? The answer to this question is definitely a potential moneymaker for a fiction writer, because timelessness is a characteristic of many a classic.  But it is not an easy thing to achieve- there is no standard recipe.

     I recently finished reading an advance copy of Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead. This short novel that will be published in a few days got me thinking about the quality of some stories of staying in your mind after you turn the last page. Before dawn breaks over the mountain, a woman sends her young son to the battlefield- not to kill or to die, but only to find his father and bring him home. Okay, with the themes of war, family, journey, and the loss of innocence, it hardly matters that the battlefield in question ends up being Gettysburg. So the themes are crucial. But I don't believe that tossing a few eternal themes into a pot, and stirring, is a reliable recipe.

     Actually, I think that stirring a soup pot is the wrong analogy. It's more like weaving a tapestry. The way that Olmstead introduces and combines his themes is quite seamless, you really can't see him working. You do not know what is coming, hence suspense. Characters say things that make sense, and then make sense later in a different way.  The boy changes because of the things that are said and done in his presence.

     I think that Olmstead's bag of tricks also involves one tool of the trade that helps induce timelessness. Paradoxically, that tool is an occasional odd historical detail that projects an aroma of universality.  Olmstead includes a subplot that deals with a very bad couple of guys who rob the dead and dying on battlefields. I am not sure if this actually happened at Gettysburg, but it would not surprise me. In this novel, it is a very successful ploy for completing the exploration of the good and evil in men and the crazy logic of war.

     This novel is well worth reading. I feel that Olmstead's effort compares well with Cold Mountain, another Civil War tale that transcends time and place. Read it, think about its lessons, and try to write something as good. Good luck! 

   If we wander away from the Civil War as subject matter, there are several of Steinbeck's novels that project this aura of timelessness- could be happening in 1934, could be happening today, like Grapes of Wrath. And then there is The Old man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. But is that one too self-consciously trying to be timeless?  Hmmm. Here's another paradox- it can take time to tell if a novel is timeless.  My first impression of Coal Black Horse was that this book has a lot to say about being human and many readers would enjoy it despite the many dark threads. I plan to read it again in a year and see if I still think so. Oh yes- there is a coal black horse in the story and he plays an important role. But no, this novel is not about horses, it is about you and me.