Purple Flat Top

The Inland Northwest, sometimes referred to as the Columbia Basin, is an area near the northeastern corner of Washington near Spokane. It has been shaped by titanic forces throughout history, not the least of which is the works of humans. It is a hard land that has developed a great diversity of trees, birds, and personalities. It is here that Jack Nisbet traveled to after graduating college. He went to find a place, what he found were people, and he found himself.

The book Purple Flat Top doesn’t specify when it takes place, it dances around the subject of time. From the state of the economy and the changes in technology I’m guessing this book takes place throughout the decade of the 70s. I’m not local to the Inland Northwest, so the names of mining operations that supported settlements are unfamiliar to me. Perhaps, if I knew the date when Corporation A had taken over the business that drove the local economy, and closed it down, such a red letter day would standout on my calendar. The only disaster of which Mr. Nisbet writes that I know takes place in my lifetime is that of Mt. St. Helens erupting.

There is no central narrative to this book. Instead it is a string of unconnected episodes of Jack’s life full of random jobs and eccentric locals. Instead, what we have is a series of illustrated portraits of people who have shaped, and been shaped by, the land they living. They have become characters, people with interesting traits, flaws, strengths, passions, pains, and conflicts. Sherlock Holmes would often tell Watson that there is nothing so extravagant as the mundane, that no authors wild imaginings could compare to what happens every day behind closed doors. This were Jack’s neighbors, friends, and co-workers, yet they are drawn so perfectly that we feel that these are our memories, that this is our story.

Happy Hunting,

Brett N

P.S. The distance travelled of my imaginary toy boat, from my bridge over Beaverton Creek to the Pacific Ocean, is 176 miles.