By Cameron Woodhead
The Hearts of Men
Nickolas Butler
The Hearts of Men, by Nickolas Butler.
Picador, $32.99
An exploration of masculinity across three generations and three wars, The Hearts of Men starts with 13-year-old Nelson at a scout camp in Wisconsin, 1962. Weedy and bespectacled, he's a loner who falls victim to the older boys' cruelty. Though he forms a tentative bond with a popular kid, his true friend is the scoutmaster – a veteran of WWI who keeps him safe from bullies, including an abusive father. Inspired by this father-figure, Nelson joins the army and sees active service in Vietnam; his own son will fight in Afghanistan. By the time his grandson comes along, the wheel has turned full circle and Nelson has become a scoutmaster at the camp of his youth. In this assured, crisply written intergenerational saga, Nickolas Butler (Shotgun Lovesongs) delves in a nuanced way into some of the dark and fraught aspects of being a man.