Gophers Don't Pay Taxes is an episodic novel about the humorous adventures of a young lawyer, George Ingraham, as he seeks to establish himself in the small Alberta town of Blossom in the 1930s, the days of the Great Depression.
Told from the sympathetic point of view of a travelling salesman, our tale unfolds the history of a West known only to the intimates who lived and loved there. Gophers delves into the most personal of details. Some become public record in court cases which range from the hilarious to the ridiculously sublime. Others remain shrouded beneath the decency which befits a small prairie town. Bout our charming narrator tells all.
There's the Egg-and-Spoon scandal, for instance, that rocked Blossom one 24th of May. And, tsk, tsk , the Venetian Affair. We hear how Blossom - blush - got her name ... how one local religious leader fought sexual temptation ... and all about the search for the greatest American lover of all time ...
But enough tit-tat.
Gophers probes the prairie soul, lifts the veil on the roots of Western separatism, and explodes the Alberta stereotypes as imposed by Easter beer commercials. Author Mervyn J. Huston, in his inimitable way, gives us a fresh version of the Energy Province as a have-not. He explains the natives' thirst for justice and moonshine, not necessarily in that order. Wrangling over oil rights is seen to be a deep-seated Alberta tradition, as is scrambling to cover the mouths of local prostitutes who threaten to confess their many sins in public - naming names, of course.
Gophers Don't Pay Taxes gives you the real poop on what makes Alberta tick.
