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A major novel of the old West
Quote from user Katie Hanna on Goodreads:
I don't think I can do this book justice here . . . but I'm gonna try anyway. It's AMAZING. It's one of the best historical novels I've ever read, period. It's fabulous, and it needs to be more widely known.
Full disclosure here: It's also about 600 pages long . . . and complicated . . . and heavy . . . and kind of graphic at times . . . and, basically, not for everybody. But if you're a mature reader and you like historical fiction (particularly American historical fiction), you really, really, REALLY need to give this one a try. It's kind of like Les Miserables or War and Peace, only for America instead of for Europe.
Guys, I learned SO MUCH from this book. It's one of those life cycle stories, in that it covers a span of about twenty years, so you get to watch all the main characters (not just 1 or 2--about 6 or 8) grow from children to adults, or mature from young adults to older people. And you get to watch the effects of their choices play out in their lives--good choices, poor choices, wise choices, unutterably stupid choices. And it's not just the bad guys who make the mistakes here--not by a long shot. That's one of the things I love most about this story; it was one of the first truly grown-up novels I read in which even some of the GOOD characters had real faults and committed serious transgressions . . . and had to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. A Distant Trumpet really brings home the truth that we live in an imperfect world; but it never gives up hope that this world can be made better, either.
It does a beautiful job illustrating history, too--as a good historical novel should. It's set in the latter half of the 1800s, during the conflict between the U.S. Military and the Native Americans in the Southwest, and believe me, by the time you finish this book you'll be pretty much an expert on the period. I've heard that Paul Horgan did research for 10 years before writing this book . . . and it shows.
The story itself is just so . . . POWERFUL. You'll never be able to forget the characters--Matthew and Laura, Colonel Prescott and his wife Jessica, General Quait, White Horn, Olin Rainey, Brian Clanahan. When they laugh, you laugh with them, and when they cry . . . boy, oh boy. Let's not even go there. Not going to say much else, because of spoilers--but THAT ENDING, THOUGH.
Nicely worn-in paperback
Bee'sPicks
Condition: Fair
