Antelope Springs by G. Clifton Wisler

Abstract

Reviews 375 In 1982, illuminated by civil rights and women’s lib, Yoshiko Uchida wrote Desert Exile, in which she described the intolerable suffering of her family as victims of prejudice in an all-white neighborhood in Berkeley, and their eventual incarceration in Topaz Camp. Sone and Uchida, both born circa 1920, had immigrant mothers who were daughters of Samurai and whose marriages were arranged for them. Now, in Picture Bride, Uchida has written in a language today’s reader can more easily identify with. The beautiful Hana is a daughter of a Samurai, a composite of the author’s mother and other women who arrived before 1920 and survived the years of public misunderstanding. With insight, pathos, and deep understanding, the author, in her graceful, dignified way, dares to expose Hana as a long-suffering, independent, assertive woman who is frustrated and stifled as she struggles to adjust to a hostile culture that is blind to her sense of values. For the reader who does not wish to be drowned in historical detail, this novel is a welcome diversion from the ethnic oral histories and non-fiction books now on the market. SUSAN SUNADA Logan, Utah Antelope Springs. By G. Clifton Wisler. (New York: Walker and Company, 1986. 187 pages, $14.95.) This juvenile Western deserves praise on three counts. First, it introduces young people up to the age of fifteen to superior western fiction; second, it teaches them a western American ethic; and third, it shows adult readers and writers how a good juvenile Western may hold its own against the trashy paperback productions in the field. The action is laid in 1881 in an area west of Fort Worth, Texas, with verifiable names of places and historical events preceding the action proper. Only the novel’s central locale, the Overland way station at Antelope Springs, is a fictional blend of the real Antelope and Mineral Wells. Since the land was wrested from the Comanches seven years before and the wild days of the cattle drives belong to the past, the next step for the consolidation of civilization is the establishment of law and order. The religious overtones in the setting (“Calvary Hill,” “Trinity,” “three perpetually bubbling springs”) steer the plot in a direction which makes this a Sunday school Western couched in the format of a morality play or a Puritan captivity tale with genre-specific stereo­ typed characters and touches of realism and psychology. Though the narrative point of view is largely third-person omniscient, the central intelligence parts enable the reader to share the thoughts, dreams, visions and nightmares of the family in captivity on Calvary Hill, aptly named for their trial and anguish. Much of the book is taken up by slow-paced delib­ 376 Western American Literature erations, as well as tears and prayers. Where point of view creates psycho­ logical suspense, language adds a realistic touch, especially in western phrases and imagery. The book combines narrative technique with ideological message in such a way that the young reader can both enjoy a good story and be imbued with major ideas of the American creed. PETER BISCHOFF University of Munster, Germany The Haunted Mesa. By Louis L’Amour. (New York: Bantam Books, 1987. 357 pages, $18.95.) This is Louis L’Amour’s 86th novel (and 102nd book), and is in the tradition of his supernatural novels The Californios and The Lonesome Gods. But it is unique, with a grounding in science fiction and Latin-American mythology as well: its hero, a present-day illusion-debunker, must jump through a kiva time window—out of L’Amour’s beloved Four Corners area and into “the Other Side,” populated not only by good Indians whom the Navajos called the Anasazi but also by evil ones with Mayan connections. The good Indians have survived the mysterious disappearance of the Mesa Verde cliffdwellers, or are L’Amour’s beautiful heroine Kawasi and her ilk timewarpers from the thirteenth century? Hero Mike Raglan’s mission is to storm the City of the Forbidden and rescue his friend Erik Hokart, kidnapped from his mesa digs by Kawasi’s foes because they want his electronics expertise to update their...