The Bough of Summer by Duane Carr, and: The Grass Creek Chronicle by Pat Carr, and: The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales by Forrest Carter, and: The Chisholms: A Novel of the Journey West by Evan Hunter, and: Don Q: A Novel by José López Portillo, and: Quetzalcoatl: A Novel by José López Portillo, and: Walks Far Woman by Colin

Abstract

Reviews 289 The Bough of Summer. By Duane Carr. (El Paso, Texas: Endeavors in Humanities Press, Inc., 1976. 82 pages, $4.00.) The Grass Creek Chronicle. By Pat Carr. (El Paso, Texas: Endeavors in Humanities Press, Inc., 1976. 115 pages, $4.00.) The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales. By Forrest Carter. (NY: Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede, 1976. 202 pages, $6.95.) The Chisholms: A Novel of the Journey West. By Evan Hunter. (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976. 208 pages, $8.95.) Don Q: A Novel. By José Lopez Portillo, translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger and Wilfrido Corral. (New York: The Seabury Press, 1976. 149 pages, $8.95.) Quetzalcoatl: A Novel. By José Lopez Portillo, translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger and Diana S. Goodrich. (New York: The Seabury Press, 1976. 151 pages, $8.95.) Walks Far Woman. By Colin Stuart. (New York: The Dial Press, 1976. 342 pages, $8.95.) The Carr books are really novellas, technically done well enough. Both of the Carrs can write well. They have been printed with care. Duane’s The Bough of Summer follows a young protagonist from his initial idyllic investigations into sex with a girl named Pat to a rather satisfactory orgasmic conclusion with another girl named Pat, which, evidently, will lead to marriage. There are a number of women in between, plus some good descrip­ tions of the West and Westerners from one railroad assignment to another. We are asked to believe that the young protagonist has matured through his experiences, and that he has found himself. There is a distinct tinge of Hemingway in Carr’s style, which reminds one to reflect, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” Pat Carr’s novella, The Grass Creek Chronicle, is, in some ways, more interesting. It is centered on a small Western town during World War II, and the young female protagonist is also initiated into life, this time into the recognition of the capabilities for cruelty in the smallness of small-town people. Japanese civilians come to the area for their internment, and the Grass Creekers react, for the most part, with insensitivity and “patriotism.” The rather effective conclusion takes place in Cody, with the young girl looking at the statue and thinking about the young Japanese boy who has been murdered by a Wyoming red-neck, and about death. The first chapter, published as a short story in The Southern Review, is perhaps the best chapter. Several other chapters read like good short stories. One does not wish to damn with faint praise, but any more than faint praise is not really justified. However, the Carrs write well, and when they learn to be less obvious, they may well produce some fine novels. Nothing, however, can be more obvious than Forrest Carter’s The 290 Western American Literature Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales. There are enough scenes of torture and bloodshed to satisfy any reluctant sadist, and Josey is a self-sacrificing, courageous, blood-and-thunder code-of-the-West-and-the-common-man type of hero — sort of a combination of Billy the Kid, Daniel Boone, Woody Guthrie, and several other mythical figures. Evidently, this is a sequel to Josey Wales, which I haven’t read —and won’t. It is enough to find out that even viciousness can be handled with sentimentality. Evan Hunter, author of The Blackboard Jungle, has a try at the American West with The Chisholms. It is a novel about the journey West and the disintegration of a family on the way. There is some occasional good writing about highly compulsive characters, but I can’t expect it to replace any of the standard novels about the covered wagons, and it is probably too disjointed even for a good film. Colin Stuart’s Walks Far Woman is an adequate historical novel, but it lacks the depth of his Shoot an Arrow Into the Wind. The narrative device is too obviously a device, and thus mars the tale of Walks Far Woman, an exceptional character. The contemporary love affair between a young Indian boy and a white girl serves to introduce the major story of the life of Walks Far Woman, but...