Reviews 253 The Long Season. By Sam Brown. (NewYork: Walker, Inc., 1987. 209pages. $16.00.) When a first novel shows the degree of skill found in Sam Brown’s The Long Season, readers of quality western fiction should take notice. Brown is a full-time cowboy on the Quien Sabe Ranch, near Adrian, Texas, and with Buster McLaury of the 6666 Ranch, one of the two bonafide cowboy poets in the state. Brown has performed successfully at the Gathering in Elko, Nevada, for the past two years. In this novel, he demonstrates another side of his talent, an ability to handle characterization and setting in a well-conceived plot. His depiction of place through geography, flora, and fauna is particularly strong. The story revolves around the efforts of Jesse Coldiron to recover his hundred head of heifers lost on the vast unfenced rangelands along the Cana dian River in a November snowstorm in 1884. Coldiron’s search involves him with Tracey James, a sexy young woman, whose past, though tarnished, still does not keep her from being worthy of respect and marriage. Her problem is with the psychopathic villain, J. W. Cain, a true blackguard with an unhealthy fixation on Tracey. One of Brown’s major successes in characterization is Harlan Harrell, Coldiron’s old friend and business partner. Harrell strengthens the book by providing much of the novel’shumor and pathos. To provide historical context, Brown incorporates into support roles historical figures such as Pat Garrett, killer of Billy the Kid; W. M. D. Lee, owner of the famous LS Ranch; and Mr. Sheets, owner of the North Star Cafe in Tascosa, the town around which the action takes place. He also includes as background the cowboy strike in the area, an historical event which Elmer Kelton used ably in his award-winning The Day the Cowboys Quit. Here is a fresh look at old materials by a new novelist with perception and a historical sense that rings true to life. Let’s hope this is the first of several works from Brown. We might hope further that he would be brave enough to interpret contemporary ranch life in future books. He obviously has the talent and the first-hand experience. LAWRENCE CLAYTON Hardin-Simmons University The Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt, Captive of Maquinna. By John R. Jewitt. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987. 192 pages, $29.95.) From the appearance of the first captivity narrative in America—Mary Rowlandson’s was published in 1682—the genre has appealed widely, first largely because of its affinity with spiritual allegory but increasingly for its political usefulness in justifying white intolerance of a native presence in the shrinking wilderness. A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. ...