book report VI

Read a bunch of new books on my recent trip to Ohio. Starting with Zane Grey, Wild Horse Mesa. This I thought was one of Grey's better works. Less florid and over-written than many, more grounded in plot and action, instead of drifting off into fancy descriptions and long essays on the ideals of western men and women. Just much more tightly written. (And a note on names: if all the prospective parents out there looking for unique names for their sons need a new place to look, I strongly suggest flipping through the works of Grey and L'Amour. Their heroes have some unusual names. This one? Chane. With younger brother Chess.)

Next I read Edna Ferber's Cimarron. I had apparently read it before ... at least, it seemed very familiar. I found it a bit dark this time around. Ferber's view of people left something to be desired. (For fun sometime, try reading the original Show Boat and then watching the movie. Talk about Hollywoodization!) But here was the really fascinating bit. Cimarron is about the founding of an Oklahoma town, and the process by which it became civilized. And I have never before read anything which did such a good job swaying the reader's sympathies to both sides. You could feel the justice and righteousness in Yancey Cravat's deeply held beliefs about the raw deal the Indians were given; you could just as easily feel the justice and righteousness of Sabra Cravat's struggle to carve a life for her family out of the wilderness, and her inability to accept that it was at the expense of someone else's life and land. The two opposing viewpoints—and the strong wills that put them forward—were very compellingly drawn.

Next up, Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison. This is a YA title that I remember reading years ago. (Probably when I was a young adult.) And frankly, I remember it being a better book. This time around I could see it playing fast and loose with the historical facts, and had a rather hard time maintaining my interest. It moved slowly, and just didn't make me care. Of course, in the time since I read it as a young girl, I've read several other very good captivity narratives (John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive, and Follow the River, whose author I can't remember and which was fictionalized but still fascinating), and Indian Captive suffers by comparison.

And finally, the second in Jan Karon's Mitford series, A Light in the Window. I had read several of the books in the series years ago, and didn't get much out of them at the time. Interesting characters, but somehow they didn't grab me. This time around, however, I'm finding them much better. Maybe they speak to me more now? I think I prize the setting—the small town, the old-fashioned values—more than I used to. I was a little disappointed in some of the oh-too-typical plot contrivances that made this one read more like a romance novel than I was looking for at times. (You know, hero is made to look as though he's cheating on heroine, then vice versa, and of course neither one actually ASKS the other one what's going on until after they've acted like idiots. This may be common behavior, but as a plot device it's beyond common and well into over-used and cliched.)