Many a River

Elmer Kelton
Forge Books (2008)
ISBN 9780765320506
Reviewed by Lisa Kisner for Reader Views (9/08)

 

Jeffrey and Todd Barfield are traveling west with their parents searching for the perfect home site to live and farm.  Their dreams for the future are shattered when Comanche Indians attack their camp and kill both parents. Each brother believes the other is also killed in the attack.  The younger brother, Todd, is taken hostage by the Indians.  He is eventually sold to a trader and escapes several years later.  His older brother, Jeffrey, is taken in by a family.  They are forced to flee to the Mexican border when the Civil War breaks out.  Each brother struggles to survive in the harsh realities of frontier life while the civil war wages around them.  How will they survive and will they be reunited? 

This book is well written and holds your attention from beginning to end.  Elmer Kelton, who was written more than of 50 books, certainly has mastered his craft.  I felt like I was there, riding along in the wagon and struggling to survive in a rough world.  Mr. Kelton uses appropriate scenarios and the language of the time.  He manages to convey the hardship of the frontier, the feelings of the Indians and Mexicans as settlers encroach on their territory in Texas, and the civil war, easily and with conviction.   I would recommend “Many a River” not just to readers of Westerns, but also to readers of fiction who enjoy reading historical fiction with a great story.

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