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A review by honniker
Ride the Wind by Lucia St. Clair Robson
3.0
This book was not what I expected. I am interested in cross cultural relations and people growing up in other cultures. I've read several books (fiction and non-fiction) about children who were captured in Indian raids.
I thought this was going to be the story of Cynthia Ann Parker and how she adjusts to living with the Comanche, only to grow up and fall in love with the war chief Wanderer. And it's true it was about that, to an extent. But honestly that takes up maybe the first third of the book. The rest of it pans out to discuss what was going on with the white people and the government and other major events in white-native relations during that time period.
The writing itself is a little pompus. The first thing I noticed as I began this book, was the author's use of adjectives. I mean, a sprinkling of adjectives is good but *everything* and *everyone* had strings of adjectives attached to them. I've already returned the book otherwise I'd treat you to examples of "His bronzed face seemed to be chiseled from stone as he gazed across the golden windswept plains, and viewed the snaking black river of buffalo." It was kind of annoying. The other thing that was a little annoying were the Comanche words. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of using other languages in books (Watership Down and A Clockwork Orange are two of my favorite books partly because of that reason.) But there is a wrong way and a right way to do it and this was the wrong way. The Author decided that every character should be named by both their Comanche name as well as the English translation. But she uses the English translation throughout the book. So the first time you're introduced to a new Comanche character the sentence is something like "Nocona, Wanderer, was with (Comanche Name), Night as he looked over at (Comanche Name), Eagle. Needless to say it's very confusing and considering the fact that she uses the English translation 97% of the time throughout the rest of the book, it's rather pointless.
Despite these complaints, the book was rather interesting. As I mentioned Cynthia Ann's adoption of the Comanche lifestyle is about the first third of the book. Because of this, there are a few spots that I feel were anti-climatic. The courtship between her and Wanderer for example. I thought it was going to be a major part of the book and instead it was rather meh. It was obvious however, that the author did a lot of research on the culture. There were details about lodging and lifestyle and culture and while some of it was a little too much for me, other parts of it were quite interesting. The other thing this book did well was show the timeline of the end of the Comanche lifestyle. Basically, within the space of a generation, the people went from free ranging the plains to living on reservations. Another interesting thing about this book, was that it showed the violence. The whites were violent, the natives were violent. Everyone was violent.
Ultimately, I came away from reading this book with a deep sense of sadness. Though it's not one of the best books I've read, it definitely has made me think and because of that, I gave it three stars.
I thought this was going to be the story of Cynthia Ann Parker and how she adjusts to living with the Comanche, only to grow up and fall in love with the war chief Wanderer. And it's true it was about that, to an extent. But honestly that takes up maybe the first third of the book. The rest of it pans out to discuss what was going on with the white people and the government and other major events in white-native relations during that time period.
The writing itself is a little pompus. The first thing I noticed as I began this book, was the author's use of adjectives. I mean, a sprinkling of adjectives is good but *everything* and *everyone* had strings of adjectives attached to them. I've already returned the book otherwise I'd treat you to examples of "His bronzed face seemed to be chiseled from stone as he gazed across the golden windswept plains, and viewed the snaking black river of buffalo." It was kind of annoying. The other thing that was a little annoying were the Comanche words. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of using other languages in books (Watership Down and A Clockwork Orange are two of my favorite books partly because of that reason.) But there is a wrong way and a right way to do it and this was the wrong way. The Author decided that every character should be named by both their Comanche name as well as the English translation. But she uses the English translation throughout the book. So the first time you're introduced to a new Comanche character the sentence is something like "Nocona, Wanderer, was with (Comanche Name), Night as he looked over at (Comanche Name), Eagle. Needless to say it's very confusing and considering the fact that she uses the English translation 97% of the time throughout the rest of the book, it's rather pointless.
Despite these complaints, the book was rather interesting. As I mentioned Cynthia Ann's adoption of the Comanche lifestyle is about the first third of the book. Because of this, there are a few spots that I feel were anti-climatic. The courtship between her and Wanderer for example. I thought it was going to be a major part of the book and instead it was rather meh. It was obvious however, that the author did a lot of research on the culture. There were details about lodging and lifestyle and culture and while some of it was a little too much for me, other parts of it were quite interesting. The other thing this book did well was show the timeline of the end of the Comanche lifestyle. Basically, within the space of a generation, the people went from free ranging the plains to living on reservations. Another interesting thing about this book, was that it showed the violence. The whites were violent, the natives were violent. Everyone was violent.
Ultimately, I came away from reading this book with a deep sense of sadness. Though it's not one of the best books I've read, it definitely has made me think and because of that, I gave it three stars.