Picked up from the Used Book Superstore especially for release. Will be taken to the Boston Hostel in the near future.

Released it in the bookshelves in the 2nd floor conference room / library.
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Welcome to BookCrossing!

Please make a journal entry to let me know that this book has been caught so I know that it has found a good home with you. If you are new to BookCrossing, when you join please indicate that you were referred by tobysrus. I hope that you enjoy the book. You can make another journal entry with your comments when you are done reading.

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I love Larry McMurtry, so I am looking forward to reading this.

What a wonderful book. Larry McMurtry knows how to keep us involved, and introduce us to a large cast of characters that we really care about. His view is so dark! Of Texas history, with its violence on all sides, and I guess of the worst aspects of human nature. But he cares about each person, too. Even when he recognizes them as fatally weak, or cruel. Mostly he accepts us all as a ragtag bundle of contradictory impulses, illogic and ignorance.

So, the story is of a private attempt in the 1840's by a bunch of Texas Rangers to take over Santa Fe from the Mexicans (Santa Fe, New Mexico: this is on the eve of the Mexican American war, so it's all still a part of Mexico.) Meanwhile, the white settlers are coming in to take the land away from the Indians. They are an inexorable flood, but the Indians will kill or enslave as many of the settlers as they can, so we can be forgiven for wishing for a little quieter safety, instead of the "adventure" that all these Texas Rangers are seeking.

It's sort of amazing to realize how true these stories are, and how they get whitewashed in later history, into the less terrifying sagas we know today. But I trust Larry McMurtry: his vision is dark, but his story is always gripping and fascinating to read, and you can trust him not to the you into a rabbit hole of suffering. His book is not as dark and scary as someone like Cormac McCarthy (another wonderful writer but ultimately discouraging and even depressing view of human nature.)

Gave this away soon after I read it (as usual). Forgot to make a release note....