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摘要
摘要
Epic in scope and grand beyond our imaginings. The Scoutcontinues the magnificent story that began the highly acclaimed novelBrules. In his stunning new novel, Harry Combs recreates a time when the West was the white man's greatest challenge and the red man's last battleground... a towering tale of dreams unfettered, of mustangs running free, and of young men riding hell-bent-for-leather into Indian country for no other reason than they were young, brave and wild. By 1900 the Old West was vanishing, but the man many called its fastest gun was still alive. By then Car Brules had shut himself and his secrets away in a cabin on Colorado's Lone Cone Peak. Only one person knew his real story, a boy of eleven who became his friend and heard his extraordinary tales in 1909. The Scout is that unforgettable story, just as young Steven Cartwright heard it, just as Brules told it: hard and gritty, wry with a cowboy's humor, and true to the spirits of all those who loved the west--and died for it--from Custer to Crazy Horse. Many hard, hurting things had driven Cat Brules to become the man he was. The death of his beloved Shoshone bride, Wild Rose, was one of them. Months after Brules lost her--brutally and far too soon--Wild Rose still came to him in his dreams. With a void in his heart and a reckless spirit, Brules signed on as a Scout for General George Crook, whose cavalry was headed into the Badlands. Then, the U.S. Army still didn't know that there were fifteen thousand Sioux and Cheyenne in those Wyoming foothills, and under chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, every one of them was willing to fight to the death to live free. Brules's account of the violence that ensued, told with eyewitness immediacy and chilling authenticity, is one of courage and shame as he rides the trail toward the Little Big Horn and the battles that followed. Seeing for himself the dying of a way of life, Brules tells a searing truth about America's history: the betrayal of Custer to the Sioux, the hunting of Geronimo, and the U.S. Army's cruel pursuit of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce. And here too are the women who loved Brules: White Antelope, the gentle Indian maiden who wanted what Brules felt he could never give again--and Melisande, the saucy Mormon girl who might be too much for even Cat Brules to handle. Debunking the myths of the Old West and the romanticism of movies, renowned Western writer Harry Combs creates a vision at once more complex, magnificent and genuine--from the make of the rifle to the caliber of the bullet that cut Custer down. A novel unmatched in excitement and adventure, The Scout lets you smell the cordite, feel a man's hard need for a woman, and discover that the real flesh and blood inhabitants of those legendary days were tougher, bolder and more fascinating than we ever dared to imagine. From the Paperback edition.
评论 (3)
出版社周刊评论
This second epic novel (after Brules) of a projected trilogy captures the majesty and turbulence of the American frontier from 1874 to 1883. Cat Brules is a mountain man, buffalo hunter, Indian fighter and Army scout who lives his western adventures boldly and without regret. Convincingly told in the first person, this portion of his tale spans the great Indian wars that ravaged the northern plains and parched Southwest as Brules's hunting and scouting carry him from Wyoming, the Dakotas and Montana to Colorado, Utah and Arizona. Brules is both kind and vicious, a ruthless killer of his enemies but a considerate and loyal frienda rugged individualist with a strong sense of responsibility. Though a hard sort, he can be touched by the friendship of his Shoshone blood brother and by his love for a young Mormon woman. Brules rides with Generals Crook, Terry and Custer on the Little Bighorn campaign against the Sioux, fighting at the Battle of the Rosebud, barely escaping Custer's grisly fate. He later tracks the forced migration of the Nez Perce and scouts for General Crook against the Ute and Apache. Combs is a master of western narrative and dialogue, filling his story with rich descriptions of people, places and events; the Indian fights here swirl with dust and smoke, bullets and arrowheads, thudding warclubs and the crashing of rifle and pistol fire. This is a magnificent story of bravery, treachery, violence, beauty and lovesort of a white man's version of Little Big Man, and not a whit less absorbing. Simultaneous BDD Audio; audio, electronic, performance rights: Margret McBride Literary Agency. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus评论
Part two of a trilogy that began with this 82-year-old author's Brules (1994): a breezy recounting of the slaughter and destruction of Native American tribes in the Old West. This time out, narrator Cat Brules tells of his days as Indian scout for the US Army, and of some of the most important campaigns against the ``hostiles.'' He begins with the events leading up to Custer's debacle against the Sioux, and though the outcome is as expected, Brules's story contains a new twist. Here, Custer is wounded before the battle (maybe even killed outright--Brules is too far away to be sure) by Sioux who have been alerted by a traitorous scout. Dismissed before the engagement, Brules watches as Custer's men carry their fallen leader to a questionable defensive position, and are then wiped out. The Army soon exacts its revenge on the Sioux, though the defeat is more the result of Sioux starvation than US military prowess. New conquests await, and Brules is soon on the trail of the fleeing Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce. Stopped from entering Canada, the Indians are shuttled back to the reservation, and Brules takes a rest. He meets a Mormon family, tries to help their cattle operation (by decimating the local grizzly population), and then runs off with the rancher's daughter. But Brules quickly returns to the fray when the Army requests his assistance in hunting down Geronimo. The details here are always vivid, especially during the many fierce battles, as Brules & Co. blast apart yet another well-deserving band of ``hostiles.'' But what to make of all this joyful genocide? Brules experiences only the briefest remorse, and this from a man who kills dozens and dozens of people--or are they people? Violent, brutal, ugly, and probably all too true. Killing on a grand scale, with little of that bothersome guilt.
《图书馆杂志》(Library Journal )书评
What can readers expect from a writer whose first novel was published at age 80? In the sequel to Brules, a "Western novel of bonanza proportions" (LJ 7/92), our gritty hero does what every red-blooded American lad has dreamed of doing: he joins the U.S. Cavalry as a scout and heads into the Badlands to do battle with the Sioux. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.