Sunday, December 07, 2008

MANY A RIVER By Elmer Kelton

While I wouldn't have thought that one of my favorite book genres would be "western novels", I've discovered that I really do enjoy a good old western adventure!

MANY A RIVER is a story is about two brothers, Todd and Jeffrey. As their family heads West, their camp is attacked by Comanche raiders, leaving their parents dead. The younger boy, Todd, is taken captive by the Indians, while the older son, Jeffrey, manages to hide and is rescued by militia men. But each boy thinks the other has been killed! In actuality, Jeffrey is taken in by a home-steading family, while Todd is sold, for a rifle and gunpowder, to a Comanchero trader named January.

However, the young brothers are destined to be reunited after a few years. And since they've both been caught up in the turbulence of the Civil War, we wait to discover if they will meet as friends or enemies. As we read, we go with them through every experience that makes each boy older than his years.

And yeah, I was teary-eyed at their reunion. The only thing I wish was that more time was given to to their reunion - it was covered in the last nine pages of the book.

MANY A RIVER was published in June 2008, so it's a pretty new book. Upon looking at Mr. Kelton's website, I see he's written quite a lot of books (over 50 novels) in his 50 year career as an author! It was also quite charming to see that the bio on the book jacket was a short paragraph, yet mentioned his 60 year wedding anniversary as one of his worthy achievements! Good book - I enjoyed it!


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