First of all, I apologize for the lapse in posting. Things got a little crazy for awhile. However, I did finally get Ed to do a book rewiew. I tried to get him to post it himself, but he said he couldn't remember his password, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, I am delighted to post it for him.
Book Review by Ed Hall
Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry
First a confession; I am a McMurtry nut an absolute fan. If he publishes his grocery list, sign me up I’ll read it. Zeke and Ned is one of his many historical fictions. It is based on the lives of the last two great Cherokee warriors Ned Christy and Zeke Proctor.
There are three things McMurtry seems very interested in; the history of the frontier, the plight of the Native American in that history and the random events that toss all our plans and good intentions into the nearest cocked hat.
The real stories of Ned Christy and Zeke Proctor incorporate all three of those things so this subject is real grist for the McMurtry mill. But being Larry McMurtry he does not let the facts limit him. I imagine he figures that is why they call it historical fiction.
I am an amateur follower of frontier history; my grasp of the facts of the old west is more extensive than the average person. Normally, my response to historical inaccuracies in historical fiction range from mild irritation to tossing the book in the garbage. McMurtry, however, has the gift of weaving his stories so well that while you might know his historical figures did not do anything he is saying you are so enthralled in the story you either don’t care or think they should have.
This applies to the book Ned and Zeke because if you know anything about the stories of the two men they were not contemporaries, were not related by marriage and did not fight together in any way. Their two separate battles with the Federal Government never entwined as they do in the book.
As I said before, Mr. McMurtry is so gifted at his craft that by the end of the first Chapter he had thoroughly suspended my disbelief. To his credit, McMurtry does have all the incidences and traditions in there. The massacre at the Going Snake Courthouse, the Cherokee Nations constant problems with the Federal Marshals out of Ft. Smith and Judge Isaac Parker, the oddities of Cherokee custom and tradition, all of these things are woven into a fine story set in the later period of the Indian Nation.
Larry McMurtry is one of my favorite authors. Any of his historical fictions are worth the read. Baring a touch of the Cherokee in me the stories of Zeke Proctor’s and Ned Christie’s battles with the Federal Government are two of my favorite tales. How could I not like this book?
