Jan Reid’s Comanche Sundown
Posted: June 21, 2011 Filed under: books, fiction, people, reviews 5 CommentsComanche Sundown, Jan Reid’s new historical novel, is, as some reviewers have written, a masterpiece of imagination and prose, capturing a time in the nation when Quanah Parker, a half-breed, and his unexpected friend, a black cowboy named Bose Ikard, himself a son of a slave owner, lived life on the Texas plains fighting the Union Army and watching the old ways disappear. Quanah’s epitaph on his grave at the Parker family plot at the Fort Sill Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma:
:
Resting Here Until Day Breaks
And Shadows Fall and Darkness Disappears is
Quanah Parker Last Chief of the Comanches
Born 1852
Died Feb. 23, 1911
the roy hamric journal 
Roy, Good of you to plug Reid’s novel as it is tout worthy. Did you teach or are you now in Thailand–wonder as my son attended Webster U.’s undergraduate school there last year. If historical fiction featuring Native American freedom fighters is of interest and you haven’t yet read Forrest Carter’s Watch For Me on the Mountain, a biography of Geronimo, do. Carter is better know for his Education of Little Feet and GTT which was made into a Client Eastwood film, “The Outlaw Josey Wales.”
And for a biography, Robert Utley, a park ranger, did well by Sitting Bull with “The Lance and the Shield”.
Douglas: Yes, Jan Reid’s Comanche Sundown is a stunning novel, and to my lights he caught a Quannah Parker as I would have liked to have known him. The relationship with Bose gives it a really nice edge, and, as an aside, I thought the bits about Billy the Kid were well drawn. A potential scene stealer in a movie. Jan Reid has been riding a wave, with the Quanah novel and now a biography of Ann Richards, which has been well received.
I know Forrest Carter’s books, but I’ve only read the one that was turned into Josey Wales, the Eastwood movie. You have to hand it to Eastwood; he knows a good story when he sees one. Thanks for mentioning the other books about kindred spirits.
Sam, Yes, the Jan Reid novel and Gwynne’s book would match up as great reads.
Roy,
Having been assigned to report on a Parker family reunion at Fort Parker State Park in Texas long ago, this piques my interest for summer reading.
I plan to read it along with “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History” by S. C. Gwynne.
-Sam
If this interested you, you might enjoy — Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History [Book]by S. C. Gwynne