From Publishers Weekly
The softspoken Southern aristocrat best known for king-sized cutlery and his glorious death at the Alamo, Jim Bowie remains a historical enigma surrounded by myth, half-truth and revisionist tinkering. This collaboration (Eickhoff most recently wrote a dark western, The Fourth Horseman, about Doc Holliday) continues the murky Bowie legend in a cacophony of more than 35 narrators who tell of Bowie's life (1796-1836), some recalling different details of the same events as seen from different perspectives and distanced by time. A loyal friend and deadly enemy, Bowie had a checkered career as a partner of slave trader and pirate Jean Lafitte (and was himself involved in suspicious land speculation with alleged forged land titles). Never one to run from a fight or ignore an insult, Bowie killed dozens of men in duels and brawls with Indians, assassins, robbers, bullies and card cheats. Although plagued by scandals and not always popular after a killing, Bowie was a natural leader, a trait that led him to Texas and the Alamo. While one wishes they had made do with fewer narrators, the authors cleverly show both sides of Jim Bowie, the hero and the villain, certainly no common man and no saint, but a true Western legend.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA-Known as an adventurer, entrepreneur, land speculator, slave runner, drinker, alligator rider, associate of the pirate Lafitte, gambler, and brawler, James Bowie remains best known when associated with the infamous knife bearing his surname. From his early teenage years to his death at the Alamo, he found ways to keep himself in the thick of things. Bowie's life story is revealed through interviews that offer a variety of perspectives by several "witnesses" to the events. Even though the stories sound true to life, readers need to remember that the book contains fictionalized history. Interviewees recite specifics about landscapes, weather, food, housing, and clothing, as well as day-to-day rituals, enhancing the story and giving a fuller account of frontier life in the early 1800s. It is an eclectic population, with many tribes of Southwestern and South Central Native Americans as well as Africans, French, Spanish, Mexicans, British, Scottish, and those who consider themselves citizens of the United States. The mixture makes for rich memories sometimes spoken in dialects with non-English words naturally becoming part of the interviews. The action-packed story ends with Bowie's death at the Alamo, a dramatic event spectacular enough for a man whose true life can no longer be separated from the legend he has become. Teens looking for stories about adventure, the untamed frontier, or an exciting retelling of Bowie's life can start here.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VACopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
