Borderland, The: A Novel of Texas (Paperback)

Its grand scope is well-suited to Shrake's grand characters. We meet the grizzled Texas Ranger Matt Caldwell, famous for his courage under fire and his drinking ability, Doc Romulus Swift, a Renaissance Man if there ever was one, Doc's sister, Callusaja, a New York-educated woman who desires nothing more than to return to her Native American roots, and a cast of other characters. Some are real historic figures (the bellicose general Sam Houston, who unfortunately disappears from the action early on), and others are figments of Shrake's vivid imagination (Henry Longfellow, a sinister maniac stalking the West like a demented scarecrow). Virtually all are characters you can sink your teeth into -- you'll never forget Herr Gruber, the burly German with an ax-blade permanently stuck in his skull!

With remarkable sensitivity, Shrake also portrays the struggles and triumphs of several women in the young Republic. In addition to the beautiful Callusaja, Hannah Dahlman arrives in Texas from Germany betrothed to Matt Caldwell and finds herself in a romantic world beyond her imagining. And Dora Kerr, who has left the theater of New York City to experience the real excitement of the frontier, is a woman of daring and spice who could have been the focus of her own novel.

Shrake does not merely focus on the Texans. One of the book's true accomplishments is the humanity Shrake brings to the Comanches and Cherokees in his story. Shunning the safe fall-back position of showing the greedy Texans swiping land from noble Native Americans, Shrake gives us a cast of Cherokee and Comanche characters who are fully realized, given over to love, cruelty, honor, wisdom, and foolishness just as the Texans are.

In breathing life into both sides of the Texan-Native American conflict, Shrake gives us a world as fully realized as any in a "clash-of-cultures" story since James Clavell wrote "Shogun." That Shrake does not give as thorough a treatment to the third major force in the story, the Mexicans, is an indication that Shrake kept a tight control on the scope of the novel -- had he thrown many more storylines in, "Borderland" could have easily spun out of control.

As it is, Shrake's plot brings a certain element of myth into the story of the evolution of the Republic of Texas. Doc Swift has journeyed to Texas in large part due to the mysterious calling of a man-ape who stalks the Texas Hill Country and lives in caves filled with gold. The Dark Man, the Comanche who survived a lightning strike in his younger years, is given over to prophecy. Caldwell, known as "Old Paint," rides the crest of his own legend as an Indian fighter, Ranger, and veteran of the war against Santa Anna. And Sam Houston occupies his world like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill rolled into one.

The only thing that keeps me from giving this novel five stars is that the ending feels a bit truncated. Perhaps limited by actual historic events, Shrake does not give us the truly cataclysmic ending that his novel's scope demands. The villain deserves a greater comeuppance, and the conflict between Caldwell and Swift is resolved a bit too neatly.

Still, this is a minor gripe -- this is a heck of a book!

From the opening paragraphs of the Prologue, an account of two massive storms that collided in 1839, the reader knows that he is in good hands. Here is that rare bird in modern fiction: a theme that promises to be grand in scope, announced in metaphorical terms. This is the story of many such collisions. Just like the two storms, each adversary has telling impact on his own, and when two of them meet, there is real drama.

An interesting and unusual element of the book is that it has two protagonists. Each is a powerful and deeply interesting figure. Each is a man of uncommon attributes, and the reader finds himself drawn to each of them; yet neither is without his human failings and contradictions. It is one of Shrake's more noteworthy achievements that he shows us how their flaws derive from the same experiences and personalities that have made each character so imposing. As with the story, Shrake allows his characters to develop because of who they are, and this is the heart of dramatic action. As the two protagonists come closer and closer to conflict, one is reminded of the great storm of the Prologue. These are extraordinary examples of their kind, and no small amount of the tension in the book develops from speculation about what will happen when Old Paint and Romulus Swift have their accounting.

There are carefully drawn and believable female characters in this book. Two of them are as strong and as organically developed as their male counterparts. It is as easy to see how these two men could love these women as it is to see how the women could love the men. And there is a loathsome villain, but--to me, at least--he seems altogether believable, if disgustingly so. He is simply another rarity: a character of fathomless evil. It is impossible to guess how much of the power of this book would have been lost without these characters, but I'm sure that the book would have fallen into the ranks of the ordinary. And the book almost teems with believably, carefully drawn supporting characters. I can't think of one that is not developed with the same honesty and art as the main characters.

The Borderland is, predictably, not without its faults. I found there to be a bit too much coincidence, almost in the mold of Thomas Hardy, for my liking, but Shrake is so meticulous about everything else, I doubt if he would agree. In the face of so much that is admirable, this is a quibble at best.

Finally, the book is written with a firm, masterful, and often graceful and memorable style. I am not prudish, but I am sensitive to gratuitous filth. I find none of it, as one reader has, in this book. Shrake does use some shocking language when he reveals the mind of his villain, and it only adds to his incomprehensible evil.

I've read enough Western historical fiction to know the conventions and weaknesses of the genre. Lonesome Dove is grand, and The Snowblind Moon is simply one of the most haunting books I know. The Borderland ranks with them: they are the three best novels of the time and place that I have read.