Spanish Jack - Hardcover

Conley, Robert J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312262310 ISBN 13: 9780312262310

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2001

Synopsis

Robert J. Conley is one of the most acclaimed writers of the American West and of his own people, the Cherokee, having won myriad fans with his moving historical novels about the Real People. In Spanish Jack, he brings to vivid life one of the most complicated figures in one of the most difficult times in Cherokee history.

Jack Spaniard-- known as "Spanish Jack"-- was a Chickamauga, the Cherokee faction that sided with the British during America's Revolutionary War. After the British lost the war, the Chickamauga moved west to the Arkansas territory. Reorganized as the Cherokee Nation West, they were forcibly absorbed into the Cherokee Nation by the U.S. government after the Trail of Tears. Spanish Jack, however, was not going to go quietly. He continued to fight against the Osage (longtime enemies of the Cherokee), against the Cherokee Nation, against the U.S. government, and against the tide of time.

Spanish Jack was revered as a hero by some, reviled as a brigand and murderer by more, and hunted by many. Both a patriot and a killer, a loyal friend and an implacable enemy, Spanish Jack lived a life that is stuff of legend, becoming one of the most famous and idolized outlaws of the West.

About this title

About the Author

Robert J. Conley is the author of more than thirty novels, including his much praised "Real People" novels about the Cherokee. Three-time winner of the Spur Award among many other honors, Conley is a Cherokee and lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

From Publishers Weekly

In what seems like a never-ending effort to chronicle the historical minutiae of the Cherokee people, Conley adds to his considerable body of work 36 novels to date this tale of Jack Spaniard, aka Spanish Jack, a Chickamauga renegade who has trouble making peace with the Osage. The novel follows the serpentine trail of Jack's evolution from homicidal maniac to assistant horse thief to highly successful riverboat gambler to benevolent friend of the Eastern clans to grateful benefactor of white Christian Samaritans to vengeful vigilante to justified bounty man to upright citizen. Jack is as ruggedly handsome, boldly intrepid and physically indestructible a frontier hero as ever hung a lasso from a lariat. The plot, such as it is, concerns Jack's attempt to come to terms with his own humanity as a microcosmic reflection of his people's plight at the hands of an unfeeling federal government. Unfortunately, he emerges at the end no less one-dimensional than he was at the outset, and considerably less believable. The book neglects probability and historical fact and geography, for that matter with casual indifference. Prose style is sloppy and inconsistent. Relying on incredible coincidence and unlikely happenstance, the story stumbles along through a forest of clich‚s, a wilderness of imprecise language and a swamp of sentimental claptrap, with occasional bouts of bombastic dialogue uttered by a collection of cardboard-cutout characters, none of whom behaves in any way similar to any human being of any era. The story is repetitious when it's not redundant, illogical when it's not implausible, and just plain silly from start to finish. (Aug.)Forecast: Despite Conley's longstanding popularity, this stumble might cost him a fan or two.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312262310
• ISBN 13: 9780312262310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240