Book Review - Ride The Wind

I still can't decide if I actually like this book.  On one hand, it was completely captivating.  The conflict between settlers and Indians, the differences in standards of living, travel, family life and honor as well as the inevitable similarities.  On the other, I was repulsed by the description of horror and violence, which I felt, at times, bent towards gratuitous.  Back to the first hand, I learned so much about the Comanche Indians, their history and motives, and was impressed at the author's meticulous research that allowed me to feel connected to a people who were wiped out and who were also notoriously known as some of the "bad" Indians.  However, my other hand is shaking its finger at the jolty story-telling St. Clair Robson uses to include all her research, abandoning major characters' narratives at times to include a minuscule point of view from an unintroduced and impossible to remember character.  But, I loved the real life romance between Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by the Comanche as a girl, and Wanderer, who later became a powerful chief and leader of his tribe.  That love does not include the infrequent but present inclusion of Harlequin style romance writing as flashes of skin and color and texture of pubic hair was described.

As it often happens after reading historical fiction, I wanted to know what parts of the book were real and which parts were made up for dramatic effect.   A lot of it is actually true.  Kudos to the author for that.  While some license is taken with the timeline of events, particularly toward the end of the book when facts and points-of-views start to contradict each other, much of what happened to Cynthia Ann, or Nadua, as she is known to the Comanche, can be verified by eye-witnesses.  Obviously, not her day to day life while living with the Comanche Indians, but the author uses other sources to fill in that story line.

I guess I liked it.  Sometimes I can't tell if I like or dislike something until I start writing and determine what my own bias is.  I appreciate a glimpse into the Comanche way of life.  I don't think the author diminishes their viciousness at all and it's still hard to understand how any human being could do some of the things that particular tribe of Indians were known to do, but, like any people, they had relationships and traditions and values, albeit different from those I know and have.   Recognizing our differences, and understanding the whys and hows they exist, is the key to learning from our history, I think.  And, for what its worth, this book helped me understand the ways of a very different people.