Synopses & Reviews
High on a remote butte, a young Sioux waits. Though daring in battle, skillful, and strong, he cannot be a man until his spiritual vision comes. When it appears, he must interpret it correctly to know who he is, and he must deserve it or continue to be called No Name.
No Name has his vision, a glowing white mare who walks among the stars. She tells No Name his destiny and how to achieve it. He must pass through hostile camps, storm, and fire, risking his life many times to become Conquering Horse, chief of the Sioux.
Conquering Horse is the first of Frederick Manfredand#8217;s five-volume series, The Buckskin Man Tales.
Review
and#8220;Mr. Manfredand#8217;s novel carries the feel of open country, of grass and wind, sun and rain, moonlight and starlight. . . . It is harshly real.and#8221;and#8212;New York Herald Tribuneand#160;and#160;
Review
and#8220;Manfred has woven a wondrously complex story of a young Sioux warriorand#8217;s search for the inner core of manhoodand#8217;s dignityand#8212;the ability to live with oneself.and#8221;and#8212;
San Francisco Chronicleand#160;
Review
and#8220;Here is Indian lore, humor, customs, daily life, religion, identification with natureand#8212;and superb endurance in full detail, color, and understanding. Strenuousand#8212;and satisfying.and#8221;and#8212;Kirkus Reviewsand#160;and#160;
Review
and#8220;His narrative has in it both the kick of actual life and the power of vision. . . . A fine and attractive story.and#8221;and#8212;
New York TimesSynopsis
Oklahoma is a forgotten territory of "Indians, outlaws, and immigrants" when its first Jewish settler, Boggy Haurowitz, arrives in 1859. Full of expectations, he finds the untamed region a formidable foe, its landscape rugged, its resources strained.
In Stations West, four generations of Haurowitzes, intertwined with a family of Swedish immigrants, struggle against the Territory's "insatiable appetite." The challenges of creating a home amid betrayals, nature's vagaries, and burgeoning statehood prove too great. Each generation in turn succumbs to the overwhelming lure of the transcontinental railroad, and each returns home to find the landscape of their youth, like themselves, changed beyond recognition, their family utterly transformed.
Dramatic and lyrical, Allison Amend's first novel, steeped in the history and lore of the Oklahoma Territory, tells an unforgettable multigenerational -- and very American -- story of Jewish pioneers, their adopted family, and the challenges they face. Amid the founding of the West, Stations West's generations struggle to forge and maintain their identities as Jews, as immigrants, and as Americans.
Synopsis
"Stations West is truly an American epic. It is the story of immigrants and natives, of the evolution of the land, of culture and of people, of attitudes and lifestyles, of belief, of family, of America itself. I know of no other piece of literature like it. Written in a style as starkly beautiful as the landscape of the Oklahoma territory it describes, Amend's prose is unflinching and unsentimental; it takes on difficult truths with wide-open eyes. I'm quite awed by the novel's tremendous reach and its generosity."-Thisbe Nissen, author of Out of the Girls' Room and into the Night
About the Author
Frederick Manfred (1912and#8211;94) grew up on a farm in Iowa with six brothers, attended Calvin College in Michigan, and then hitchhiked for two years across America, which provided him with rich materials for his writing. His twenty-five novels include the five-volume series The Buckskin Man Tales, of which
Lord Grizzly and
Scarlet Plume are also available in Bison Books editions. Manfred also published volumes of poetry, short stories, and essays. Delbert E. Wylder (1923and#8211;2004) was one of the founding members of the Western Literature Association and is the author of
Popular Westerns and
Emerson Hough. Charles L. Woodard is a distinguished professor of English at South Dakota State University and the author of
Peril and Promise: Essays on Community in South Dakota and Beyond.