Readers of Western fiction well know the tendency towards formula writing that this genre holds.
That's why Crippled Jack by Boston Teran is such a standout. It's revisionist writing at its best, turning the Western genre on end with a story that is unexpected and evocative. The satisfying blend of historical fact and revolutionary concepts come alive under Teran's hand.
The story opens with a young boy who has been tied up and abandoned on a trail, left behind with a cryptic note attached to him to await death or God's intervention: whichever comes first.
Salvation arrives in the form of Ledru Drum, who is making his way south, following the Chihuahua Trail, when he stumbles upon the terrified, beat-up child who will change his life.
The child grows up to be the marksman known as Crippled Jack, forging a name and reputation that belays his disabilities and places him in a powerful position.
His coming-of-age and connections with equally forceful personalities who belay their sex and heritage to make names for themselves during changing times creates a Western of a very different ilk. The story follows its characters through social, political, and psychological lawlessness and into worlds where their inherent weaknesses prove to be uncommon strengths.
Boston Teran is skilled at presenting and contrasting the experiences of men and women alike, injecting self-inspections with social reflections that lend realistic drama and dilemmas to each character's world.
Struggles, intrigue, and confrontations immerse Nola Dyle and Matthew Drum in situations which set them apart and make them notoriously different figures in the West, readers will especially appreciate the attention Teran gives to evocative scenes built on mercurial relationships.
The result is a Western that is actually a literary piece that employs all the trappings of the Western, but elevates the plot to a higher level entirely. This will appeal to literary readers looking for something different.
Libraries looking for standout Western-centric novels, as well as book clubs reading Westerns who seek reads both satisfyingly complex and outstandingly unique, will both find Crippled Jack absorbing and refreshingly original writing.
Genre: Western
That's why Crippled Jack by Boston Teran is such a standout. It's revisionist writing at its best, turning the Western genre on end with a story that is unexpected and evocative. The satisfying blend of historical fact and revolutionary concepts come alive under Teran's hand.
The story opens with a young boy who has been tied up and abandoned on a trail, left behind with a cryptic note attached to him to await death or God's intervention: whichever comes first.
Salvation arrives in the form of Ledru Drum, who is making his way south, following the Chihuahua Trail, when he stumbles upon the terrified, beat-up child who will change his life.
The child grows up to be the marksman known as Crippled Jack, forging a name and reputation that belays his disabilities and places him in a powerful position.
His coming-of-age and connections with equally forceful personalities who belay their sex and heritage to make names for themselves during changing times creates a Western of a very different ilk. The story follows its characters through social, political, and psychological lawlessness and into worlds where their inherent weaknesses prove to be uncommon strengths.
Boston Teran is skilled at presenting and contrasting the experiences of men and women alike, injecting self-inspections with social reflections that lend realistic drama and dilemmas to each character's world.
Struggles, intrigue, and confrontations immerse Nola Dyle and Matthew Drum in situations which set them apart and make them notoriously different figures in the West, readers will especially appreciate the attention Teran gives to evocative scenes built on mercurial relationships.
The result is a Western that is actually a literary piece that employs all the trappings of the Western, but elevates the plot to a higher level entirely. This will appeal to literary readers looking for something different.
Libraries looking for standout Western-centric novels, as well as book clubs reading Westerns who seek reads both satisfyingly complex and outstandingly unique, will both find Crippled Jack absorbing and refreshingly original writing.
Genre: Western
Praise for this book
"Crippled Jack whacks you upside the head from its first page to its final bloody act. Teran's language, like his character, is at times blunt, other times poetic and always barreling like a freight train through an array of robber barons, Pinkerton lackeys and working families mired in poverty and the Colorado silver mines. Wrought with tension and rife with blood as the frontier it inhabits, its hard-scrabble politics and philosophical bent anchors Teran's story with the gravity of a moral reckoning that transcends Crippled Jack's times and mirrors our own." - Bruce Holbert
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