Recommended by Aimee:
"About two brothers named Edward and John who run away from home in 1840's-ish Florida, travel around and end up on opposite sides in the Mexican War. Incredibly graphic and violent, but once you start reading, it just pulls you in and you can't put it down even when you want to. Amog many other things, you'll meet a minister who's fitted out his wife with a scold's bridle, killers of every kind, the darkest underbelly of New Orleans, and you'll see Edward lose his entire scalp and live to fight another day."

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Product Description

The offspring of a whore mother and a homicidal father, Edward and John Little are driven from their home in the Florida swamplands by a sching parent's treacheries, and by a shameful, horrific act that will haunt their dreams for the rest of their days. Joining the swelling ranks of the rootless--wandering across an almost surreal bloodland populated by the sorrowfully lost and defiantly damned--two brothers are separated by death and circumstance in the lawless "Dixie City" of New Orelans, and dispatched by destiny to opposing sides in a fierce and desperate territorial struggled between Mexico and the United States. And a family bond tempered in hot blood is tested in the cruel, all-consuming fires of war and conscience.With soaring and masterful prose, James Carlos Blake brings to life an enthralling historical time and place--and a cast of memorable characters--in a stunning tale of dark instinct, blood reckoning, and fates forged in the zeal of America's "Manifest Destiny."

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #234186 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Library Journal
Forget Davy Crockett and the other "heroes" of the Alamo. Blake's (The Friends of Pancho Villa, Berkley, 1996) third novel offers a much bloodier and more terrible picture of the West than legends would have us believe. In 1845, Edward Little and his brother, John, flee their Florida home, leaving behind a missing sister and a mother driven insane by her drunken, abusive husband. Heading for the Mexican border towns, the brothers get separated in New Orleans. They each make their way to Texas, joining up with like-minded fellows out for adventure and Indian-killing. Edward and John end up on opposite sides when the United States declares war on Mexico; not even brotherly love can bridge the gap created by the Rio Grande in the 1840s. Episode after episode of unrelieved murder and mayhem as experienced by mostly inarticulate men make up this fast-moving, unromanticized Western. Recommended for public libraries.?Nancy Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Blake (The Pistoleer, 1995, etc.) again demonstrates his talent for mingling historical fact with fiction, in the case here of the Mexican War and the antebellum frontier. Brothers John and Edward Little return to their remote north Florida farm from a search for their runaway sister only to find their father on a murderous rampage. The boys defend themselves and kill their father. Their mother, meanwhile, has fled. Left alone, the teenagers set out for Texas, but they become separated in New Orleans. John, who can't control his violent nature, kills a man and, to escape hanging, joins Zachary Taylor's Mexican Warbound army. Edward, in the meantime, also commits murder but flees to Texas and after several bloody adventures ends up in Mexico. He first joins a company of scalp-hunters, then takes up with a band of Mexican bandits who are ultimately impressed into US Service as the infamous Spy Company. For his part, John deserts the army and joins the St. Patrick's Brigade, composed of Americans (mostly Irishmen) fighting on the Mexican side. Shifting between the brothers' parallel stories, Blake offers a virtual encyclopedia of graphic violence. People are shot, clubbed, knifed, eviscerated, castrated, decapitated, impaled, flayed alive, hanged, scalped, dismembered, blown up, and immolated. And sexual perversions run the gamut from rape to sodomy to incest and necrophilia; only bestiality is omitted. Brutality and grotesque images are played out against invariably blood-red sunsets and dawns. Blake's assured prose, knowledge of history, and fast-paced story are definite pluses, but in its last third the complexities of the war and the redundancy of mind-numbing violence overwhelm the characters, finally rendering them rather absurd. (First printing of 25,000) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author
James Carlos Blake was born in Mexico and raised in Texas. The most recent of his four novels is Red Grass River. His previous novels,In the Rogue Blood, received the LA Times Book Prize for Fiction. His short fiction has won awards and has appeared in a variety of literary journals. He lives in El Paso, Texas, and DeLand, Florida.

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Customer Reviews

Literally the Wild, Wild West
Except maybe Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" there is no other book I can think of that compares with Blake's noir, hardcore, historically-based vision of the 1840s west. He is a natural storyteller who loves spinning the hard-hitting tale, occasionally at the expense of finer language (which he is perfectly capable of crafting when he chooses to do so). A harrowing depiction of wild souls and the decisions they make (or don't make) and the consequences of their actions.

Breathtaking
I'm a huge fan of Blakes writing. I tried Cormack McCarthy, but couldn't get into it. Blake's style may be easy reading, but the vivid imagery he creates while you read is priceless to me. Who couldn't enjoy this amazing story of family and adventure. Individual lifes swirl with mystery and suspense as they weave amongst others. I recommend all of Blakes books to anyone who enjoys a great action novel with fantastic characters that are hard to forget and easy to empathise with. Far from a fairy tale writer, Blake is an extrordinary author who deserves recognition. Don't browse over this title, you'll really be missing out.

In the Rogue Blood
Blake is a wonderful stylist. His vivid imagery and stark, eloquent language breathe life into this book and make it outstanding. Readers who enjoy Cormac McCarthy's books will find this to be similar in many of its good qualities.

In the Rogue Blood is the story of two brothers in the 1840's. They travel West and get mixed up in the Mexican War; one ends up fighting for Mexico in the San Patricios, while the other joins a band of Mexican scouts fighting for the United States. The end, as one might expect from Blake, is not a happy one.

It's a tribute to Blake's writing that I was able to enjoy the book despite his characters. They're walking lizard brains, constantly sleeping with whores and getting in pointless fights. However period they may be, they're not very interesting people. The plot bogs down in the middle, when the characters seem to be meaninglessly repeating their brutal behavior ad nauseam, but picks up when they become involved in the war. Female characters here exist primarily for the use of men, though one could argue that part of the tragedy of John and Edward is that they are never capable of comprehending their wild mother and sister.

Much of 1840's America as presented by Blake seems accurate to me, though his version is certainly a very bleak one, sometimes melodramatically so. This is an ugly West, full of cruelty and deformity, with malice towards all, and sometimes the sheer ugliness of everything taxed my suspension of disbelief.

Nevertheless, this is a powerful tragedy and a brilliantly styled book, which I strongly recommend.