Stand Proud: A Texas Saga by Elmer Kelton (review)

180 Western American Literature Cendrars’ characterization of Sutter is flat, partly a result of the book’s brevity. The journey westward from Berne to California might as well be a journey from Berne to Bordeaux, or perhaps that frantic train journey Cendrars was said to have taken around Germany when at seventeen he fled his parents’ home. Sutter’s character is diminished by this superficial treat­ ment of the long and formidable journey west, and it is also flattened by Cendrars’ abrupt and overly dramatic style. Each sentence, paragraph and chapter is short, and many are hollow. These two passages make up more than one-third of Chapter 9: During the three months he has just spent at Fort Independence, John Augustus Sutter has matured his plan. He has made up hismind. He will go to California. Who dares all, wins all. Sutter must seize his opportunity. He isready. [26] This self-consciously simple style emphasizes Sutter’s plans and hopes instead of what his senses tell him; Gold contains few vivid images and an unfortu­ nately large number of European and 19th-century romantic fictions and clichés. For example, as a dim backdrop to Sutter’s ride toward the “sequoia trees of Snake River in Idaho” [32] we are told that the “Redskins are on the warpath” [29] a reasonably accurate if uninspired translation of “Les Peaux Rouges sont sur les senders de la guerre.” Because Sutter’s character is a product of these trite pronouncements it is difficult to believe in him as the “swindler” of the early pages of the book. He is somewhat more real as empire builder, perhaps because some of Sutter’s own journal is quoted there, but again, “the old madman” of the last few pages isa weak characterization. Nevertheless, the book points out the irony of Sutter’s life. The man ruthlessly acquired an empire only to be defeated by the greater ruthlessness of the forty-niners. The translation presents this irony well, and, although this fictional biography is neither a very satisfying fiction nor a very factual biography, it is a nice example of one century’s and one culture’s view of a great event in another nation’s past. KAY DAVIS, University of Utah Stand Proud: A Texas Saga. By Elmer Kelton. (Garden City, N.Y: Double­ day, 1984. 279 pages, $14.95.) The award-winning novelist Elmer Kelton of San Angelo had given this Western two titles, Medicine Hill and Point of Rocks, before his publisher gave it its present title. Medicine Hill in the novel is a fictitious place, “a tall rocky hill which isa medicine hill to the Indians and has significance at various times through the story” (Letter to this reviewer 16 April 1983). The present title Reviews 181 Stand Proud refers to Frank Claymore, who is the central figure in this saga about the cattle country of West Texas. Claymore, like his predecessor Charlie Flagg in Kelton’s excellent The Time It Never Rained (1973), is one of the last of the old time cattlemen. He is an empire builder of note, and has faced the difficult trials of establishing a ranch in Indian territory “somewhere in the rolling plains up next to the caprock at the edge of the high plains” (Letter to this reviewer 16 April 1983). Once lauded as a hero and defender of the frontier during the Civil War, Claymore is on trial for murder, and it is truth that saves him, yet he is his own worst witness. Proud, unyielding, taciturn, he reacts to his accusers in anger and outrage, finding them inferior beings who would break his will. The true portrait of Claymore is found in the flashbacks as he reminisces about his past, realizing his errors and arrogance. Before the jury returns with a verdict an unexpected twist of fate frees him. Of note in this work is Kelton’s sympathetic treatment of women, good and evil. Rachal Wakefield bears Claymore’sillegitimate son, marries another man while Claymore is gone to war, yet remains his passionate spiritual love. Letitia (Letty) Zachary becomes his wife whom he does not appreciate until the stoiy isalmost ended. She isbeautiful...