Refugio, They Named You Wrong by Susan Clark Schofield (review)

178 WesternAmerican Literature He couldn’t wait for Steele to bring the song to an end. Hejerked the cordjack out of his Stratocaster, dropped the guitar into its case, then plunged off the front of the stage in pursuit of her. He fought his way across the Wishing Well. Smoke marbled the stale air. Shafts of blue and red light angled down from the lamps mounted on the ceiling. Seized by panic, he stopped and spun around. He’d lost her. As suddenly as she’d walked back into his life, she was gone. Ironically, it turns out that he is chasing the wrong woman this time, but that fact sets readers up for the frantic pace this story achieves. To outline the plot would spoil readers’enjoyment of Connor’s novel, but suffice it to say that the author seems to prepare readers for one kind of conclusion and deliver an­ other. This second novel confirms that Connor is the real thing; keep an eye out for his fiction. GERALD HASLAM Sonoma State University Refugio, They Named You Wrong. By Susan Clark Schofield. (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1991. 201 pages, $17.95.) Refugio, TheyNamed You Wrong meets all the criteria of a western novel, and it has enough ofthe right ingredients that at first glance one might think ofit as a formulaic western novel. There’s the obligatory cowboy, his girlfriend, his partner, and a collection of villains who are not clearly defined. The reader might think that it was written for pure entertainment. Upon closer inspection this work operates on a deeper level, one which forces the reader to do a little thinking. The first indication comes from the title; Refugio—Spanish for refuge or sanctuary. PeterJack Costello and the other two major characters,Joshua and Bellaca Alice Kimberly, are fugitives seeking a sanctuary. Driven by a convoluted murder spree that leaves Costello with a reward on his head (put up by his mother, who also managed to shoot him) and his father and brother dead, Costello runs from the law and himself. Unable to compre­ hend his mother’s reaction to the death of her abusive husband, Costello drifts from place to place and relationship to relationship. He takes Mercedes, a Mexican, aswell asone of his partners, BellacaAlice Kimberly, as his girlfriends, but he doesn’t take either of them seriously. Costello’s life changes when he meets the pregnant Sarah Bledsoe. Her husband abuses her and this troubles Costello. When her husband cannot deal with childbirth, Costello comes to the rescue and helps her deliver the child. Reviews 179 This is his first acceptance of responsibility, and the first time he gives a woman a second thought. Schofield has a subtle hand in dealing with history, and her placement of the novel in historical context is done without flash. She uses the great cattle drives over the Chisholm Trail, which took place between 1866 and 1886, as a backdrop for her story. As the setting of the novel occasionally requires, Mexi­ can history is also woven into the story. Two authors—Michael Malone, in Montana: Two Centuries ofHistory, and Arrell Gibson, in The West in the Life ofthe Nation—mention that the typical cowboy was Black or Hispanic, and Schofield incorporates this fact in her novel with the inclusion of Hispanic and Black characters. This book is worth its price. It is both entertaining and thought provoking. JIM BEASLEY University ofSouth Dakota The Rustlers of WestFork. By Louis L’Amour. Afterword by Beau L’Amour. (New York: Bantam Books, 1991. 244 pages, $22.00.) Long before the first Sackett was conceived, at a time when fame and fortune were still elusive, Louis L’Amour, under the assumed name of Tex Burns, adopted Hopalong Cassidy, a step-child that he would later disown. In the Afterword of The Rustlers of WestFork, L’Amour is quoted by his son Beau as saying, “A long time ago I wrote some books. Ijust did it for the money, and my name didn’t go on them. So now, when people ask me if they were mine, I say no.” The character, Hopalong Cassidy, was created by Clarence...