SANTA FE PASSAGE

New Mexico's colorful and turbulent mid–19th-century past is the focus of Bauman's uneven debut. His descriptions of Mexican politics and culture and American arrogance and expansion are right on target, but his unconvincing characters and wearisome plots make this a long journey on the dusty Santa Fe Trail. In 1822, teenage orphan Matthew Collins runs away from indenture in Illinois to seek his fortune as a trader on the famed trail. He's hired as a teamster, then a scout; he avoids being scalped by the Comanches; he learns to flatter and bribe the right officials. As the years pass, Matt, with his partner, Edward Waterman, becomes a prosperous and respected New Mexico businessman. Matt favors Mexican customs, marrying the beautiful daughter of a wealthy Mexican landowner and even becoming a Mexican citizen. While the marriage was for love, the change of citizenship was for business, with the result that Matt finds himself caught between two cultures and two loyalties, a dilemma that intensifies as an American war with Mexico becomes imminent in 1846. When war comes, Matthew is forced to choose which side he will support. Bauman does a masterful job portraying the events, people, politics and history of New Mexico; unfortunately there is little suspense and less action, and the characters move woodenly from one frontier conversation to the next. (Nov. 10)