Faraway Blue

Plenty of blood is spilled in this adventure story, as the Ninth Cavalry battles the Apaches in the mountain country of old New Mexico, circa 1880. Civil War veteran and ex-slave Sgt. Moses Williams leads the charge against Nana, the distinguished, aging Apache leader and brother-in-law of the more well-known Geronimo, in a struggle to claim the ancient Indian tribal lands. With each new skirmish Nana and Williams become convinced that they are destined to face each other in hand-to-hand combat in a battle to the finish. Their fates are bound together so ominously that Sheela, Williams's bride-to-be (she is an educated, beautiful and virginal mulatta whom Williams rescued from a brothel) has a premonition that her man will die at Nana's hand. Sheela comes to rescue him, but it's all a buildup to a letdown finish. Evans (Hi-Lo Country) writes sensitively when describing Nana and his relationship with his family, especially his grandchildren. Far too often he moves away from those tender scenes to graphic, bloody descriptions of battle verging on the gratuitous. It is unconvincing that this story (based on a real-life character, decorated buffalo soldier Moses Williams) should dodge virtually all the racial issues one would think central in this setting. Evans has written an old-fashioned Western novel, where the love element heightens the drama of war and vice versa, settling comfortably into a genre of well-worn conventions and leaving the reader with few surprises. (Jan.) FYI: A film version of Evans's Hi-Lo Country is in production from Martin Scorsese, starring Woody Harrelson and Patricia Arquette.