The Son - by Philipp Meyer

We all enjoyed this second book by Philipp Meyer: great writing, backed by deep research, and an ability to project interesting and disparate characters. It is the combined stories, diaries and thoughts of three members of the McCullough family, Texans all, in their respective worlds of Indians, Mexicans, land and oil.

Jeff and Chuck could not attend, but both sent comments and questions to the group. So we began with Jeff's question: whether Eli was justified In killing the tortured buffalo hunter. That question prompted a follow up question: had Eli's motivation to terminate the pain, taken at great personal risk, arisen from his white upbringing, his Comanche experience, or a deeper morality.

Which brought up another issue: Eli's hardness. Some argued that he was hard from the start, Geoff argued that his experiences from the murder of his family to the escape, to his continued upbringing under Toshaway and Nuukaru hardened him during his most formative years. One thing was clear, Eli learned to take those things in life he wanted, from the river bank turtles, to the oil fields to the judge’s home.

Jeff's second question prompted questions about Peter's conflicted soul and an evolving contemporary morality. Geoff's initial observation that Peter was weak (compared to Eli and Jeannie, and other Texans) was rejected by the group. His strength was manifest in his opposition to the murder and taking of the Garcia's ranch, seen by the mob and his own father (Eli) as weak. His tortured soul may have been more a manifestation of his own deep morality amongst a family and a culture that encouraged the raw expression of power than any weakness in his character.

Chuck had posed the question, is it possible that the meek will ever inherit the earth? In Texas they didn't by wealth standards, but wasn't Peter ultimately the one who achieved happiness? (Count no man happy until his days are done)

Chuck also pointed out the value of holding land before the emergence of modern economies. To which Rob pointed out the benefits of condo living in snowstorms while many of us still clear driveways and walkways by machine or by hand. But we digress. Land was more important in the West where the amount of land needed to support a family was greater than back East. Accidental emergence of oil made the big landowners more powerful by orders of magnitude, and those who embraced each wealth rush made lots of money. The clinging to old ways of ranging cattle and moving great herds to the stockyards of Kansas City seemed romantic, harkening pathetically to days long past. Cowboys graced dime-store book shelves, but oil won the wars.

Our favorite characters were as disparate as our group. Eli was a favorite for some, as a character whose influence was legion, and morality his own. He stated that his first loyalty was to the Rangers (and behaved with his first loyalty to his Comanche band); second loyalty to self. This elevation of a larger order as the prime loyalty is characteristic of many content and good people: a survival characteristic among warriors, a unifying characteristic among the faithful, and always extant among the most successful teams.

Rob liked Toshaway, the noble leader of the Comanche band, a man whose leadership was magnetic, who was never corrupted by his influence or power. He knew when to speak, when to act, and when to leave others to their own preferences and consequences.

We respected the efforts of Jeanne, into whose mind Meyer masterfully allowed the reader to peer. Confident and tough on the outside, unsure and questioning on the inside. The visit to the hunting camp was unfortunate; the decision to take charge of her business showed her great strength in the face of uncertainty. Her childhood relationship with the old Colonel guided her throughout her life.

We had to respect Peter for his underlying strength living in the shadow of his father, Eli. Perhaps he wasn't weak after all. And he got love.

Finally, a review which we cannot recall for attribution, was right on point for this book: for those of us old enough to have seen Indians portrayed as simple bad guys in early westerns, to the romanticized noble savage in later portrayals, this book shoots a flaming arrow into the heart on politically correct portrayals. Indians' brutality was matched only by the white soldiers and settlers who eradicated most of them.