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Oct 21, 2018wyenotgo rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This book is greatly enriched by the depth and complexity of Paulette Jiles' cultural and historical research that wonderfully illuminated her sequel "News of the World". Here we are swept into the turbulent world of 1860's north Texas and Oklahoma where the Comanches and Kiowa were beginning their last struggle for survival as "civilization" closes in on them. Jiles' protagonist, the newly freed black man Britt Johnson emerges as one of history's most engaging characters as he makes his way in this dangerous environment. His unexpected friendship with the semi-renegade Comanche Tissoyo adds an intriguing twist to the story. That and the hopeless moral dilemma faced by Samuel Hammond, a Quaker serving as Indian Agent, forced to mediate between warring factions and saddled with the impossible task of transforming free-spirit warrior Comanches into farmers. It is from the mouth of Tissoyo that the book's title emerges; and therein lies what I saw as the book's one serious weakness: Tisoyo comes across as an almost mythical being and his poetic facility with Spanish is not really credible. Thus four stars instead of five.