It is Friday and that means Friday’s
Forgotten Books. In my post chocolate cake haze it seemed like a good idea to
run my review of David E. Hilton’s Kings of Colorado. As I said in the
review that appeared back in 2011 it isn’t easy to label this book. Suffice it
to say, you should read it if you have not already done so. After you read the
review make sure you check out the complete list over at Patti’s blog. Surely something will
catch your eye…
Austin, Texas resident David E. Hilton's debut novel
Kings of Colorado is in turns heart breaking and uplifting. A
novel that is not easy to describe while filled with tragedy and ultimately
redemption. At its core, it is the tale of one man finally finding peace with a
very brutal past decades later.
It was the summer of 1963 when the abusive world William Sheppard knew changed forever. He was thirteen and one time too many his father came home in a drunken rage and started terrorizing his family. When it was over, his father was near death because his thirteen year old son William Shepard had stabbed him multiple times with a pocket knife.
By September, thanks to the order of
the court, William Sheppard was on his way from Chicago to the Swope Ranch
Boy's reformatory in Colorado. The legendary reform school located near
Gunnison, Colorado in a high mountain valley isolated from the world is to be
his home for the next twenty four months. That is if he can survive the
altitude of over thirteen thousand feet, the extreme weather, the other
inmates, and the guards. Of all the threats the guards may be the worst
threat as, with a couple of exceptions, they exist to abuse the boys in every
way possible. The ranch sustains itself by using the boys as a cheap labor
source to break and take care of the wild horses that are shipped in at regular
intervals. The threats are many but the reality of life is put very simply by
Warden Walter Barrow:
“We'll break you, Mr. Sheppard. Just
like we break each of the animals outside. One step at a time.” (Page 22)
Those in charge use the natural
environmental elements of the ranch being located in a valley above thirteen
thousand feet, intimidation, weapons, and other factors to control the
population. Days away from anywhere, knowing that to resist means being shot,
etc. means that nobody is going anywhere. This prison may have beauty around it
and nothing in terms of walls or guard towers but it is a lock down prison in
every sense that matters.
What follows is a tale of William
Sheppard during those brutal 24 months and the aftermath of his ordeals decades
later. It is a harsh and unforgiving world that bears a striking resemblance to
Lord of the Flies in a far different location. One wonders if it
was pitched as that when the author was seeking representation and publication.
If so, it was a truly perfect fit that encapsulates well what this novel is
about.
An emotionally powerful book with
both humor and sheer tragedy often mere lines of text apart, Kings of
Colorado is a complex book that is very hard to define or explain in
great detail without destroying the very story lines that serve as the fabric
of the novel. It reads like a memoir with a voice far older than the author
would appear, and yet there are elements of any good mystery fiction story.
Crimes have been and are committed, there are several mysteries, and other
elements could easily move the book into the mystery field.
Not for the squeamish or faint
hearted, the graphic moments in this story of language and description fit well
into the story. They are not added for shock value or to pad the word count.
They are in there because they fit seamlessly into the text as a whole.
By the end of the book you will
wonder if these events really did happen?
Kings of Colorado: A Novel
David E. Hilton
Simon & Schuster
January 2011
ISBN 978-1-4391-8382-3
Hardback(paperback, audio, and e-book versions available)
288 pages
$24.00
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2011, 2014
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