It is Friday and that means Friday’s Forgotten
Books. I first told you about this book back in 2011. I remind you today. As I
said then in the review below, 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 Todd Mason’s Sweet Freedom blog.
 |
| Hardback |
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
288
pages
$24.00
Material
supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System.
Kevin
R. Tipple © 2011, 2019
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