On the Mesa

Rating:
Summary: Fighting the good fight in a losing battle
Review: Readers familiar with Nichol's other works might be surprised by On The Mesa. The book differs from anything he's published in the past and more nearly resembles the reflections of writers better known for non-fiction works than for fiction.

On The Mesa is the story of one of the skirmishes in the long war over the encroachments of 'post-modern' civilization into Northern New Mexico. Those battles are usually portrayed best in fiction works because they constitute an epic. Bradford's books, Red Sky at Morning and So Far From Heaven are two of the first of this genre, followed by the several Milagro Beanfield novels by Nichols.

On The Mesa lacks the penetrating humor readers find attractive in the fiction books by Nichols, but they'll probably be pleased by the reverence, the maturity of tone and the underlying sweet melancholy recognition of an inevitable loss in a noble fight to preserve a facet of the past.

Rating:
Summary: Fighting the good fight in a losing battle
Review: Readers familiar with Nichol's other works might be surprised by On The Mesa. The book differs from anything he's published in the past and more nearly resembles the reflections of writers better known for non-fiction works than for fiction.

On The Mesa is the story of one of the skirmishes in the long war over the encroachments of 'post-modern' civilization into Northern New Mexico. Those battles are usually portrayed best in fiction works because they constitute an epic. Bradford's books, Red Sky at Morning and So Far From Heaven are two of the first of this genre, followed by the several Milagro Beanfield novels by Nichols.

On The Mesa lacks the penetrating humor readers find attractive in the fiction books by Nichols, but they'll probably be pleased by the reverence, the maturity of tone and the underlying sweet melancholy recognition of an inevitable loss in a noble fight to preserve a facet of the past.