Customer Reviews

The Better Part of Valor: A Story of the Alamo

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Better Part of Valor" is a crisp, fast-paced read that tells the Alamo story from William Barret Travis's perspective. Travis has been neglected by novelists, but Trish Bennett breathes fresh life into the character, imagining him as a young swashbuckler. (Walter Lord once commented that Travis's image may have suffered damage from Amelia Williams's dissertation and Lawrence Harvey's priggish portrayal of the Alamo commander in John Wayne's movie, "The Alamo.)

The novel spans the thirteen days of siege, deriving its suspense from the "ticking clock" of dramatic irony. The historical Travis must have wrestled with the weight of command, given the grave consequences of his leadership. Ms. Bennett focuses her narrative on a relationship with the novel's female protagonist, and the doomed relationship serves as an effective metaphor for Travis's ambivalence.

The novel's most enjoyable aspect is the female protagonist. The object of Travis's affection, Caroline Girard is a worthy heroine, full of spit (literally) and vinegar; a character that was both believable and dramatically satisfying.

Despite the author's reliance on myth over accuracy (Ms. Bennett ignores the historical Travis's attempts to arrange terms of surrender), I found "The Better Part of Valor" to be a thoroughly enjoyable read, one that I would not hesitate to recommend.

I know next to nothing about the Alamo other than the few basics one learns in U.S. History class. Ms. Bennett's book reveals the heroism of the Alamo's defenders through a love story that focuses on the fort's commander, William Travis, and a young woman named Caroline Girard.

I had a difficult time putting the book down and while I had a sinking feeling about how things would end, I utterly enjoyed the story Bennett had to tell. I hope she publishes again soon.

I liked this little book. As a long time student of the battle of the Alamo, I've found it's commander, William Barrett Travis, to be a rather enigmatic figure. Ms. Bennett fleshes his character out in a believable way, and weaves a nice little romance in with Alamo facts. A most enjoyable read as a romance with a good dollop of well researched hard historical fact. Ms. Bennett has done an excellent job!

This was arguably the first romance novel I ever read; in my defense I didn't realize it was a romance novel when I ordered it! Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Somewhat to my surprise Ms. Bennett has rather seamlessly worked her fictional character, Caroline Girard, come to Texas at the worst possible moment in search of her father, into the history I know so well. Miss Girard arrives in San Antonio the day before the famous siege begins, both materially adding to and offering some precious relief from the problems of the young commander of the Alamo, Col. William Barret Travis. At only 125 pages it is a rather short book, but Ms. Bennett nevertheless does a good job of believably sketching out the characters of Girard, Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Joe, Santa Anna, and especially Susanna Dickinson. The historical events are a mixture of Traditionalist and Revisionist versions, but only Revisionists are likely to complain that she has made the heroes a bit more noble than they may have been in real life.

With each chapter marking out a day, the story ticks relentlessly towards the final doom. There is no HEA here, but IMHO the story will satisfy, and the Romance is certainly less clunky and less unhistorical than the one John Wayne shoehorned into his well loved version of The Alamo.

Perhaps I have read too many books about the Alamo but Ms. Bennett took a bit too many liberties for me to rate it anything more than two stars. At one point she has Travis, the overall commander of the Alamo, slipping out alone in the still of the night to rescue his girlfriend from the entire Mexican Army! (What about his duty to his command?!) The fact that Travis slipped into San Antonio so easily, got on a horse and rode out of town (Hey! How'd they get across the San Antonio River? Did the Mexicans leave the bridges and fords unguarded?) almost undetected was laughable! Ms. Bennett also has Dr. John Sutherland staying in the Alamo throughout the siege and presumably dying there. In reality, Sutherland injured his knee when his horse fell with him after he rode out and spotted the first Mexican troops and so was sent out on the first day as a courier. She also has Dr. Amos Pollard come into the Alamo with the Heroic 32 from Gonzales. (Nope! He was already there!) And, Ms. Bennett continually screws up the geographic setting of the Alamo. At one point, she has Travis at the northwest corner with the 18 lber cannon looking into the heart of San Antonio. (Sorry, the 18 lber was in the southwest corner, and Travis would have had one heck of a time seeing the heart of San Antonio from the northwest corner!) However, Ms Bennett writes a wonderful love story. This seems to be the strongest part of the book and she has a nice way of capturing the feelings of her characters. Still, it was hard for me to get over the fact that in reality, Travis jumped on anything in a skirt, as attested to in his own diary. While Ms. Bennett is not a bad writer, she needs to do a bit more research on her next book. There are numerous books on the Alamo, it's too bad she didn't read a few of them before writing her story!