The Callings [Hardcover]

Henry Chappell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

The South Plains, 1873 Bison herds are dwindling on the Kansas prairie. Logan Fletcher, a young faith healer from Kentucky, labors as a skinner on a buffalo hunting crew, waiting for the taming of the plains and the chance to spread the Word to the coming immigrants. On the reservation near Fort Sill, the U.S. Government withholds food in retaliation for Comanche and Kiowa depredation in Texas. Cuts Something, an aging Comanche war chief, returns to his old home on the Pease River to revive his Badger Medicine. His quest is rewarded, and he leads his demoralized band back to the bison-rich Texas Panhandle. Logan’s crew abandons the Kansas bone field and heads into the Panhandle, where the brutal plains life erodes his idealism and raises questions he is ill prepared to answer. The inevitable confrontation of two men—each from an arrogant, expansionist culture—draws in an assortment of characters cast of the harsh land itself and just as gripping: Bob Durham, the former slave, whose skill as a plainsman saves Logan’s crew time and again; Ezra Higginbotham, the hunter whose determination to exploit the last of the southern bison herd imperils everyone around him; Elizabeth Keltner, the young woman who survives cholera and capture by Kiowas, then gives Logan reason to live; Abraham, the giant Tonkawa scout who eats the flesh of his enemies and endures unspeakable torture to lead the army to Cuts Something’s band. The final clash tests the depths of Cuts Something’s resolve and compels Logan to confront the racism, brutality, and moral paradox of the American frontier in all its complexities.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896724948
• ISBN-13: 978-0896724945
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,467,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Callings - A Great Story on Real Life Struggles, December 18, 2002

By 

Bruce Bumgarner - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Callings (Hardcover)

"The Callings" is a great read!!! I couldn't put it down. I recommend it to anyone that loves a well written story, westerns, or historical fiction. This is a compelling story that plunges the reader into timeless personal struggles between main characters while capturing the real struggles between two cultures on the Great Plains in 1873.

It gave me a historical perspective from both the Comanche and the buffalo hunters that is realistic and truthful. I wasn't sure which side should prevail at the end of the story which is a fresh viewpoint in our politically correct world of today.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great story!!!, November 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Callings (Hardcover)

This is a great story told without ethnic bias. The author helps us understand the cultural differences that led to the near extinction of the bison as well as the native peoples that depended upon them. The author does not take sides but presents the differences through the eyes of his characters via a well told tale that will keep you reading past bed time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VIVID-STUNNING-LYRICALLY BEAUTIFUL, November 3, 2002

By 

Jleebutts (Irving, Tx United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Callings (Hardcover)

The year--1873. The place--the LLano Estacado (The Staked Plains) and the vast surrounding grasslands of the Texas Panhandle. Bison still roam in ocean-like herds that attract white hunters and the freedom seeking Indians who hate them. Henry Chappell's lyrically beautiful new novel sets these two groups on a collision course destined from the first word to end in unexpected ways for everyone involved.

Cuts Something, an aging Comanche war chief, longs for the glory days of the past and leads his small, starving band away from the reservation near Fort Sill. His broken heart yearns for the valleys of the Pease River, the unchanging reminder of better times now lost forever. Logan Fletcher, a young buffalo skinner from Kentucky, flounders into the same area on the heels of a promise made to his dying father. A promise of redemption and healing from the hands of a true believer.

Surrounding these two men are a grand cast of characters the reader cannot soon forget. Cuts Something's wife, She Invites Her Sisters, his son Elk Rub, his close friends Thats It and Otter Belt bring the Comanches to brutal life. Chappel's Comanches are fiercly realistic, but so carefully drawn as to make their murderous behavior understandable and almost sympathetic.

Equally understandable is the destructive behavior of Fletcher's band of acquaintances. Bob Durham, a former slave, whose skill on the plains is even sought after by the U.S. Army. Ezra Higginbotham, a hunter determined to exterminate the entire buffalo population. These three end up in the company of rescued white women and Army pursuers led by Tonkawa scouts who hate Comanches and practice a form of cannibalism when given the opportunity.

Chappell's story does not turn away from the cruelty or racism of either group. In the end he offers the discriminating reader no pat answers or sharply drawn politically correct conclusions for what happens between them. Others have attempted what Mr. Chappell succeeds in doing. Most have fallen woefull short with stupendous loads of pretentious literary fluff. No pretentions here. Straight from the shoulder--damned good stuff--don't misss it! Other writers should be green with envy.