The Diezmo: A Novel [Hardcover]

Rick Bass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2005

The Diezmo tells the incredible story of the Mier Expedition, one of the most absurd and tragic military adventures in the history of Texas -- a country and a state, as Rick Bass writes, that was "born in blood." In the early days of the Republic of Texas, two young men, wild for glory, impulsively volunteer for an expedition Sam Houston has ordered to patrol the Mexican border. But their dreams of triumph soon fade into prayers for survival, and all that is on their minds is getting home and having a cool drink of water. After being captured in a raid on the Mexican village of Mier, escaping, and being recaptured, the men of the expedition are punished with the terrible diezmo, in which one man in ten is randomly chosen to die. The survivors end up in the most dreaded prison in Mexico. There they become pawns in an international chess game to decide the fate of Texas, and with their hopes of release all but extinguished, they make one desperate, last-ditch effort to escape.

A great crossover book with appeal for high school students. It will also interest readers of westerns and historical fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Whether Bass is writing his profoundly affecting narrative nonfiction, which includes Caribou Rising (2004), or such spellbinding short story collections as The Hermit's Story (2002), he expresses awe over life's glory and ruefulness over humankind's folly. Bass has now perfected his novelist's voice in this commanding tale inspired by the Mier Expedition, an infamous chapter in the brief and bloody story of the Republic of Texas. Bass' eminently trustworthy narrator, James Alexander, is still in his teens when he and a friend impulsively join a militia ordered by Sam Houston to patrol the border with Mexico, but which, instead, turns rogue, crosses the Rio Grande, and slaughters innocent people and soldiers alike. James and many of his worse-for-wear cohorts are captured, shackled, put to work building a road, then imprisoned in an isolated, vermin-infested mountain fortress, all the while suffering brutal deprivations and terrors (one Mexican commander enforces the diezmo, or tithe, arbitrarily executing 1 prisoner in 10). As Bass recounts the prisoners' epic suffering and consequential stoicism, he achieves the molten beauty, compassion, and longing for justice found in Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage and the novels of B. Traven and Cormac McCarthy. But he also articulates his signature passion for life's endless improvisations and persistence as manifest in everything from the grandeur of desert landscapes to lice, orchids, jaguars, a young woman in love, and even the cruelty and aberrations of men entangled in illegitimate warfare, a tragic practice we seem doomed to perpetuate generation after generation. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"I loved the Diezmo. . .I loved the calm of the narrator even in the presence of death." --Terry Tempest Williams

"Rick Bass is one of our best writers. The Diezmo is further proof; a vivid, graphic, harrowing tale of wild men and bad blood, a fable universal and timeless in its application." --Kent Haruf

"Once in a long while there is a book I find myself buying again and again, because I have so many friends who should read it; this year, that book is without question The Diezmo. What a woeful and dusty and beautiful adventure; what a great and simple tale! For Mr. Bass writes with eyewitness precision, clear humility, and best of all, the generosity of the forgiven. The Diezmo extends his already considerable reach, and is the best of his many fine works." --Leif Enger

"Rick Bass's The Diezmo is the best literary adventure story I've read since Legends of the Fall. Full of unusual history, exciting events, timely ideas, and stunning wilderness scenery, The Diezmo is a wonderfully-told novel of the human capacity for survival in the face of the very worst that war can do to us." --Howard Frank Mosher

"[The Diezmo] contains many exquisite passages that will give the reader pause. . .A masterpiece." --Patty Lamberti Playboy

"Bass plays the English language like a stringed instrument...a ripping good tale." --Mike Shea, Texas Monthly

"Terrific...powerful...the lean beauty of Bass' prose...[is] gripping." --Adam Hill Los Angeles Times

"Compellingly effective." --H.W. Brands The Washington Post

"Succinct, evocative, and painterly...a surprisingly absorbing rendition of a terrible episode in American history." --Elizabeth Grossman The Oregonian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (May 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395926173
• ISBN-13: 978-0395926178
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,004,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Men will have war., May 29, 2005

By 

Richard L. Pangburn (Bardstown, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Diezmo: A Novel (Hardcover)

An absorbing account, written with much foreshadowing of an old man looking back upon the foolishness and stupidity of war. Comparisons with BLOOD MERIDIAN are natural, and here the message is quite the same, that men are addicted to war, that there is no glory in it, that stupidity and violence will continue to prevail.

Bass structures his narrative on the historical memoirs left us, which were biased and conflicting, but perhaps, as Cormac McCarthy might say, the truth of what did not happen may be about as true as what can be documented, the memories of men being uncertain and biased.

Some of the characters and scenes are imagined, but some characters such as Thomas Jefferson Green and William Fisher are historical. There is violence and gore in here, but it is not laid on. The author has an eye for the telling detail, as in this paragraph describing the commanders planning the invasion into Mexico:

"They sat in a circle of mismatched chairs. Green and Somervell's chairs were turned backwards so that they straddled them like horses. They leaned forward in the chairs, resting the weight of their torsos against the backs, as if even here they intended to somehow charge into battle."

The prose is nothing like McCarthy, of course, but is sparkling and fresh and goes down like a clean drink of water. Typical Rick Bass prose. The title refers to the black bean lottery that Mexicans used to determine which prisoners were shot and which survived. This may seem too obscure for browsing bookbuyers, but the attractive dustjacket may encourage them to look more closely.

Rick Bass lists his sources on the Acknowledgments Page in the rear of the book, so as to alert scholars who hunger for more details. The author says that he wrote it as our troops were charging into Baghdad--suggesting that his emotions then may have influenced the book.

However he came to write it, I'm glad that he did. This book is short, just 208 pages, but exactly the length needed to tell the story of these soldiers of misfortune. It is a treasure. Bravo!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent historical review (the book, not the review), August 18, 2005

By 

David R. Evans "heathbug" (TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Diezmo: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found this book to be an excellent historical novelation (or is it a novelation of a historic event)? Anyway, as someone who is familiar with Texas history, I still found much to admire about this novelisation (novelization?) of the Meir escapade, which I learned a lot about, in spite of my (supposed) knowledge of the story. It is made more interesting by the centering of the story on one fictional character, intermixed with real, historic figures. I would recommend the book highly to anyone wanting to learn about this tragic event in Texas history, as well as anyone wanting to read an exciting, bloody story in its own right.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will be controlled by only the most civilized warfare..., September 18, 2005

By 

Megan Sanchez (Hempstead, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Diezmo: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was reluctant to continue after hearing some of the horrific deeds commited by the men who (after reading the dustjacket) I thought to be Texas heroes. But just as I was appalled I was mesmerized into reading throughout the night in hopes of learning how their fates played out. And as I write this just a few minutes later I am wondering how the survivors fared, the ones that were less critical to the story at hand but may have played a more powerful and less publicized role. Overall I recommend this to anyone with an interest in Texas...or history... or man in general.