The Holy Road: A Novel [Paperback]

Michael Blake (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2002

An unforgettable American story, Dances With Wolves was an international bestseller that has be-come a modern classic. The 1990 film adaptation won seven Academy Awards. In The Holy Road, master storyteller Michael Blake at long last continues the saga.

Eleven years have passed since Lieutenant John Dunbar became the Comanche warrior Dances With Wolves and married Stands With A Fist, a white-born woman raised as a Comanche from early childhood. With their three children, they live peacefully in the village of Ten Bears. But there is unease in the air, caused by increased reports of violent confrontations with white soldiers, who want to drive the Comanches onto reservations–a movement symbolized by the railroad, the white man’s holy road. Disquiet turns to horror, and then to rage, when a band of white rangers descends on Ten Bears’ village, slaughtering half its inhabitants and abducting Stands With A Fist and her infant daughter. The three surviving great warriors–Wind In His Hair, Kicking Bird, and Dances With Wolves –decide they must go to war with the white inva-ders. At the same time, Dances With Wolves realizes that only he can move unnoticed among the white men to rescue his wife and child.

Told with the same sweep, insight, and majesty that have made Dances With Wolves a worldwide phenomenon, The Holy Road is an epic story of courage and honor.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eleven years after winning an Academy Award for the film screenplay of his novel Dances with Wolves, Blake offers this dramatic sequel to his tale of army Lt. John Dunbar and his life with the Comanche Indians on the Great Plains. It is now 1874, 11 years after Dunbar deserted from the army to live among the Comanche. He has married Stands with a Fist, the captive white woman raised by Indians, and they have three children. Dunbar has forsworn the white man's ways and is accepted as Dances with Wolves, a full-fledged Comanche warrior. These are hard times for the Plains Indians, however, as the advance of the white man results in war, misery and a gloomy future. When a party of white rangers attacks his village and kidnaps his wife and youngest child, Dances with Wolves goes after them in a wild attempt at rescue. Alongside his tale of Dances with Wolves's personal turmoil, Blake more forcefully tells of the conflicts among the Indians regarding whether to fight the white man or to make peace. Raids, ambushes, atrocities and bitterness on both sides can have only one conclusion, despite an Indian peace delegation that goes to Washington, D.C., to meet the Great White Father. This novel focuses less on Dances with Wolves and much more on the confused plight of the Indians, who cannot understand the white man's greed, duplicity and brutality. Familiar characters from the original novel reappear here in more important roles, making this a more powerful historical novel with a much wider scope. Blake's ability to evoke sadness and joy, action and emotion is as strong as ever, and the ending hits hard. (Sept. 11)Forecast: Fans of the movie version of Dances with Wolves, starring Kevin Costner, will fall enthusiastically upon this sequel, though once they've bought it, they may be taken aback by the high ratio of history to heroics. A Western reading tour will attract extra attention.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Blake's sequel to his Dances with Wolves (1988) begins 11 years after the movie of that book ended. The former Lieutenant Dunbar is living peacefully with Stands with a Fist and their three children in the Comanche (not Lakota, as in the movie; there is a large cultural difference) village of Ten Bears. Change is in the wind. There are even fewer buffalo and more whites, and the white man's Holy Road, the railroad, looms larger with every passing year. Eventually, Texas Rangers descend on Ten Bears, kill half the inhabitants, and carry off Stands with a Fist and her infant daughter. Dances with Wolves, Wind in His Hair, and Kicking Bird decide to fight, but Dances with Wolves knows that he alone can rescue his family, and Kicking Bird wonders whether the Comanche are doomed. The subsequent action is brisk, vividly depicted, and, much to Blake's credit, devoid of gratuitous gore and artificial happy endings. Librarians should recognize that the book's potential readership is likely to be a function of the movie; be prepared to point out its Comanche, not Lakota, milieu; and direct the interested to Douglas C. Jones' Season of Yellow Leaf (1983) and Gone Are the Dreams and the Dancing (1984), which deal (arguably better) with the same period of Comanche history. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (July 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375760407
• ISBN-13: 978-0375760402
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #268,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Illusions Here---But Great Storytelling, March 2, 2004

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Holy Road: A Novel (Paperback)

In this sequel to "Dances With Wolves", we take a long, deep and suffering breath as characters we have grown to love and admire face the unstoppable, disheartening and inevitable encroachment of Indian land by white settlers and soldiers. Blake tells his story from many, mainly Indian perspectives: Ten Bears, the senior member of the village, who although intrigued by the marvel of the spectacles that somehow "make his eyes young again",can never forego his free life on the Plains---- Smiles Alot, the young horse whisperer who through the tragedy that befalls the village, finds his place as a brave warrior and wins the girl of his dreams---Kicking Bird, the one Indian who wants to understand the whites, thinks white technological advancements may actually help his people---Wind-in-his-hair, born a warrior, he prefers to die free and wild rather than ever acquiesce to the whites and Dances With Wolves and his family--Stands With a Fist and their three children who have eschewed the ways of their cultural pasts for the communal mystery that embraces all the Commanches. Even though the outcome has been dictated by history, Blake does a great job of telling a story befitting the best campfire. He does not overlook the details, but rather allows us entry into each of the Indian minds --- we smile as an Indian delegation goes by train to Washington and one of the members has a panic attack as the train goes into a tunnel; we feel the pain of Dances with Wolves when white rangers intercept Stands With a Fist and try to reunite her with her blood relatives--we cringe along with Ten Bears as he discovers the way white men "make meat" and shutter when Smiles Alot and his family are carted off to the white man's jail. The amalgamated story wonderfully provides us with a piece of each of the Indian spirit that fits together to form a rich tapestry of the village life. Although it ends sadly, describing a retricted life on a reservation, I found myself thinking about those huge Indian casinos that are now as fascinating to the whites as the buffalo tongues once were.

I listened to this story on audio cassette---it was the perfect mixture of good plot and simplistic style that allowed me to concentrate on my exercise and follow the story at the same time. Recommended to all who enjoyed Dances With Wolves and wanted a closer glimpse into Commanche life.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reader's Imagination, February 8, 2002

By 

"hightides" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holy Road: A Novel (Hardcover)

At every turn in this book, Blake let the reader's imagination take over. Instead of lengthy descriptions he let dialog, actions, and situations plant the pictures in my head. I felt incredibly sad at times, mad at times, amazed and informed at times. I don't know if this was intended but that's how it read. I really enjoyed it and though I was a little miffed in the beginning that Dances With Wolves wasn't the main 'goin concern', I quickly got over that. This book delt with the tribes, their different views with white relations, and their struggle for survival.

Feeling Kicking Birds gut-wrenching realization that his way of life was forever lost was sobering. There could be no happy ending to this story and the lack of embellishment to the popular character's deaths, I think, coincided with the white mans attitude toward the Indians. (They didn't give it a second thought.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, November 15, 2001

By 

coleman (Ictalla, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Holy Road: A Novel (Hardcover)

The first 40 pages were tough to get through because of the narritive style. After that the story flies. Illustrates vivdly the conflict between two cultures. Real literature. Not the fluff that is published so much today. Looking forward to the movie.