Blood Touching Blood: A Review
"When I finished reading Blood Touching Blood I wanted to start it over again." –Michael Sparkman
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Michael Sparkman is a true Texan—from horn to hoof. When he’s not running cattle on his North Texas ranch, he’s producing and hosting an insightful and interesting podcast: Texas History Lessons. He was gracious enough to read my literary novel Blood Touching Blood, to review it on his podcast, and write the following, which he allowed me to share with you (with minor edits).
Gracias, mi amigo.
This is a great novel. It begins with a powerful introduction to the protagonist Colonel Ethan Pendleton and sets the tone for what is to come. The writing is powerful and the story is compelling—well crafted, well written literature. I didn’t know what to expect from the novel. I knew that Mr. Jeter knows the history of Texas and the west, and like his hero Larry McMurtry, he uses that knowledge of history and bends it to fit the narrative of the story he is telling. It is not a history book but there is still truth in the novel’s pages. Powerful truths. You meet several characters in addition to the main ones and they have dimension and humanity instead of just being one dimensional supporting characters. Every violent encounter in the novel will have you fearing for the impending doom that is coming for one of them.Like the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, the narrative has moments of calm and then the wave of that impending doom crashes into you. There are passages so gruesome and violent that I had to set the book aside to catch my breath. There is real horror on these pages. There are also pages that are filled with grace and hope and faith. And there is love in this novel. One of the strengths of the novel is how the eloquent writing ties together all of these things into something more than a stereotypical paperback western.
My favorite Texas writer is probably John Graves. He wanted to write novels in the mode of Ernest Hemingway but ended up having a career writing about life, history, and Texas. I also love the works of Larry McMurtry, Elmer Kelton, and Cormac McCarthy. I’ve read almost everything that they published except for a couple of strays from them that I haven’t herded into my library. I can say that Blood Touching Blood is a book for you if you love McMurtry, Kelton, or McCarthy. It is not a McMurtry, Kelton, or McCarthy book, but it flows with the literary skill as well as a McMurtry story and it has the grace and humane respect for people that you can expect from Kelton. And it also has grim and dark and bloody and violent elements that McCarthy is known for. It reminds me at times of the best of the best of all three. And to top it all off, Jeter finds the time to write about life, history, and Texas like Graves. Jeter is not writing like McMurtry, Kelton, McCarthy or Graves and that’s okay because he has developed his own style that needs to be read and reread. If you like any of those authors you will like this novel.
The highest compliment I can give him is that Blood Touching Blood is a Derrick G. Jeter novel and I am biting at the bit and eagerly awaiting the next one he shares with the readers of Texas and the world.
Based on what I had read by him before I knew Derrick Jeter was a great writer but this work surpassed my already high expectations. When I finished reading Blood Touching Blood I wanted to start it over again. I only do that with a few books and it is worthy to be included with them. I envy everyone who gets to read it for the first time so as soon as you’re finished listening to this go get a copy and get started.* The story shared in the book, along with the historical context, the quality of writing, the descriptive scenes of the land and the interior landscape of the characters are superb. You will feel the sun beating down on you and taste the dust in the wind. You will want to travel to the very real places he describes with the skill of a landscape artist. You will experience the terror of frontier battle and have a better understanding of the life of the cavalrymen on the Texas borderland. And you will be hungry for more.
* Michael first posted this on his podcast, Texas History Lessons.
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Much obliged, y’all.
All right … ordered.