Robert Somerlott (1928–2001)

NOT AN ACCELERATED READERS BOOK!

Blaze (c.1981) by Robert Somerlott (1928-2001) is apparently out-of-print, so if you run across a used copy, you might want to pick it up. It must be a little known novel for young readers, 7th -9th graders, as there are only 52 ratings on Goodreads. I blindly picked up my copy "free" at a second-hand bookstore during a buy one, get one free sale. It’s definitely worth handing down to one of my grandsons.

Somerlott is an amazing and very visual writer! Where most books might read a little slow until you get to know the characters, this story was interesting from the get-go.

Ten year old David, who just lost his parents in an automobile accident, is not sure where he now fits into this world and is very lonely. He is being raised by his aunt and uncle who don’t quite seem up to the job and is sending him away to a camp for the summer so they can get some alone time.

Then there’s Cappy, David’s grandfather (father of his aunt), a retired U.S. Marine who used to raise and train German Shepherds for the military, search and rescue and for the blind. His love of animals is so great in this story that it just flows right straight through to you. He gave David a young pup after his parents died but his aunt and uncle didn’t want to be bothered with a dog, plus their apartment wouldn’t allow pets. So, they gave the dog away to an owner who ended up being abusive and kept him on chains.

I love how the story tells you, from the dog’s point-of-view, how he developed into this mean and vicious dog. When Cappy found out the conditions Blaze was living in, he went to pick him up. Blaze was one of the pups he had given away a year earlier to David before he lost 12 others in a barn fire. Cappy was still having a hard time dealing with this.

Cappy, David and the dog, Blaze, work through each other's lives developing trust and a bond and eventually learning to love again. The story is full of real-life adventures and lessons in loyalty and love, and to-date, is one of the best animal stories I have read.… (altro)

This obscure book is worthy of being republished or re-written. The events of Hernan Cortes's conquest of Mexico are narrated from the viewpoint of his translator and consort La Malinche, who is also a real historical figure that had huge influence on the outcome of the conquest.

The only fault with the book was its oscillating narrative between past and present, sometimes going back and forth in the narrative of the past, but it fits with the rambling of an old woman (in the terms of those past centuries).

I found La Malinche's voice fascinating. She viewed the Spaniards, their ways and their religion, through the prism of her own culture and knowledge, and in comparing the two cultures, exposed quite innocently and effortlessly the hypocrisy of the supposedly superior culture and religion. While the natives had their savage and cruel traditions, the conquistadors who were supposed to liberate them and bring them the true religion, disguised their own brands of cruelty also as some sort of holy conquest.
I thought the author's depiction of her thoughts, her love for Cortes, and her ambiguous role as a mediator, or a traitor to her culture was successful. Her strength of character is clear in the pages.

I have noted many nuggets of wisdom spoken in the voice of La Malinche. Here is a sampling:
On the subject of the hypocrisy of the white conquistador, who was driven to this new world by greed and huger for wealth, Cortes was explaining to La Malinche about the precious metal law, which makes it illegal for anyone except Spaniard to hand silver or gold, the archbishop has pronounced that handling such metals might corrupt the souls of the "Indians".
"So our souls are too pure to be endangered by wealth, yet so wicked that the devil prompts us in learning. I have just decided something: a soul is worth exactly what somebody else gains by saving it."
"To be old is to be better acquainted wit the dead than the living."
"I accepted that survival is a lottery and it is no good protesting that it is rigged and crooked. Yet I still think that there are persons whose longevity should be added to the list of their faults."
Later she goes on when she describes her relationship with Cortes, how they came together in talk of war, tactics and politics, and how that was the substance of their lives: " These were the hours I cherished most, and I supposed myself peculiar. Then years afterward, I heard an old farmer's widow lamenting at the wake held for her newly dead husband. She did not wail for the lost kisses of courtship or the embraces of the marriage bed. Instead tears ran down her leathery cheeks and she sobbed, saying 'We planted the corn together for forty years. We pulled the weeds and drove away the crows. When one field turned barren, we burned it off and cleared another.' It had been work and hope that united them, not passion - although they must have enjoyed that, too. So it was with me."
"The disappointment of visiting scenes of the past was not that they evoked tragedy but that they evoked nothing."
And while thinking of the fate of her son Tepi (Marin Cortes, also a real character), who grew up in Spain away from her "I had heard about him only from infrequent visitors, report so delayed that time had tempered them. Now it would still be best to hear what happened long after the worst was over. Bad news is one of the few things that softens with age."

La Malinche is a controversial figure until this day. Whether she did what she did out of self interest, or religious belief (Cortes with his plumed hat was believed to be a reincarnation of a native god - Plumed Serpent, coming back to reclaim the Aztec Capital), her ambiguity and motives are intriguing enough to drive the historical narrative.

… (altro)