Soldier's Farewell

John D. Boggs's novel "Soldier's Farewell," is about two families, a man with two sons and his nearest neighbors, a Mexican family in the northern deserts of the Arizona Territory. The Munros run the Soldier's Farewell station of the stagecoach line while their nearest neighbors, the Valasquez family are ranchers. The tension comes in the form of adversaries to those two caring families: a coming war, north against south; a group of thugs and thieves who plot to steal from military treasury; and, the wavering allegiences of north and south toward secession. Author Boggs's ingenious decision to present the story through the diary of the early teen, pre-literate boy, Smith Munroe, was a choice that enables him to humanize the serious and often deadly time and place of travelers to Soldier's Farewell. In Smith Munro, we have a boy who is so eminently likeable, his vision so unclouded, and loyalty unwavering, Boggs has created a perfect vehicle to establish and maintain a high level of tension between the good guys and the bad. For that matter, it's perhaps in Mr. Boggs's development of character that his work goes astral, above and beyond the old style, sterotyped pawns of early westerns. Each of the primary characters in "Soldier's Farewell" changes in significant ways as a consequence of their interactions with one another, e.g., Smith whose older brother, a federal dragoon, changes to become an ardent confederate supporter. In addition, this author seems to know every inch of the territory (pun intended) literally the land not yet a state, and to use dialect in the speech of his characters' dialogue to give even greater credulity to setting and time. As companion to his plotting, character development, and impressive knowledge of the history and terrain, Mr. Boggs' prose is as smooth as a silk stocking. If you like western stories and western American history handled with the writerly skill of capital "L" Literature, books that portray cowboys in the last century as complex personalities, Johnny D. Boggs is an author for you. And you'll read "Soldier's Farewell" cover to cover in one gulp.