The Diezmo

I've always been fascinated by the story of the Mier Expedition. My great-great grandfather, Willis Coplan, was one of the survivors. The book is wrong on page 146, however, where it states that Willis, after escaping and then being caught, spent 20 years in captivity in Matamoros, withing sight of the Texas border. On the contrary, he was sent to Perote Castle. In his memoirs, he wrote that he was "glad to get back with the boys, with whom he had experienced so many hardships." His memoirs also contradict Rick Bass's description of the black bean incident, where Rick's characters are stoic and despondent. Willis, however, wrote that the men who drew the black beans joked about it. One said, "This beats raffling all to pieces," while another said, "Boys, I never failed in my life to draw a prize." It was the men who drew the white beans who grieved, and some of them offered to trade their white beans for black ones, but they had no takers. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful novel. I'm grateful to Rick Bass for bringing to life a story that, for me, had almost become a fable. Thanks, Rick

Bass recounts the story of a troop of sometimes reluctant, but always relentless men ostensibly fighting for their new nation of Texas. The historical incident, obscure to most of us, is well known to Texans, the retaliation for the Battle of San Jacinto. We come to know what drives some of them and the regrets of others. Mostly, we marvel at their capacity for survival. When everything is taken away from them; when they live day after day in toil and torture, infested with an army of lice and tested by disease after disease, they still have the ability to experience the small joy that comes with the minutest reprieve. There is little joy in reading the book, though the author presents the story as well we could expect. Like castor oil, though, it may be good for us to see those so eager for war get their wish, then regret it for every minute of their lives.

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.

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.

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!