Tom Mix and Pancho Villa

Incredible novel of the dying west, and the Mexican Revolution. Even more entertaining than Norman Zollinger 1995 novel - Not of War Only, which is in itself an excellent book. If possible Tom Mix & Pancho Villa is better! The book is a grand adventure, an epic coming of age story of pre-movie star Tom Mix. It vividly captures the excitement, romance, and bloodshed of the revolution. The portrait of Pancho Villa, brings him colorfully to life as a multi-dimensional person - as peasant, bandit, inveterate lover and serial groom, and as a leader struggling with his conscience. It is his flawed portait as a hero - a fighter and killer in search of freedom and fortune that grounds the book and brings all its characters to life. Similiar to Oliver Stone's main character in Platoon, Mix has his good companero (Candelario Cervantes) and his evil foe clouded in darkeness - Rudolfo Fierro to bring his story to life. Probably the greatest western written, few people have ever read, or heard of. After Lonesome Dove, one of the best 5 or 10 best epic western novels you will read on the old west. The action is swift, the plot wildly accurate as real events weave their way into the novel. Even a young George Patton comes to life in the second half of the book. Mostly though - you have Mix as every man fighting, loving, struggling for survival, for enlightenment - doing his best to keep the chief (Pancho) on the straight and narrow path of a hero. The journey is paved with obstacles, and the man's struggle between good and evil. It just never lets up, and it will stay with you for a long time.

This is probably the finest relatively-unknown novel ever published in the USA. The reviews back in 1982 were stunning. (William Safire in the New York Times wrote: "Rip-snortin', rootin'-tootin' adventure"; the L.A.Herald-Examiner said, "A big, rawboned, wild-blooded adventure, a novel to make any writer proud and many readers grateful." (I copy these from the paperback book jacket.)Young Tom Mix runs off to Mexico to join the revolution and becomes Pancho Villa's "gringo" aide. This is historical fact, although Irving -- for our benefit -- embroiders this for some 500 fabulous pages. Tom meets all kinds of people who were there, including George S. Patton, Emiliano Zapata, and Franz von Papen. It's a swashbuckling story, and who among us not wished he'd grown up as romantically as Mix does here?The book gives the sights and sounds of a turn-of-the-century world real enough to touch. I note that another reviewer in the L.A. Times called it "a fantasy worthy of Mark Twain, a legendary tale." And the Houston Chronicle called it "a wonderful, big book." I agree. If you own a copy, you can sell it for ten times what you paid for it. If you can't find one to buy, try your library. It's GREAT.