Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"A Journey West" is that sort of book which, half-way through, the reader begins to dread having to finish. Boloker's American West of 1888 is both sharply observed and meticulously detailed. His characters, from the naive and impetuous Jacob Rocker, to the loyal and courageous Hannah Jung, are memorably drawn and fully believable. But as true to life and credible as this book is, there is also a interwoven thread that almost touches on magic, with events that challenge logic yet which are wholly consistent with the central metaphor that life, lived well and with integrity, is a journey. Beyond referring the reader to the enigmatic cover showing a Star of David etched into a turqouise stone, I'll close here rather than reveal more of the plot.
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In 1888, at the behest of his dying mother, Jacob Rocker, a young Jew, sets off on a journey from New York City to California. He endures the hardships of shipboard life passing through New Orleans and Galveston. He learns about the frontier as a freight hauler traveling through a chain of Texas army posts from San Antonio to El Paso. His journey through wilderness, the notorious Jornada del Muerto desert and the New Mexico mountains, involves struggles with his past and conflicting prospects for his future. He faces deprivation, bigotry, pain and pleasure. Jacob encounters some dynamic characters including the Apache chiefs Geronimo and Victorio, Buffalo soldier Col. Ronald Mackenzie, Santa Fe Archbishop Jean Lamy and territorial governor Lew Wallace. He falls in love with Hannah Jung, a young white woman who had been kidnapped by renegade Mescalero Indians. Rocker's search for a meaningful life on his pilgrimage is as relevant today as it was in A JOURNEY WEST.
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