D. S. Halacy (1919–2002)

1964. The racism is not unexpected. New England boy moves West, eager to see real cowboys and real Indians, and Arizona does not disappoint. The "squaws", he notes, are the most colourfully dressed. Too many scalping jokes are thrown around, even by the protagonist's father. If (after the boys bond during a very narrow escape while they are fighting a wildfire) the protagonist ever apologizes for calling his schoolmate a dumb Indian, I missed that part. The other young man, the "full blooded Apache", does apologize for having been a dumb Indian. This is all very unpleasant to read and detracts from the story of heroism -- both boys emerge from the conflagration as heroes. This is the reason I gave the book two stars instead of four.

As a side issue, the other thing about the story that's incredibly dated is the university applications. Even by early 1970s standards, leaving your decision until after high school graduation would be pretty lax. Mild anxiety about where to attend college (US terminology)-- expensive MIT, or "almost as good" Cal Tech, or even Arizona State? -- runs through the whole book, but our hero does little or nothing about it. Is that the way everyone arranged their post-secondary education in the 1960s, or was the author lax about prodding his literary creation into action?… (mehr)