Journey
A Western
Stephen H. Foreman
- 196 Pages
- March 28, 2017
- ISBN: 9781510717046
- Imprint: Skyhorse Publishing
- Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.25in x 0in
Description
Set in the early eighteen hundreds in the wild desert wilderness of New Mexico Territory, Journey follows the lives of three distinctly different characters whose destinies are one: Journey, a fiercely independent, sixteen-year-old of mysterious origins; Reuben Moon, the stoic half Mexican, half Apache hunter who raises her; and Esau Burdock, a brutal, pragmatic, and wealthy slave trader.
The story opens on a November night in 1833, the sky on fire with meteors, each character alone, experiencing the storm. The narrative then delves into their individual histories. But Journey, Reuben, and Esau’s stories soon collide in the summer of 1834 when Esau holds a rendezvous of horse racing and trading. Despite being only sixteen, and a girl at that, Journey joins the race. She doesn’t win, but she’s caught the attention of Esau. A year later, a mountain lion is terrorizing the area and Esau comes across Journey and Reuben in the desert as he hunts for it. Journey has tamed a wild colt. The lion had killed its mother then attacked the colt, but Journey rescues it and nurses it back to health. Esau claims the colt is his by the law of the land. Journey refuses to give him up and so Esau threatens to hang her on the spot. Instead, they make a deal: Journey can work at Esau’s stables for six months to earn the horse.
And so she does. All the while the mountain lion continues to kill and Esau broods. He is a successful man, but he is a lonely one too, haunted by the death of his first slave and lover, Livy, and by their daughter Lilly Rose, both of whom betrayed him and are now dead. The story comes to a fever pitch when Esau spots a necklace Journey has worn her whole life, given to her by her mother, a necklace once worn by Esau’s dead daughter, Lily Rose. From there, the story races to an end, as Esau, Journey, and Reuben are tested in ways they never dreamed imaginable.
Brimming with action and panoramic in scope, in Journey Foreman provides a breathtaking narrative with a heroine you’ll never forget.
The story opens on a November night in 1833, the sky on fire with meteors, each character alone, experiencing the storm. The narrative then delves into their individual histories. But Journey, Reuben, and Esau’s stories soon collide in the summer of 1834 when Esau holds a rendezvous of horse racing and trading. Despite being only sixteen, and a girl at that, Journey joins the race. She doesn’t win, but she’s caught the attention of Esau. A year later, a mountain lion is terrorizing the area and Esau comes across Journey and Reuben in the desert as he hunts for it. Journey has tamed a wild colt. The lion had killed its mother then attacked the colt, but Journey rescues it and nurses it back to health. Esau claims the colt is his by the law of the land. Journey refuses to give him up and so Esau threatens to hang her on the spot. Instead, they make a deal: Journey can work at Esau’s stables for six months to earn the horse.
And so she does. All the while the mountain lion continues to kill and Esau broods. He is a successful man, but he is a lonely one too, haunted by the death of his first slave and lover, Livy, and by their daughter Lilly Rose, both of whom betrayed him and are now dead. The story comes to a fever pitch when Esau spots a necklace Journey has worn her whole life, given to her by her mother, a necklace once worn by Esau’s dead daughter, Lily Rose. From there, the story races to an end, as Esau, Journey, and Reuben are tested in ways they never dreamed imaginable.
Brimming with action and panoramic in scope, in Journey Foreman provides a breathtaking narrative with a heroine you’ll never forget.
Authors
Stephen H. Foreman is the author of two previous novels, Toehold and Watching Gideon. After a hitch in the Marine Corps and a host of treks in jungle and wilderness mountain terrains, Foreman finally came to roost and taught writing at various universities after which he migrated west to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter and director. Foreman lives in West Kill in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Reviews
“Author Stephen Foreman’s electrifying Journey takes us on a wild, emotional ride with three mesmerizing, unforgettable characters in the Old West of the 1830s. Stephen’s prowess as both an author and screenwriter are in full display as we actually see and feel every moment of the adventure. Unlike most westerns, the title character of Journey is a courageous, irrepressible young woman whose indomitable spirit comes alive like a flaming arrow on each page. Set against the backdrop of social challenges such as slavery and intolerance that still resonate today, Journey is a spellbinding page turner that reminds us of how captivating a great story and characters can be in the hands of a master story teller. What a great book—can’t wait to the see the movie.” —Stephen Simon, producer of the films Somewhere in Time, What Dreams May Come, and All The Right Moves
“Raw, gritty, unflinching, yet still somehow tender. A gripping tale about freedom, identity, heritage. A Western unlike any you’ve read before.”—Casey Scieszka, author of To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story
“This stirring tale thrusts the reader into the 1830s of the West. It’s an eye-opening depiction of the savagery and magnificence of the period. It redefines and reanimates our conventional notions of the Western saga. The characters are vividly drawn. The writing style is almost painterly. It’s visual and seems like a firsthand account of actual events. Mr. Foreman transports us to a world that is recognizable and at the same time fresh and enthralling.”—Tony Shalhoub, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor
“Although identified as “a western” in its subtitle, this briskly paced novel by Stephen Foreman bursts the traditional bounds of the genre. Set in a harsh Southwest still beyond the edge of the law, its vividly constructed characters take the reader on awild horseback ride through rugged country, villainy, nature’s ferocity, and the evil of slavery on the frontier. Few will forget the journey.”—E. Donnall Thomas Jr., author of How Sportsmen Saved the World and Montana Streams, Peaks and Prairies
“Journey, set in the American West before the Civil War, tells the vivid story of three people who struggle to make lives in a still raw and brutal country: Journey is an astonishingly capable sixteen year old whose background is a mystery and who seems to have been all but born on horseback; Reuben Moon, part Mexican and part Apache, a tracker and a hunter who carries within him the gifts of the mountains and the woods and may also be Journey’s father; and Esau Burdock, a wealthy slave trader who was born poor and didn’t forget it. The land was rich with wild food and wilder animals, including a mountain lion as vivid as Journey herself. The book’s considerable power comes from Foreman’s deep understanding of an America two hundred years ago, run on a slave economy. This is a first rate American novel with haunting characters in the spirit of Larry McMurtry.”—David Freeman, screenwriter
“A book of historical importance, as Journey is, usually delivers the stuff that satisfies readers. But Stephen Foreman’s achievement with Journey is to combine historically accurate facts with riveting fiction, creating a book of tremendous importance. Read, enjoy, and reflect on Journey’s journey and her emancipation. I loved this book!”—Joseph B. Healy, editor of When Bears Attack
“Reading this book I was swept into a compelling narrative as raw and bold as the old Southwest. We forget how very different we are, yet how connected we can be by events bigger than ourselves. Foreman’s story starts with the meteor shower that stunned and shocked everyone whose eyes were opened to the sky on a November night in 1833. And we cannot help but ride along with the girl who stares at the sky from the back of her paint pony. It was a seminal moment in the lives of all who witnessed the Leonid meteor shower of November 18, 1833. All over the continent eyes were turned to the heavens in wide wonder and fear. This story opens with Journey sitting on a paint pony beneath an angry sky. She wonders what it is going to mean and we do too, swept along with her into Foreman’s epic of incest, injustice and instinct.”—Gary Lewis, host of Frontier UnlimitedJohn Nosler Going Ballistic
“The boundaries of color and caste have been breached, tweaked, and traversed in these United States of America even before its formal inception as a nation. And Stephen Foreman fuses compassion, astuteness, and vigorous prose to bring these elements to an antebellum western whose heroic values are at once familiar and fresh. You can almost feel the prairie breezes and night chills on your skin along with Journey’s heroine, who fears nothing in her past or present.”—Gene Seymour
“After reading Journey, no one will think the same way about the Old West or slavery. This beautifully told tale of love, hate, and courage, with its superb descriptions of western landscape, complex and nuanced characters, vengeance and forgiveness, is a fine work of art.”—Luke Salisbury, author of Hollywood and & Sunset, The Cleveland Indian, and The Answer Is Baseball
“Stephen H. Foreman takes the reader on a wild ride in Journey, a stage coach of a novel with its bumps, twists and turns that spans from the then New Mexico Territory to New Orleans and London with its Dickensian overtones. With an Apache Indian maiden as the focal point, Foreman in this adventure novel gives the reader a plot twist that is worthy of Sophocles.”—Dolan Hubbard, PhD, Chairperson, Department of English and Language Arts, Morgan State University
“Raw, gritty, unflinching, yet still somehow tender. A gripping tale about freedom, identity, heritage. A Western unlike any you’ve read before.”—Casey Scieszka, author of To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story
“This stirring tale thrusts the reader into the 1830s of the West. It’s an eye-opening depiction of the savagery and magnificence of the period. It redefines and reanimates our conventional notions of the Western saga. The characters are vividly drawn. The writing style is almost painterly. It’s visual and seems like a firsthand account of actual events. Mr. Foreman transports us to a world that is recognizable and at the same time fresh and enthralling.”—Tony Shalhoub, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor
“Although identified as “a western” in its subtitle, this briskly paced novel by Stephen Foreman bursts the traditional bounds of the genre. Set in a harsh Southwest still beyond the edge of the law, its vividly constructed characters take the reader on awild horseback ride through rugged country, villainy, nature’s ferocity, and the evil of slavery on the frontier. Few will forget the journey.”—E. Donnall Thomas Jr., author of How Sportsmen Saved the World and Montana Streams, Peaks and Prairies
“Journey, set in the American West before the Civil War, tells the vivid story of three people who struggle to make lives in a still raw and brutal country: Journey is an astonishingly capable sixteen year old whose background is a mystery and who seems to have been all but born on horseback; Reuben Moon, part Mexican and part Apache, a tracker and a hunter who carries within him the gifts of the mountains and the woods and may also be Journey’s father; and Esau Burdock, a wealthy slave trader who was born poor and didn’t forget it. The land was rich with wild food and wilder animals, including a mountain lion as vivid as Journey herself. The book’s considerable power comes from Foreman’s deep understanding of an America two hundred years ago, run on a slave economy. This is a first rate American novel with haunting characters in the spirit of Larry McMurtry.”—David Freeman, screenwriter
“A book of historical importance, as Journey is, usually delivers the stuff that satisfies readers. But Stephen Foreman’s achievement with Journey is to combine historically accurate facts with riveting fiction, creating a book of tremendous importance. Read, enjoy, and reflect on Journey’s journey and her emancipation. I loved this book!”—Joseph B. Healy, editor of When Bears Attack
“Reading this book I was swept into a compelling narrative as raw and bold as the old Southwest. We forget how very different we are, yet how connected we can be by events bigger than ourselves. Foreman’s story starts with the meteor shower that stunned and shocked everyone whose eyes were opened to the sky on a November night in 1833. And we cannot help but ride along with the girl who stares at the sky from the back of her paint pony. It was a seminal moment in the lives of all who witnessed the Leonid meteor shower of November 18, 1833. All over the continent eyes were turned to the heavens in wide wonder and fear. This story opens with Journey sitting on a paint pony beneath an angry sky. She wonders what it is going to mean and we do too, swept along with her into Foreman’s epic of incest, injustice and instinct.”—Gary Lewis, host of Frontier UnlimitedJohn Nosler Going Ballistic
“The boundaries of color and caste have been breached, tweaked, and traversed in these United States of America even before its formal inception as a nation. And Stephen Foreman fuses compassion, astuteness, and vigorous prose to bring these elements to an antebellum western whose heroic values are at once familiar and fresh. You can almost feel the prairie breezes and night chills on your skin along with Journey’s heroine, who fears nothing in her past or present.”—Gene Seymour
“After reading Journey, no one will think the same way about the Old West or slavery. This beautifully told tale of love, hate, and courage, with its superb descriptions of western landscape, complex and nuanced characters, vengeance and forgiveness, is a fine work of art.”—Luke Salisbury, author of Hollywood and & Sunset, The Cleveland Indian, and The Answer Is Baseball
“Stephen H. Foreman takes the reader on a wild ride in Journey, a stage coach of a novel with its bumps, twists and turns that spans from the then New Mexico Territory to New Orleans and London with its Dickensian overtones. With an Apache Indian maiden as the focal point, Foreman in this adventure novel gives the reader a plot twist that is worthy of Sophocles.”—Dolan Hubbard, PhD, Chairperson, Department of English and Language Arts, Morgan State University