"Seven Ox Seven" by P.A. Ritzer

“7OX7” – either a typo or a computer glitch, certain not the title of the book I was to read and review never.  When I saw it spelled out, “Seven Ox Seven”, however, I realized a Western was heading my way – and a Zane Grey aficionado, I was not.

What did Westerns have to do with Historical Fiction?  Technically, I realize they were fictionalized stories from a historical period, but I always viewed them as their own individual genre of literature.  With the mythology a good Western can often exude, where did the historical foundation for that period of the American Frontier separating the Civil War from the Industrial Revolution begin and end?

The answers, perhaps, can be found in what P.A. Ritzer has done in writing this first part of his three-part trilogy: “Seven Ox Seven: Escondido Bound.”  These six-hundred-plus page effectively strip away the overt sensationalism of the era, providing g today’s readers with an account of how life a hundred and thirty years into the past transpired.

All begins on the gritty cowtown streets of 1877 Dodge City Kansas.  Two cowboys, both off their own separate cattle drives into Dodge, meet.  One, Tom Shurtz, riding into town like Clint Eastwood’s infamous ‘Man with No Name’, rescues the other, Luke Stuart, perhaps a bit young and naïve at times (but true blue to his wife Elizabeth back in south Texas), from a cowboy jealous of the time Luke is spending with Molly, a saloon girl who has her own story to tell.

The two strike up a friendship which joins them for the trip back into south Texas.  Luke lives with his wife Elizabeth, three young children, and a family of friends near San Antonio, while Tom branched out from Corpus Christi.  The friendship gradually turns into a partnership when Tom accepts Luke and Elizabeth’s offer to accompany them in their move to the Texas Panhandle.

Escondido Canyon is found.  The Shurtz-Stuart party call upon a surveying team to mark their land.  They build their homes, and their lives, cutting out a piece of the canyon for themselves, while relishing in the natural beauty of God’s creation (all approach this adventure as devout Christians: Tom and Andy Grady following the Catholic faith; Luke and Elizabeth adhering to a more Protestant background).

This faith aspect was interesting.  While such is taken for granted that most people of those days were religious people, the brunt of Westerns normally do not focus upon this trait as strongly as Ritzer does here.  Portions approach a borderline preachiness; but, for the most part, the angle of faith in the Shurtz-Stuart party’s lives only adds substance to this storyline.

In fact, it manages to play a vital role as the story develops.

As the canyon is developed into a home, all is well and right with the world.  There is no trouble.  There is no conflict.  The lives of this small group are in harmony with one another as they move from one day into the next.  The only challenge lies in the building of their homes, the tending of the history of the lands, and the people and the culture developing from the vast mixtures of the grand ‘melting pot’ is fascinating reading.

One example of this is the mass slaughter of the buffalo herds observed along the trail up from San Antonio.  There are carcasses lying strewn across the landscape, often with pungent affects that detract from the land’s natural beauty.

This tragedy of history is taught in any elementary school history course.  Children come to know ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody as one of the instigators of this offense, one of the many buffalo hunters who would recklessly wipe out the massive herds at will, sometime for the skins, sometimes just for the inane sport of it.

Ritzer adds to this the reality by stating how integral the herds were to the Indian way of life.  They used the coats for clothing, the meat for food; it was estimated the Indians could kill half a million buffalo a year without threatening the herds.  Remove this asset to their way of life and you remove their viability as a threat to the American frontiersman, which is what happened.  Buffalo hunters, in their greed, allowed to do so by the government, destroyed the source of the Indians’ independence and strength.

While historical narratives such as this example deliver a more complete picture to the times, they would tend to overshadow the lives of the fictionalized characters through whom the history was being told.  I found myself wondering what was happening to Tom, Luke, Elizabeth, Andy, and the children.  I wanted to hear from them what they were experiencing – on a personal level.

On a couple of instances, this was not the case.  Once, when Tom was preparing to take seventeen-year-old Andy Grady into town, at night, only to be subject to the non-verbal rebuke of Elizabeth (knowing the corrupting influence of late-night town life, i.e. gambling, drinking, and women).  Another time, Tom takes Luke’s young son fishing and responds to the boy’s concerns with ‘living forever in heaven’.  He deals with the matter like Andy Taylor talking to Opie.

If more of this could have suffused the pages of the book, the characters could have risen to the same level as the historical narrative.

Just as Ritzer manages to build this perfect life for these characters, a villain is introduced into their idyllic setting.  Everything they built for themselves is altered, distressing their relationships with one another, and challenging their faith – as well as exhibiting the true danger frontier people faced, living days away from any help to ensure their safety.

I thoroughly recommend “Seven Ox Seven” to any who enjoy these elements of history, tenants of faith¸ and the challenges of daily life.  While the conclusion at the final page will not be to anyones liking, there remains a Part Two to come.  I hope it will deliver more of the story, from the characters’ own words, told from their own perspectives so as to truly invite the reader into the Escondido and share in its bounty, as well as aid in its defense.