Chihuahua 1916 by Otis Carney (1980) is a historical fiction following the life of Percival (Pup) Eagle and his father, Sam Eagle. I have been on a bit of a western spree, listening to a lot of old country, watching documentaries and Clint Eastwood movies, and reading old westerns, so I’d like to think I have something of a frame of reference for this review. All that’s to say this book is really fucking good. Most westerns I have read are extremely trope-heavy, and while this book doesn’t fully escape that, it is remarkably deep. Three particular things in this book that I found to be particularly good. (Stupid-ass sentence, three particular things particularly good, but I’m leaving it in.) First: the father-son dynamic + the maturing of Pup in that dynamic. The main character Pup’s father is the classic troubled, stubborn cowboy, and his relationship with his son is really, really interesting, scary, and also kinda admirable. That relationship more than anything frames the book, which I found to be really well done. Second: which draws from that, among other things, is the way progress is framed. This book is set in the real events of the American punitive invasion into Mexico aimed at capturing Villa, and that makes it a good time for that to be one of the central themes. At this point, the military had both mounted cavalry with bayonets and planes. All this to say that it frames that topic that I think a lot of us AI-obsessed modern-day scum find interesting in a way that is pretty hard for us to grasp today: is progress actually a good thing? Excellent work there. Third: the look into the absurdity of war. I haven’t consumed a lot of war media (a few of the basic: Slaughterhouse-Five, All Quiet on the Western Front, etc.) and have spoken a bit to family about what war is like. But the thing that kind of struck me the most about this book is how ridiculous everything that leads up to it seems and then how real it is once it begins. I know, obviously, a extremely unprofound idea, but I thought the way it was laid out in this book through the lens of someone just swept up in it was really nice. OK, review time: 9/10; excellent book; would thoroughly recommend.