Description
In 1876, Crofton, a young second lieutenant, embarks on a series of extraordinary adventures that lead from Little Bighorn, from which he escapes just before Custer is killed by his own men, halfway around the world to a rebellion in Cuba and the Zulu war in East Africa, getting shot, finding love, enduring betrayal, and discovering wisdom along the way. A first novel. Reprint.
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If Elmore Leonard had written Little Big Man or Kurt Vonnegut Lonesome Dove, the result might have been something like this blazingly original, acclaimed debut novel by Keith Coplin that "has roared out of the gate with all cylinders firing" (Booklist). In 1876, a green lieutenant named Crofton barely escapes Little Big Horn, after seeing Custer killed by his own enraged men-before they themselves are massacred-under a beautiful Western sky. Such ironies are not lost on Crofton, as he faces the absurdities of war. A reluctant hero in the bloody crucible of empire, Crofton will go halfway around the world-from a "whore's war" in Kansas, to a rebellion in Cuba, to a showdown with the Ku Klux Klan, to the horrors of the Zulu Wars in Africa. He will get shot, endure betrayal, be subject to the schemes of such legends as Grant and Sherman, find love-and eventually arrive at something that might be called wisdom.
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