Jim Kane

by J.P.S. Brown

Content with making an honest living hauling truckloads of horses from Mexico, Jim Kane--ranch hand, cattle trader, and bronco buster--is forced by a twist of fate to return to his job in Arizona, breaking colts for the rodeo

Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1991

Reviews

[Chrisl]

When seeing "horses" mentioned as characters in books, I sometimes think of Joe Brown's "Jim Kane" and the truck loads of horses he tried to import.
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Readers of "God's Middle Finger" would have come to know Brown as a character ...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
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Sometimes, "Cowboy County Library" readers came to the circulation counter praising Jim Kane, asking if Brown had written other books. Yes, but only one I'd recommend. The Mexican big cat story ...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
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review pasted from KIRKUS REVIEW. Wonder about the reviewer's biases, maybe misperceptions ...

"The author rides as roughshod over the language as he does this land but there is a raw, gripping vitality in this contemporary western. Jim Kane is one of the misplaced souls trying to make it as a cattle trader on the Mexican border. There is more about remuda and the blood, sweat and fears of a long Mexican drive than in a year of Gunsmoke and the author knows his subject well. . . from the wilder aspects of rodeo below the border to circumcising a Brahma.

"Not to mention the subtle and not-so-subtle forms of horse trading, no easy bargain when up against men whose lives depend on dealing harder and faster than the hated gringos who come down to rob their ranch and rape their women. There are a few memorable characters, all larger than life--""The Lion,"" a huge Mexican who is the undisputed king of the rocky Sierras; Charles Smith, who gave up American comfort for Mexican moral conditioning; Juan Vogel, wild on mescal, a rough enemy but a tough friend. It's a glimpse of the old ways with harsher standards but somehow more satisfying ways and Jim Kane is the kind of man's man who will always appeal to a certain nostalgic audience."

[Johnny]

This was a great book to read. No nonsense writing about Sierra Madres-Mexico in the early 1970’s. Cattle buyers and the hotshot traders on the border who skim the cream off all the effort put into raising and extracting livestock from such a stronghold like the Sierra Madres. Most roping steers in Vegas in December still come from these wild places and if you want to get a sense of their backstory you should read this book. Great piece.

[Karen]

This book is also about the Sierra Madre of Mexico, written by a local author. The perfect complement to God's Middle finger

[Luke]

Great book regarding the life of cowboy Jim Kane and his adventures gathering cattle in the Sierra Madre mountains and the southwest.

[Trisha Owens]

Story of the Western frontier, cattlemen. Very good, descriptive of life in the early days of cattle drives, and how they lived in that time in American history.