Bowie: A Novel

by Randy Lee Eickhoff, Leonard C. Lewis

Jim Bowie, the descendant of Highland Scots, grew up riding alligators and working the field on the Texas frontier. Taught three languages and a sense of honor, he went on to live a life filled with brawls and battles, loves and loses. This is his story, as told by those who, whether they loved or hated him, were united by their awe of this amazing frontiersman.

Genres: Westerns

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 15, 1998

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good bio of Jim Bowie. Not sure how historically accurate it is but most of the major events of his life are covered. Recommended

[Tony Laplume · Rating 5 out of 5]

The edition I read included the far inferior And Not to Yield written solely by Randy Eickhoff, but paired here with Leonard C. Lewis, Eickhoff produces in Bowie a spectacular triumph, a legend presented by a host of witnesses so that it appears as close to fact as possible and yet always with its subject just out of reach. It’s surprisingly difficult in modern times to find worthy portraits of American giants, most of them biographical portraits of the Founding Fathers. This is a rare exception worthy of greater recognition.

[Joe Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting a standard historical novel about James Bowie. Instead, this story is constructed as a collection of interviews, diary entries, and other types of historical documentation to give a multi perspective of Jim Bowie. It is an interesting way to write a novel of Bowie, but I found it uneven. Parts of the story would grab my reading interest only to be broken by a personal letter or court papers. The construction certainly showed how Bowie could be viewed as a hero, ladies man, speculator, and villain all depending on how the characters who are telling parts of the story were associated with Bowie. One issue the novel tries to deal with is the importance of hero versus myth versus real person. I think this got lost in the telling of the story.