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Wolfe Family Series #1
Country of the Bad Wolfes: The making of a borderland crime family
Begat by an Irish-English pirate in New Hampshire in 1828, the Wolfe family follows its manifest destiny into war-torn Mexico. There, through the connection of a mysterious American named Edward Little, their fortunes intertwine with those of Porfirio Díaz, who will rule the country for more than thirty years before his overthrow by the Revolution of 1910. In the course of those tumultuous chapters in American and Mexican history, as Díaz grows in power, the Wolfes grow rich and forge a violent history of their own, spawning a fearsome legacy that will pursue them to a climactic reckoning at the Río Grande.
466 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 10, 2012
32 people are currently reading
614 people want to read
About the author
James Carlos Blake
22 books213 followersJames Carlos Blake was an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays. His work has received extensive critical favor and several notable awards. He has been called “one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life” as well as “one of the most original writers in America today and … certainly one of the bravest.” He was a recipient of the University of South Florida's Distinguished Humanities Alumnus Award and a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
October 17, 2013
Wow. Well I am glad I stuck this one out. This is the story of the fictional Wolfe family. The Wolfe family has a very interesting history. They have such an interesting family line with so many stories to tell about each person that it threatened to bog down the entire book.
The story started out very slow, it seemed to falter in what type of story it was trying to tell. It was all over the place at first, it wasn't saying much of anything. Was it historical fiction? Was it a western? Well there are actual historical people in this story like the president/dictator of Mexico Porfirio Diaz. There are also a lot of historical facts and real places relative to the time period the story takes place in, mid to late 1800s and early 1900s in mostly Mexico and the Texas border. There also is an independent spirit and shoot ‘em up vibe through out the book (parts of it are very violent) that gives it the feel of some of the best westerns.
There was a lot of focus on ancestral history and genealogy of the Wolfe family at first. There was so much of this, I thought the Wolfes really existed. Apparently, they did not. (at least according to Wikipedia). I was glad when I finally realized they were not real people, but “created of whole cloth”(per Wikipedia). Phew, I could finally relax and stop my frustrating search on Google images.
This ended up getting four stars, because the second half of this book was really good. The author finally figured out what story he wanted to tell (It was a western with just enough history thrown in to make it interesting and real) and wow, was it exciting. It was also very bloody and violent; so if you are squeamish or not into violence or tragedy, you might want to skip this book. I can’t really put this on the best reads pile because parts of it were so damn frustrating but it did end up being a pretty good story in the end. 4 Stars. I will read more from this author.
The story started out very slow, it seemed to falter in what type of story it was trying to tell. It was all over the place at first, it wasn't saying much of anything. Was it historical fiction? Was it a western? Well there are actual historical people in this story like the president/dictator of Mexico Porfirio Diaz. There are also a lot of historical facts and real places relative to the time period the story takes place in, mid to late 1800s and early 1900s in mostly Mexico and the Texas border. There also is an independent spirit and shoot ‘em up vibe through out the book (parts of it are very violent) that gives it the feel of some of the best westerns.
There was a lot of focus on ancestral history and genealogy of the Wolfe family at first. There was so much of this, I thought the Wolfes really existed. Apparently, they did not. (at least according to Wikipedia). I was glad when I finally realized they were not real people, but “created of whole cloth”(per Wikipedia). Phew, I could finally relax and stop my frustrating search on Google images.
This ended up getting four stars, because the second half of this book was really good. The author finally figured out what story he wanted to tell (It was a western with just enough history thrown in to make it interesting and real) and wow, was it exciting. It was also very bloody and violent; so if you are squeamish or not into violence or tragedy, you might want to skip this book. I can’t really put this on the best reads pile because parts of it were so damn frustrating but it did end up being a pretty good story in the end. 4 Stars. I will read more from this author.
March 9, 2021
A fictional Sam Peckinpah appears in James Carlos Blake's first work, The Pistoleer, and there is an indebtedness Blake owes the filmmaker. Not for the scenes of violence in his work. Or, rather, not just for the scenes of violence. But Blake also seems very much influenced by how Peckinpah stretched out the transition between life and death. He depicts that moment in all of Blake's work I've so far read, in The Pistoleer, The Friends of Pancho Villa, In the Rogue Blood, and, especially, in the novella, "Texas Woman Blues." But it is in this novel, Country of the Bad Wolfes that he really capitalizes on the style. His penultimate chapter, shifting from multiple points of view, stretches out over many pages but only a very few moments in time. If you've seen the end of The Wild Bunch, this chapter will seem familiar to you.
Otherwise, this is an epic work, crossing over almost a century of Mexico's and Texas' history. And doing so through the eyes of an extended Mexican and American family. Much of the story has its roots in Blake's In the Rogue Blood, with the story of the Littles, particularly Edward Little, whose influence is indirect albeit overpowering in this book. Not having read all of Blake's work before this, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there are other threads running from those novels into Country of the Bad Wolfes, too.
Finally, this novel is exhausting. Not because of its length, which is only 366 pages. But through the lives and extinguishing of those lives it takes you. From New England to Veracruz and then to Brownsville, Texas, multiple generations feed on violence, lusts, and a bit of psychopathy. Two sets of twins start out telling the story. Another set of twins ends up concluding it. Or do they? There are more books in the series to come. But Blake always seems at his best to me the farther back in time he goes with his storytelling.
Otherwise, this is an epic work, crossing over almost a century of Mexico's and Texas' history. And doing so through the eyes of an extended Mexican and American family. Much of the story has its roots in Blake's In the Rogue Blood, with the story of the Littles, particularly Edward Little, whose influence is indirect albeit overpowering in this book. Not having read all of Blake's work before this, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there are other threads running from those novels into Country of the Bad Wolfes, too.
Finally, this novel is exhausting. Not because of its length, which is only 366 pages. But through the lives and extinguishing of those lives it takes you. From New England to Veracruz and then to Brownsville, Texas, multiple generations feed on violence, lusts, and a bit of psychopathy. Two sets of twins start out telling the story. Another set of twins ends up concluding it. Or do they? There are more books in the series to come. But Blake always seems at his best to me the farther back in time he goes with his storytelling.
February 3, 2012
I have read every book by this author. He writes books for guys. This book is "The Lonesome Dove" of Mexico in the late 19th, early 20th Century. I recommend reading a few of his earlier works first, especially "In the Rogue Blood" as this book continues the story of the Little brothers, although not as main characters. In all of James Carlos Blakes's books, themes of graphic but beautifully described violence and lawlessness prevail. He usually depicts prostitution as a normal male activity and the "whores" are often the female characters most to be admired. What differentiates this book from his previous works is the scope. This is a multi-generational novel beginning in New England in the 18th Century and following two sets of brothers through the Mexican American War and ends in Texas after 1912. Every generation has multiple women characters skillfully and realistically developed. The men are real and multi-dimensional. You will love some and despise others. But the best aspect of any novel is always the plot, and Blake always weaves history and fiction so well that you wonder if it is all really fiction. I think this book would make a great TV mini-series.
Read
January 3, 2012I read a little over half of this long, densely-written book. I wasn't looking forward to continuing, but I kept thinking I should finish because I'd invested so much time in it already. But I told myself I wasn't gonna do that this year. So, permission granted to let it go. It's not a bad book. He just tries to cover too much time and too many characters, such that none of it feels real and the characters are underdeveloped.
March 27, 2013
Part family saga, part wild west thriller, this is not your grandfather's Louis L'Amour western novel. James Carlos Blake tells the story of two sets of twins who move through time and focus on the events that define his family history. Born of the pirate, Roger Blake Wolfe, six months after he left their mother, Mary Parham, Samuel and Roger Wolfe have a wanderlust and need for fortune in their blood. Samuel ends up in Mexico, fighting in the Mexican War and Roger attends Dartmouth. Roger and Samuel are befriend by Little, a mysterious business man and meet Porfirio Diaz, the president of Mexico. Duels, lovely ladies and excitement ensue. Alma Rodriquez marries Samuel and another set of twins, Sebastian and John, are born. They end up in Texas after running from the law in Mexico. Samuel also begats a bastard son, Blake Cortez, sealing the fate of the twins. Blake writes in a style that is part epic western and part history, but with pathos and humor. Great characters along with skillful shifts in tone and ambition mark this book as a new development for Blake's writing style.
February 16, 2015
“What country more dear or defiant than that of our own blood?”
For an author of "reliably prolific" repute, Country of the Bad Wolfes was a long time coming for James Carlos Blake. It took seven years in total for it to see publication, two of which were spent on lengthy trips to Mexico in pursuit of research materials based on his own family history. The territory is personally and professionally resonant to the bi-cultural Blake whose previous novels tend to centre on characters drawn from history and re-imagined into fictional and often viscerally violent borderland adventures. He has said of his own work: "I'm attracted to...people who are very resentful of submitting themselves to authority that they don't think is warranted" and so it is in this novel: a sprawling historical crime epic largely characterised by men who hold to a similar philosophy.
At its heart the tale is a relatively straightforward one, documenting three generations of the Wolfe family over the course of two centuries and culminating with ferocity against the political upheaval of Porfirio Diaz’s ousting from Mexico’s presidency in 1910. Yet the sheer breadth of both character and incident involved over the course of these decades is dizzying, and only facilitated in part by the diagrammatic family trees at the start of each of the novel's five parts, intended to enable the reader to keep track of the ever growing Wolfe genealogy.
Blake does well to focus primarily on two sets of identical twins, the first begat by an Irish-English pirate in 1828 New Hampshire who is executed for his crimes, the second the progeny of one of these brothers, as well as the women they love and the enemies they accumulate along the way. In addition to the main protagonists the novel is otherwise peppered with delicious vignettes of those who move into and out of their lives giving the impression of a huge and varied canvas across the whole cultural and socio-economic sphere of Mexico’s borderlands in the nineteenth century. Nothing, it seems, is immune to Blake's attention, from the broadest spectacle of a country in the throes of enormous political change to the individual intimacy of a first Holy Communion or the tentative erotic transactions between children on the cusp of adolescence. At times, the narrative falls victim to a lack of pace: a rather too-lingering elegy on the landscape or the scars on a man's face, yet these are largely forgiven by the reader, partly due to Blake's obvious passion for his story and partly because we cannot help but be in awe of his mastery given the volume of his material.
The political backdrop is initially allowed to take a secondary place in the novel, simmering away like a tense malcontent or one of the ox bow lakes on the borders of the Rio Grande; unassuming until a sharp bend in the narrative forces it to become a distinctive and critical element of the landscape. It is not until a good way into the novel that the reader gets a sense of how these political and socio-economic tensions will come to bear on the Wolfes in a directly personal way through the character of Edward Little, advisor and confidante to Porfirio Diaz. The document of Diaz’s rise to presidency is one of the aspects the novel borrows from history, his unprecedented term remembered for both its promotion of industry and its development of infrastructure via foreign investment, even as it saw the subjugation of freedom of speech and opportunities for the ordinary man on the street. It is this rise in economic growth and the possibilities it presents that will form the basis of both the twin’s fortune and their bloody destiny.
The theme of Fate versus Free Will is writ large in the novel and is postulated at various points by several of the peripheral characters, especially. For the deeply catholic Mexicans the hand of the divine is often attributed to some of the novel's crueller events: a curse, a preordination to tragedy and violence. However, not even the various examples of happenstance that are given as evidence of this belief are enough to temper the sense that man is in fact the architect of his own Destiny. In an interview Blake has been quoted as saying "Without physical courage you can have no other kind. If you're afraid to defend your convictions because you might get your ass kicked for it, you're not really fit to advocate for them,” and this certainly seems to be the position taken by the majority of the Wolfes. At several points throughout the narrative, including the inciting incident (which separates and effectively seals the fate of the first pair of twins), a man is seen to make a choice thereby committing himself to a particular philosophy, a particular outcome.
Blake's decision to render the novel via a rather limited third person perspective is a good one given the depth of its reach. It lends an objective sense of reportage to the historical aspects of the story whilst maintaining the idiosyncrasy of memoir. The inner lives of the characters are explored just deeply enough to understand their various motivations, and part of the novel's charm is the enigma the protagonists present both to the reader and to the other characters with whom they interact, a mysteriousness that suits the almost mythic status they eventually acquire.
As mesmerising as its protagonists are, however, one of the great joys of the novel lies with the presentation of its women who, though bound by the cultural and social mores of their time are nonetheless imbued with the Wolfe spirit of both enterprise and resilience. Characters such as Gloria, Sofi Reina and Marina live long in the memory, and Blake does not short-change them in the playing out of their respective stories. Special mention goes to a beautifully rendered chapter early on in the novel involving a courtesan whose confidences and eventual fate form a moving vignette which stands against any of the set pieces elsewhere in the novel.
Much has been made of the violence of Blake's writing, drawing comparisons to the likes of Cormac Mccarthy and Elmore Leonard amongst others. Yet whilst there is some overlap in their mutual preoccupation with male protagonists whose demons are exorcised through violence or sex, Blake's sympathetic and comprehensive rendering of his female characters sets him apart from these writers as opposed to being in direct competition with them.
Unlike them too, it is fair to say that Blake's commercial success remains niche though the reasons for this are harder to ascertain. Perhaps it is because readers are denied the usual singular goal-driven force that typifies more commercial (and perhaps less challenging) reads. It is true that the novel appears sprawling and unwieldy at times, betraying Blake's bias towards the material, his personal investment to do it justice by omitting nothing. And yet by its furious and unforgiving denouement readers are left with a feeling of complete and utter satisfaction as the author’s design is made plain for us; a sense that everything that has gone before it has led not just to closure but to inevitability. One of the tenets of great fiction is that there should always be an inherent logic to the plot so that though it may end in any number of ways it can only end in one particularly right way. To this end, neither the Wolfes nor Blake disappoint.
For an author of "reliably prolific" repute, Country of the Bad Wolfes was a long time coming for James Carlos Blake. It took seven years in total for it to see publication, two of which were spent on lengthy trips to Mexico in pursuit of research materials based on his own family history. The territory is personally and professionally resonant to the bi-cultural Blake whose previous novels tend to centre on characters drawn from history and re-imagined into fictional and often viscerally violent borderland adventures. He has said of his own work: "I'm attracted to...people who are very resentful of submitting themselves to authority that they don't think is warranted" and so it is in this novel: a sprawling historical crime epic largely characterised by men who hold to a similar philosophy.
At its heart the tale is a relatively straightforward one, documenting three generations of the Wolfe family over the course of two centuries and culminating with ferocity against the political upheaval of Porfirio Diaz’s ousting from Mexico’s presidency in 1910. Yet the sheer breadth of both character and incident involved over the course of these decades is dizzying, and only facilitated in part by the diagrammatic family trees at the start of each of the novel's five parts, intended to enable the reader to keep track of the ever growing Wolfe genealogy.
Blake does well to focus primarily on two sets of identical twins, the first begat by an Irish-English pirate in 1828 New Hampshire who is executed for his crimes, the second the progeny of one of these brothers, as well as the women they love and the enemies they accumulate along the way. In addition to the main protagonists the novel is otherwise peppered with delicious vignettes of those who move into and out of their lives giving the impression of a huge and varied canvas across the whole cultural and socio-economic sphere of Mexico’s borderlands in the nineteenth century. Nothing, it seems, is immune to Blake's attention, from the broadest spectacle of a country in the throes of enormous political change to the individual intimacy of a first Holy Communion or the tentative erotic transactions between children on the cusp of adolescence. At times, the narrative falls victim to a lack of pace: a rather too-lingering elegy on the landscape or the scars on a man's face, yet these are largely forgiven by the reader, partly due to Blake's obvious passion for his story and partly because we cannot help but be in awe of his mastery given the volume of his material.
The political backdrop is initially allowed to take a secondary place in the novel, simmering away like a tense malcontent or one of the ox bow lakes on the borders of the Rio Grande; unassuming until a sharp bend in the narrative forces it to become a distinctive and critical element of the landscape. It is not until a good way into the novel that the reader gets a sense of how these political and socio-economic tensions will come to bear on the Wolfes in a directly personal way through the character of Edward Little, advisor and confidante to Porfirio Diaz. The document of Diaz’s rise to presidency is one of the aspects the novel borrows from history, his unprecedented term remembered for both its promotion of industry and its development of infrastructure via foreign investment, even as it saw the subjugation of freedom of speech and opportunities for the ordinary man on the street. It is this rise in economic growth and the possibilities it presents that will form the basis of both the twin’s fortune and their bloody destiny.
The theme of Fate versus Free Will is writ large in the novel and is postulated at various points by several of the peripheral characters, especially. For the deeply catholic Mexicans the hand of the divine is often attributed to some of the novel's crueller events: a curse, a preordination to tragedy and violence. However, not even the various examples of happenstance that are given as evidence of this belief are enough to temper the sense that man is in fact the architect of his own Destiny. In an interview Blake has been quoted as saying "Without physical courage you can have no other kind. If you're afraid to defend your convictions because you might get your ass kicked for it, you're not really fit to advocate for them,” and this certainly seems to be the position taken by the majority of the Wolfes. At several points throughout the narrative, including the inciting incident (which separates and effectively seals the fate of the first pair of twins), a man is seen to make a choice thereby committing himself to a particular philosophy, a particular outcome.
Blake's decision to render the novel via a rather limited third person perspective is a good one given the depth of its reach. It lends an objective sense of reportage to the historical aspects of the story whilst maintaining the idiosyncrasy of memoir. The inner lives of the characters are explored just deeply enough to understand their various motivations, and part of the novel's charm is the enigma the protagonists present both to the reader and to the other characters with whom they interact, a mysteriousness that suits the almost mythic status they eventually acquire.
As mesmerising as its protagonists are, however, one of the great joys of the novel lies with the presentation of its women who, though bound by the cultural and social mores of their time are nonetheless imbued with the Wolfe spirit of both enterprise and resilience. Characters such as Gloria, Sofi Reina and Marina live long in the memory, and Blake does not short-change them in the playing out of their respective stories. Special mention goes to a beautifully rendered chapter early on in the novel involving a courtesan whose confidences and eventual fate form a moving vignette which stands against any of the set pieces elsewhere in the novel.
Much has been made of the violence of Blake's writing, drawing comparisons to the likes of Cormac Mccarthy and Elmore Leonard amongst others. Yet whilst there is some overlap in their mutual preoccupation with male protagonists whose demons are exorcised through violence or sex, Blake's sympathetic and comprehensive rendering of his female characters sets him apart from these writers as opposed to being in direct competition with them.
Unlike them too, it is fair to say that Blake's commercial success remains niche though the reasons for this are harder to ascertain. Perhaps it is because readers are denied the usual singular goal-driven force that typifies more commercial (and perhaps less challenging) reads. It is true that the novel appears sprawling and unwieldy at times, betraying Blake's bias towards the material, his personal investment to do it justice by omitting nothing. And yet by its furious and unforgiving denouement readers are left with a feeling of complete and utter satisfaction as the author’s design is made plain for us; a sense that everything that has gone before it has led not just to closure but to inevitability. One of the tenets of great fiction is that there should always be an inherent logic to the plot so that though it may end in any number of ways it can only end in one particularly right way. To this end, neither the Wolfes nor Blake disappoint.
April 16, 2020
James Carlos Blake is one of my favorite authors, and if you read “Wildwood Boys” you’d understand why. A page-turning epic about the making of a borderland crime family, “Country of the Bad Wolfes” will appeal both to aficionados of family sagas and to fans of hard-knuckled crime novels by the likes of Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke. Basing the novel partly on his own ancestors, Blake presents the story of the Wolfe family — spanning three generations, centering on two sets of identical twins and the women they love, and ranging from New England to the heart of Mexico before arriving at its powerful climax at the Rio Grande. Blake writes in a style that is part epic western and part history, but with pathos and humor. This book is “The Lonesome Dove” of Mexico in the late 19th, early 20th Century. You might consider one of Blake’s earlier works like “In the Rogue Blood” before you try to tackle this one.
April 27, 2019
To my mind, James Carlos Blake is the 'James Ellroy' of U.S./Mexico historical fiction of the 19th century, with a dash of Cormac McCarthy thrown in for good measure. Personally, I believe that James Carlos Blake's novel "In the Rogue Blood" is the best work of his that I've read yet, but this novel comes in a close second. It is a big sweeping family saga that spans several generations and encompasses a particularly fascinating period of U.S./Mexican relations from the mid-1840s through the early -1900s. The United States has always had a somewhat complicated relationship with Mexico and this novel--as well as several other novels that he's written--does a good job at putting that relationship in its historical context. Reader beware though, it is a violent time that he writes of and his novels pull no punches.
February 11, 2015
Country of the Bad Wolfes – The Start of the Crime Family
The Country of the Bad Wolfes is the new book from James Carlos Blake that takes us through the build up of the Wolfes’ as the criminal masterminds from the borderlands of Mexico and America. The book is based in an area that is Blake’s usual territory of those borderlands and in some cases follows some of his genealogical lineage, if true is very interesting. We also discover that crime is in the blood of the family as the start of the line is one Roger Blake Wolfe a pirate wanted all over executed in Mexico.
The story covers everything you would expect from a family saga that is spread across the late 18th century in to the early 20th century, murder, rape, robbery, politics in spades marriages and death. How Roger Blake Wolfe’s twin sons who were so close live the years apart without knowing what the other is doing and how fate brings the families together.
We see how another set of Wolfe twins with their own ability to communicate with each other even at sixteen are not afraid to kill men, not afraid of the sea and not afraid of any challenge they face. How they are smart, effective get things done and not afraid to stand up for the family. There is the usual spate of family challenges especially when the twins avenge the murder of their father. We see how the twins develop and live on the run and finally settle in the town of Brownsville, Texas.
When the book leaves the younger twins we tend to see the story drift a little and the introduction of some chapters that could have been edited out as they are not particularly adding to the story of the Wolfes. The story is written from the family point of view rather than the third person narrative you would normally expect.
Country of the Bad Wolfes does take James Carlos Blake away from his usual style and at times can seem challenging but it is a challenge worth taking on. This really is the start of the Wolfe criminal family sage and it is good to know how things came to be, how Wolfe Landing came to be, how they came to be in Brownsville and how fearless the family is. As we learn about the family we at the same time weave our way through the history of Mexico which is an interesting story in its own right.
A challenging read but one that is worth it and rather enjoyable!
The Country of the Bad Wolfes is the new book from James Carlos Blake that takes us through the build up of the Wolfes’ as the criminal masterminds from the borderlands of Mexico and America. The book is based in an area that is Blake’s usual territory of those borderlands and in some cases follows some of his genealogical lineage, if true is very interesting. We also discover that crime is in the blood of the family as the start of the line is one Roger Blake Wolfe a pirate wanted all over executed in Mexico.
The story covers everything you would expect from a family saga that is spread across the late 18th century in to the early 20th century, murder, rape, robbery, politics in spades marriages and death. How Roger Blake Wolfe’s twin sons who were so close live the years apart without knowing what the other is doing and how fate brings the families together.
We see how another set of Wolfe twins with their own ability to communicate with each other even at sixteen are not afraid to kill men, not afraid of the sea and not afraid of any challenge they face. How they are smart, effective get things done and not afraid to stand up for the family. There is the usual spate of family challenges especially when the twins avenge the murder of their father. We see how the twins develop and live on the run and finally settle in the town of Brownsville, Texas.
When the book leaves the younger twins we tend to see the story drift a little and the introduction of some chapters that could have been edited out as they are not particularly adding to the story of the Wolfes. The story is written from the family point of view rather than the third person narrative you would normally expect.
Country of the Bad Wolfes does take James Carlos Blake away from his usual style and at times can seem challenging but it is a challenge worth taking on. This really is the start of the Wolfe criminal family sage and it is good to know how things came to be, how Wolfe Landing came to be, how they came to be in Brownsville and how fearless the family is. As we learn about the family we at the same time weave our way through the history of Mexico which is an interesting story in its own right.
A challenging read but one that is worth it and rather enjoyable!
September 30, 2012
I'm fascinated how Blake conveyed this story based on his own family in a way that allowed me (when I so dislike violence on TV or Movies) to root for these two sets of identical male twins who killed matter-of-factly and with great skill and prowess. It helped that they almost always had a valid (in their minds, and therefore in mine as well) reason and purpose for extinguishing the life of the people they killed. I'm left with thoughts -- does that strain of adventure and violence flow with the blood? Most of the members of this extended generational family were totally unaware of their British pirate ancestor of the 1820s in New England. more distant branches of the family also lived this rough and ready life with guns and knives always at the ready -- in spite of not knowing the family history or behavior. Does this strain speak more to the times?
Fascinating...absolutely fascinating. And highly recommendable. Now, I need a source of Blake's other novels. First I want The Blood of the Rogue -- it apparently hinges on some of the same characters -- the Little family.
Fascinating...absolutely fascinating. And highly recommendable. Now, I need a source of Blake's other novels. First I want The Blood of the Rogue -- it apparently hinges on some of the same characters -- the Little family.
August 18, 2012
I threw in the towel almost halfway through where Blake was still going on with a very longwinded backstory of the Wolfe family. He spent about 250 pages (nook) breaking down a family saga that could have been told in the first chapter, sadly i didnt have the patience to get to the main story because of his attempt at making a Falkneresque saga out of a backstory before we had a chance to get to the main story. Im a JCB fan too so i was very dissapointed.
July 19, 2018
This book has a very long lead up where the author describes the history of the family in fairly great depth. This is important later when everything starts coming together. I'm glad I stuck with it, because it is a fascinating family saga set amidst the background of 19th century Mexico.
February 21, 2018
Well, this turned into a slog of a read. This I understand is the first in the series by the author, James Carlos Blake, who it has to be said has done a good job here.
This is historical fiction, almost like no other, which follows generations of the Wolfe family. From pirate, to members of the US and Mexico army. And we follow the generations of family members through all the trials and tribulations. Good times and mainly more difficult and challenging times. Why like no other? Well not just because of the generation, family tree style flow of it but also at times did have me wondering if this family and it's members where actually real? And looked around and apparently, not, so kind of almost had me fooled. Although is based with true events and true members of history at that time.
So in summary. A good entertaining read, which at times had me hooked. On others, had me struggling and bogged down.
This is historical fiction, almost like no other, which follows generations of the Wolfe family. From pirate, to members of the US and Mexico army. And we follow the generations of family members through all the trials and tribulations. Good times and mainly more difficult and challenging times. Why like no other? Well not just because of the generation, family tree style flow of it but also at times did have me wondering if this family and it's members where actually real? And looked around and apparently, not, so kind of almost had me fooled. Although is based with true events and true members of history at that time.
So in summary. A good entertaining read, which at times had me hooked. On others, had me struggling and bogged down.
June 12, 2017
This is a quite brilliant book.
An engrossing family saga starting in England in 1797 and progressing through to the 1910 Mexican revolution with plenty of action and adventure throughout.
The Author is very descriptive and there is a terrific atmosphere of time and place throughout this book almost like you are there, though maybe my previous experience and enjoyment of numerous western films set in and around this period helped with this.
There are a seemingly endless supply of characters some play major parts throughout the tale, others only a very fleeting appearance of a few lines or paragraphs, but all interesting and beautifully drawn by an author on the top of his game.
The book reads almost like a series of short stories with a central theme following the trials and tribulations of the Wolfe family.
There is betrayal greed hate humour honour love mayhem passion romance sadness violence and plenty of it.
I received book to read and review from Real Readers, and have to admit prior to this I am ashamed to say I had never heard of this author, the “BLURB” that came with the book stated it would appeal to readers who like Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and James Ellroy all favourites of mine, and I can say this book compares very favourably indeed.
I really enjoyed it and thoroughly recommend this book, the book keeps your interest from first to last page and the great news is this is the start of a Wolfe family trilogy, so I for one cannot wait to get my hands on book two, even if I have to buy this one.
An engrossing family saga starting in England in 1797 and progressing through to the 1910 Mexican revolution with plenty of action and adventure throughout.
The Author is very descriptive and there is a terrific atmosphere of time and place throughout this book almost like you are there, though maybe my previous experience and enjoyment of numerous western films set in and around this period helped with this.
There are a seemingly endless supply of characters some play major parts throughout the tale, others only a very fleeting appearance of a few lines or paragraphs, but all interesting and beautifully drawn by an author on the top of his game.
The book reads almost like a series of short stories with a central theme following the trials and tribulations of the Wolfe family.
There is betrayal greed hate humour honour love mayhem passion romance sadness violence and plenty of it.
I received book to read and review from Real Readers, and have to admit prior to this I am ashamed to say I had never heard of this author, the “BLURB” that came with the book stated it would appeal to readers who like Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and James Ellroy all favourites of mine, and I can say this book compares very favourably indeed.
I really enjoyed it and thoroughly recommend this book, the book keeps your interest from first to last page and the great news is this is the start of a Wolfe family trilogy, so I for one cannot wait to get my hands on book two, even if I have to buy this one.
February 12, 2015
Country of the Bad Wolfes - James Carlos Blake
When I picked this book up and looked at the cover I was ready to deride the writer for his poor knowledge of plurals!! Then I understood that ‘Wolfes’ was a name NOT the animals.
This was a hearty and substantial read but not a quick one. And I enjoyed it immensely. Whilst reading the opening pages I actually considered googling the Wolfe family because it read like an historical reference book!! I soon realised they are fictional.
This is an action packed tale that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a darn good yarn. Having said that though the amount of research is admirable and I’ve come away with a clearer picture of Mexico at the turn of the century.
It’s a very visual book, I found the descriptions allowed me to see clearly the characters and locations depicted. And the characters are accessible, no mean feat given how many of them are!
I got a bit confused with the genealogy as it seems all the mens’ names were prefixed with John so the inclusion of the family tree in each part of the book was very helpful and I referred to it often.
I suppose the amount of bloodshed might be cause concern to some people. If this were a film it would have a warning, ‘strong, frequent, bloody, violence’ But I guess these were bloody times. I was excited to read that this is the first of three books about the Wolfe family.
Thank you Real Readers, I found this a very satisfying read, entertaining.
When I picked this book up and looked at the cover I was ready to deride the writer for his poor knowledge of plurals!! Then I understood that ‘Wolfes’ was a name NOT the animals.
This was a hearty and substantial read but not a quick one. And I enjoyed it immensely. Whilst reading the opening pages I actually considered googling the Wolfe family because it read like an historical reference book!! I soon realised they are fictional.
This is an action packed tale that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a darn good yarn. Having said that though the amount of research is admirable and I’ve come away with a clearer picture of Mexico at the turn of the century.
It’s a very visual book, I found the descriptions allowed me to see clearly the characters and locations depicted. And the characters are accessible, no mean feat given how many of them are!
I got a bit confused with the genealogy as it seems all the mens’ names were prefixed with John so the inclusion of the family tree in each part of the book was very helpful and I referred to it often.
I suppose the amount of bloodshed might be cause concern to some people. If this were a film it would have a warning, ‘strong, frequent, bloody, violence’ But I guess these were bloody times. I was excited to read that this is the first of three books about the Wolfe family.
Thank you Real Readers, I found this a very satisfying read, entertaining.
February 18, 2015
Country of the Bad Wolfes put me in mind of a train journey. As the train speeds through a rolling vista, looking out of the window, you have time to admire the beauty of the wide landscape rolling by, but has no opportunity to focus in on the singular landmarks that inhabit that landscape.
Blake's narrative whips by at an industrial speed; pages are turned at a similar speed, the plot is compelling. But the speed is at the detriment of the characterisation of the story's inhabitants. There are helpful family trees at the beginnings of each part, but they do not help in identifying characters that the reader just does not care that much about, The story races through the family history of the Wolfes, but never alights on one long enough to really get under their skin. As a result, the family feels curiously flat, blank even. Having spent so much time in the company of the Wolfes, I never felt like I knew any of them.
A rollicking good read, a Mexican dynasty in the style of Puzo's Godfather, or perhaps the canon of Jeffrey Archer, never a dull moment, but unfortunately populated by dull characters.
Blake's narrative whips by at an industrial speed; pages are turned at a similar speed, the plot is compelling. But the speed is at the detriment of the characterisation of the story's inhabitants. There are helpful family trees at the beginnings of each part, but they do not help in identifying characters that the reader just does not care that much about, The story races through the family history of the Wolfes, but never alights on one long enough to really get under their skin. As a result, the family feels curiously flat, blank even. Having spent so much time in the company of the Wolfes, I never felt like I knew any of them.
A rollicking good read, a Mexican dynasty in the style of Puzo's Godfather, or perhaps the canon of Jeffrey Archer, never a dull moment, but unfortunately populated by dull characters.
February 9, 2015
This is a real epic of a book and what a fantastic read it is too. A family saga covering several generations primarily in the 19th century, this skims over some events whilst the other more spectacular events are described in great detail. The events take place in the US and in Mexico, with quite a bit taking place in the border regions. Many of the Wolfe family operated outside of the law an it is the adventures that they get involved in that make it such a thrilling read. The edition of the book I read published by No Exit Press ISBN 9781843445555 shows a different cover to that shown above. It has three or four times as many words per page as you would normally expect of a paperback which makes it somewhat daunting in the early stages, but the reader is soon sucked in to the story (or stories) and makes it a hard book to put down. If you are of a nervous disposition you may find some of the violence offputting, but I think it just adds to the spectacle. This is apparently the first in what is to be a trilogy - I can't wait for the next volume. Great stuff!
May 25, 2014
This narrative of family saga, in the vein of Peter Matthiesen's trilogy, Killing Mr. Watson, Lost Man's River, and Bone by Bone, continues James Carlos Blake's attention to the intertwining of crime and violence and the dynamic of family and national histories. Never preachy or overly obvious, Blake's work reminds one of how foundational and inseparable the spilling of human blood appears to be in the quest for wealth and prosperity, particularly when set free from community-ordained government and covenant.Both the conditions and the cost set forth in the acquisition of land, power, and money seamlessly intertwine with his characters, offering an unblinking and unsentimental presentation of how some try to make their way to an unencumbered state of material well-being and protection from life's exigencies.
December 30, 2012
Another violent and expansive James Mitchner-ish family saga set against the backdrop of 19th and 20th century Mexico—and Texas. Maybe after spending his last few novels in the 1920s and '30s, Blake felt like returning to his earlier apocalyptic oater roots, and I'm glad he did. Fans of In the Rogue Blood may also be happy to see the reemergence of Edward Little; I know that at the end of that novel I was all, "Oh my gawd, what on earth could possibly happen to this wastrel next?" Well—and this isn't much of a spoiler—he spend a lot of quality time in Mexico. Some members of the Wolfe clan jump off the page less than others—the Castor and Pollux-like super twins being major standouts—but there's plenty of pirates, lawmen, and hacendados to go around.
September 6, 2016
I enjoyed it more than others I know, but had a lot of the same problems. It read less like an epic than the notes he took while researching his own genealogy (which is what inspired him to write it). And, unfortunately, it never gets to a story. It just tells us what happened to who, when, with little to no regard for flow, context, or narrative.
A real damn shame.
A real damn shame.
February 24, 2015
Yes and yes! This is a book worth finishing. As a reader called Mel said, it is so complex a family and the stories so varied and many that it can seem to bog down now and then but just when that seems to be happening a turn occurs that leads you on. In all, I found it one of the best books read for me in this 2015 list.
December 28, 2013
The Wolf brothers, their journey through life. Beautiful language and mesmerizing characters. .. East of Eden Lobos. Read it.
April 22, 2013
Banditos, outlaws, outcasts, pirates!- and the women who love them. A sweeping multi-generation tale of Mexico and Texas. And oh, those Twins! I loved it.
June 15, 2017
I had the same problem with this one as I have had with other of Blake's books. I enjoy the historical milieu and the rough atmosphere, but I become very ambivalent about the leading male characters. They are often violent and charismatic at the same time. Other characters love and admire them. Does the author intend for his readers to feel the same way? I honestly think he is ambivalent himself. The word "bad" in the title tells us something about his intentions, but the words--and in the case of this novel there are a lot of words--tell us something else. It bothers me, because I pretty end up hating these characters and I don't feel so bad if they meet a fittingly violent end.
Then there were bad guy characters, who are just as violent as the main characters but not likeable. They are one-dimensional and unconvincing.
As for the female characters, I can't help but feel that they are not well drawn. They strike me as simply fantasy versions of what the male characters would like them to be. Not too feminine. Able to hold their own in the violent men's world. Sassy and sexy.
Blake has written other historical novels, but I believe this to be his first family epic. I don't think he has really mastered that particular genre. The book was too long, possibly by half, with lots of details that didn't seem necessary. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of the later generations, and the family trees included were not always helpful. Perhaps his canvas is just too wide. The plot is not very strong, either.
I came close to stopping a couple of times. I am trying to figure out why I kept reading. Perhaps because I like history, and the writing itself is very good.
Then there were bad guy characters, who are just as violent as the main characters but not likeable. They are one-dimensional and unconvincing.
As for the female characters, I can't help but feel that they are not well drawn. They strike me as simply fantasy versions of what the male characters would like them to be. Not too feminine. Able to hold their own in the violent men's world. Sassy and sexy.
Blake has written other historical novels, but I believe this to be his first family epic. I don't think he has really mastered that particular genre. The book was too long, possibly by half, with lots of details that didn't seem necessary. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of the later generations, and the family trees included were not always helpful. Perhaps his canvas is just too wide. The plot is not very strong, either.
I came close to stopping a couple of times. I am trying to figure out why I kept reading. Perhaps because I like history, and the writing itself is very good.
November 24, 2025
Well, well. I see I added this to my "Want to read" list March 18, 2016 so it hasn't taken me quite ten years to finally get around to it. :)
Just finished. This is an excellent read -- not what I was expecting, but really good. The narrative approach is very much of the "Show, don't tell" school of writing and it works very well for this story which reads like a family history: which is what it is, but what I mean to suggest it reads more like a history book than a novel for much of the time.
The "history book" approach allows Blake to cram a lot of facts about a lot of characters lives lived over a long period of time into relatively short space. This is well done and he provides family trees to keep the confusion of who's related to who and how (but really, he does a fantastic job of setting up the introductions to new characters and family members that you do not find yourself needing to refer to the charts too often). There are also a number of extended scenes which bring forth the character of the characters and propel the action of the events unfolding.
One of the by products of the "history book" approach is you do not really get into the heart and soul of the characters; you feel like you're getting a true accounting of what happened, but it's always from without and you never think you know the family. This is especially true of the twins Sebastian and John who are the major protagonists of the last third of the book. They are so alike in their twin-hood that no-one can tell them apart which is fine and can happen, but I kind of wish the author would have clued us in on who is who and why they are different which could be done by getting into their heads (although that is not his design, so fair play, what does it matter what I want).
For sure Sam Peckinpah directed the movie in my head while reading this one -- the book's alternate title could have been "Sam Peckinpah Country". Peckinpah always had amazing casting in his movies and those actors would have fleshed out the inner workings of their characters just fine. I can imagine Warren Oats playing Sebastian and John. Robert Ryan would lay bare their father's soul with a glace, a tilt of head, a suppress smile or griminess.
The Goodreads synopsis is fine so I would go into detail here (do I ever). Highly rated.
A final thought. I see this is the opening volume of the four volume Wolfe Family saga and I wonder if this is a book to set up the series: yes, I know, that's how a series works but I have something slightly different in my mind. Did Blake write this book, which it's detailed world building and extensive family history so he could write the other books? In other words, this book is not really the book that he wanted to write but he needed to write it to set up the series. Orson Scott Card famously wrote "Enders Game" because he wanted to write "Speaker for the Dead" but felt that book would only resonate if there was a detailed explanation of who the Speaker was and the backstory was not something that fit naturally in the book he had in mind. I'll read the series and have a better idea if that might be so, but it's just something that I had in mind.
Just finished. This is an excellent read -- not what I was expecting, but really good. The narrative approach is very much of the "Show, don't tell" school of writing and it works very well for this story which reads like a family history: which is what it is, but what I mean to suggest it reads more like a history book than a novel for much of the time.
The "history book" approach allows Blake to cram a lot of facts about a lot of characters lives lived over a long period of time into relatively short space. This is well done and he provides family trees to keep the confusion of who's related to who and how (but really, he does a fantastic job of setting up the introductions to new characters and family members that you do not find yourself needing to refer to the charts too often). There are also a number of extended scenes which bring forth the character of the characters and propel the action of the events unfolding.
One of the by products of the "history book" approach is you do not really get into the heart and soul of the characters; you feel like you're getting a true accounting of what happened, but it's always from without and you never think you know the family. This is especially true of the twins Sebastian and John who are the major protagonists of the last third of the book. They are so alike in their twin-hood that no-one can tell them apart which is fine and can happen, but I kind of wish the author would have clued us in on who is who and why they are different which could be done by getting into their heads (although that is not his design, so fair play, what does it matter what I want).
For sure Sam Peckinpah directed the movie in my head while reading this one -- the book's alternate title could have been "Sam Peckinpah Country". Peckinpah always had amazing casting in his movies and those actors would have fleshed out the inner workings of their characters just fine. I can imagine Warren Oats playing Sebastian and John. Robert Ryan would lay bare their father's soul with a glace, a tilt of head, a suppress smile or griminess.
The Goodreads synopsis is fine so I would go into detail here (do I ever). Highly rated.
A final thought. I see this is the opening volume of the four volume Wolfe Family saga and I wonder if this is a book to set up the series: yes, I know, that's how a series works but I have something slightly different in my mind. Did Blake write this book, which it's detailed world building and extensive family history so he could write the other books? In other words, this book is not really the book that he wanted to write but he needed to write it to set up the series. Orson Scott Card famously wrote "Enders Game" because he wanted to write "Speaker for the Dead" but felt that book would only resonate if there was a detailed explanation of who the Speaker was and the backstory was not something that fit naturally in the book he had in mind. I'll read the series and have a better idea if that might be so, but it's just something that I had in mind.
January 27, 2021
I've been trying for over a decade to find something as grand, as epic, as Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian". I think I finally found it.
Country of the Bad Wolfes is everything I enjoy in a book. It's a multi-generational tale of one family that springs from the seed of one outlaw pirate down through hard men (and women!) doing hard things. It's full of violence, self-reliance, honor, a smattering of politics and history, and yes, even love. It's hard not to be in awe of all the great characters like John Roger Wolfe, his wife Elizabeth Anne Bartlett, their twin sons Blake Cortez and and James Sebastian. Though she doesn't show up until the end, sadly, even Catalina (La Gata) is a great character with her strength and her bone handled knife.
The book can be hard to follow at times, I suppose with all the lengthy names and the way it skips from character to character along the family tree but I don't hold that against it. "Blood Meridian" and other of McCarthy's works are hard to follow at times too with their unattributed quotes. But by the time it ends at 454 pages, I'm still desperate for more as it draws to a bittersweet conclusion.
Thank you, James Carlos Blake, for a highly enjoyable read that followed along with the best I could with my dusting of "Kitchen Spanish". I look forward to delving into your other works.
Country of the Bad Wolfes is everything I enjoy in a book. It's a multi-generational tale of one family that springs from the seed of one outlaw pirate down through hard men (and women!) doing hard things. It's full of violence, self-reliance, honor, a smattering of politics and history, and yes, even love. It's hard not to be in awe of all the great characters like John Roger Wolfe, his wife Elizabeth Anne Bartlett, their twin sons Blake Cortez and and James Sebastian. Though she doesn't show up until the end, sadly, even Catalina (La Gata) is a great character with her strength and her bone handled knife.
The book can be hard to follow at times, I suppose with all the lengthy names and the way it skips from character to character along the family tree but I don't hold that against it. "Blood Meridian" and other of McCarthy's works are hard to follow at times too with their unattributed quotes. But by the time it ends at 454 pages, I'm still desperate for more as it draws to a bittersweet conclusion.
Thank you, James Carlos Blake, for a highly enjoyable read that followed along with the best I could with my dusting of "Kitchen Spanish". I look forward to delving into your other works.
October 28, 2019
"Country of the Bad Wolfes" is the first book in Blake's excellent Wolfe family series. This novel is historical fiction tracing the Wolfe family tree from Europe in the 1600's until the early 1900's on the Texas Mexico border- and what a history it is. From pirates, to assasins, to gun runners, the Wolfe family was very creative in their growth. The Wolfe's essentially did what they needed to do to survive in the new world. They were educated, hard working, and had a sense of integrity in a world that had few hard rules other than you needed to protect your family. I enjoyed this book, although at 455 pages, it is a long one. The sequels to Bad Wolfes expound on the foundation of characters established in this one, yet they still emphasize the need for education, hard work, and integrity, even when they even when they make their living smuggling contraband. Similar to the Godfather series, the Wolfe family is the organized crime group you want to cheer for. James Carlos Blake has a gift for regional language. I look forward to reading more of his work.
October 25, 2018
This is an epic family saga told with the context of the modern history of Mexico. If you've read others of Blake's novels you will see some of those characters in this tale as well. Bad Wolfes has similar themes of the freedoms and tragedies that former times of unsettled country and lawlessness made possible, and some of the same dark humor.
June 25, 2020
An engrossing multi-generational yarn, although it became more and more difficult to remember where each character fitted in to the picture. I spent a lot of time also switching to a Spanish-English dictionary (which wasn't really necessary as the meaning was or became clear, but I am trying to pick up a little Spanish).
July 11, 2020
Interesting family saga of these two twins in the late 19th century. Born in New England they both end up in Mexico and become more Mexican than American. The genes of the pirate grand-father are still there which gives them and their descendants a more adventurous life. Over the years the family tree becomes so complicated it becomes a bit confusing.
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