Jim Kane

by J.P.S. Brown

An episodic novel about an Arizona cowboy named Jim Kane who buys horses and cattle in Mexico for export to the United States and proves once and for all that cowboys exist in our time and are still determined to live according to their own principles. Jim Kane uses trains, cars, trucks and airplanes to do his work, but more often his saddle horse Pajaro partners with him wherever he goes on the horseshoe trails of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua, Mexico, the coastal desert of Sonora, Mexico, and the desert of Arizona. Every episode of this novel is a new adventure as Kane trades cattle with good men and bad. He makes enemies and has to fight them, but he also wins splendid friends, including and a beautiful, haughty girl who leaves all cowboys and vaqueros dead in her wake, until she meets Jim Kane.

364 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1991

Reviews

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Trisha Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.