The Forests of the Night

by J.P.S. Brown

Academicians have universally applauded this book as a true and very informative document on Mexico's Sierra Madre and it's hardy people and animals. For forty years J.P.S. Brown rode the horseshoe trails of this region cattle ranching, prospecting and hunting. This story is peopled by characters and places that he knows well.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of soul in it. It was like reading Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy at times-it's got that machismo and violence. We have an intimate look into life in the remote Sierra Madre Occidental with ranchers living in drought and eschewing town life. It's a story of man versus beast that takes a long time to develop and then a side plot gets interposed involving a dummy turned beast. Adan is the hunter, rancher, and farmer who sets out to get a jaguar terrorizing the community. The jaguar's story is told and this beast seems to have more nobility than some of the people in the story. The dummy, Chombo, kills a man because- because he can. Then he goes on to commit more crimes. You wonder if the paths of all three will cross. They do but in very unexpected ways. Something different, written by a real cowman who now lives in Arizona but knows the land and its flora and fauna intimately.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book begins with the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake, which is described in part as a contrast of innocence and experience; beauty with a horrific capacity for violence; the tiger and the lamb both born of Nature and through the same God.

The story in its own way represents these themes. The depictions of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico and the lives of vaqueros who lived and ranched there during the 40s, 50s and 60s (guestimate based on author's notes) are detailed. It seems such a stark country; such a difficult life! The characters are presented in their goodness, their horrific evilness, their humanness.

Very interesting.

[Chrisl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The copy I read, multiple times, was published by Dial Press in 1974. It was a well mended library hardcover with an attractive jacket.

Publishers Weekly review ... "story set in the primitive Sierra country of Mexico ... The main protagonists are Adan, a hunter in his prime, and El Yoco, a jaguar turned cattle and man killer by a wound ... In counterpoint ... a young man turned killer and rapist.

Library Journal review ... "A naturalist might question some of the descriptions of animal behavior, but Brown's intent is apparently symbolic rather than realistic. Descriptions and characterizations are excellent, the narrative holds your interest ..."

If you like this, there is one other J.P.S. Brown that I felt comfortable to suggest to some patrons.
Jim Kane

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slow paced, well thought out and told story of a man and a mountain lion. Well, that's the basic outline, there's lots more to it. I only learned about the book by reading The Middle Finger of God, a book that uses Forests and JPS Brown, the man, as a launch into the Sierra Madre, that great spine of mountains running through northern Mexico.

The book goes at the speed of a mule through events in the life of Adan Martinillo. There is something compelling about the way Brown plods along the trails, canyons, villages of the Sierra Madre. Life there is relatively hard, even brutal, especially for the women who have to do so much work and tolerate abusive, drunk men and perhaps worse, priests and their dim/sin view of the female sex.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best of the three books I read this past couple of weeks about the Sierra Madre. But, it has a graphically evil character. So if you read it be prepared.

[Sharon Cockroft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired to read this by a great romp thru Baja badass territory: God's Middle Finger.
Completely different from the former, the jaguar haunts me now.

[Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was really hard for me to read this one because it goes back and forth from English to Spanish so much.

[J.p.s. Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting, really enjoyed, good reading.