Blueland - Robert Jaxx - A Short Summary and Review
Blueland - Robert Jaxx - A Short Summary and Review
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
A Short Summary:
As the Civil War draws to a close, Union Captain Alden Zur has had enough of fighting other men’s battles. A Jewish soldier who has endured both the brutality of war and the prejudice directed toward his own people, Alden decides that surviving the war is not enough; he wants to build something beyond it. With his family, several of his former Rangers, and a collection of fellow travelers, he turns west toward the Colorado Territory and the promise of a different life.
Getting there proves as dangerous as the war they left behind. Wagon trains, violent criminals, racial and religious hatred, disaster, and the sheer unpredictability of the frontier repeatedly test the travelers. Eventually, the journey leads them to Blueland and the possibility of creating a ranch, a home, and a future of their own. Yet the novel never entirely lets its characters escape the world behind them; the past follows them west, reminding them that beginning again does not necessarily mean beginning untouched.
My Favorite Quote From the Book:
Questions to ponder while reading:
My Review:
Robert Jaxx gives the traditional Western an unusual perspective in Blueland. Instead of beginning with the familiar lone cowboy riding into an established frontier town, the story begins with men emerging from the Civil War and trying to decide what comes next. Alden Zur and several central characters are Jewish, allowing the novel to explore westward expansion through people who have already fought for their country while still facing suspicion and prejudice within it. That angle gave an otherwise familiar Western journey something a little different.
What interested me most, though, was the simple question underneath all of the gunfights, wagon trains, bad men, and frontier dangers: why would anyone risk this much just to go west? The characters leave places where life is at least somewhat established and willingly enter a landscape where disease, violence, weather, accident, and simple bad luck can kill them. Blueland made me think about the enormous difference between merely surviving and believing there is a life somewhere ahead worth taking extraordinary risks to reach.
Alden has already fought a war, but building a life ultimately demands another kind of courage. His family, his land, his friends, and the freedom to determine what comes next become things worth protecting. Something compelling about the idea is that the people who settled the West were not simply chasing land; many wagered almost everything they had on the belief that life could be different somewhere else.
As a novel, Blueland was entertaining: a solid Western with an uncommon historical angle, plenty of action, and enough beneath the adventure to leave me thinking about what makes a person abandon the security they know for the uncertain possibility of something better. The book also gains an unusual perspective by placing Jewish characters at the center of a traditional Western, though I wish their identity had been woven more deeply into their everyday lives.
If you liked Blueland, you may also like:
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.
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