THE WAY OF A GAUCHO

Prentice-Hall's 35th Anniversary Novel, and to be promoted accordingly, this is a sizeable novel of almost larger-than-life Goya De San Martin, set against the Argentine Pampa in the 1880's and 1890's when the gauchos fought with equal vigor all encroachment on their freedom, whether by the gringos, Indians or the Church. Forced into outlawry by his killing of a man, Goya's adventures, which are highly picaresque, take in a lot of territory as he champions the poor, wins the love of an aristocratic girl and loses her, incites rebellion, becomes famous as a bandit, kills- and kills again. As a background on this country and this era, on the slow, hard penetration of foreign influences and the resistance they met, this is colorful, often fascinating, though some may find that the adventure here dulls with repetition and emphasis.