HOSTILES AND FRIENDLIES

The Nebraska sandhills, their people and the frontier days have been singularly Mari Sandoz' own since Old Jules brought her fame, well-deserved and long in achieving. Just how long- and through what tortuous paths she progressed- is told in the autobiographical section of the book, which is a selection from her short writings. Actually, most of the material used here has autobiographical flavor. She writes of homesteaders and homesteading; she paints vivid pen portraits of her own people- and her neighbors; she tells of her Indian friends and the story tellers who filled her childhood vision. She has a gift of evoking history and personalities, knowns and unknowns, Crazy Horse, the two Sitting Bulls, minor figures that bring to life some of the oddities of the American Indians. In her fiction- short and novelette length- there is first a vital sense of plot and character,and second, a streak of allegory. Good reading here- and first rate Americana.