Stallion Gate

by Martin Cruz Smith

Book Overview

In a New Mexico blizzard, four men cross a barbed-wire fence at Stallion Gate to select a test site for the first atomic weapon. They are Oppenheimer, the physicist; Groves, the general; Fuchs, the spy. The fourth man is Sergeant Joe Pena, a hero, informer, fighter, musician, Indian. These four men -- and a cast of soldiers, roughnecks and scientists -- will change history forever.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394530063
• ISBN13: 9780394530062
• Release Date: March 1986
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 321 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Surprised

I am surprised to see this Cruz Smith book received a lower rating than his others. I've read them all, and this is my favorite IN SPITE of the truth of so many of the reviews: little action, foregone conclusion, and most missed the fact that it also depends on numerous prototypical characters that are barely convincing, including the hero Joe. BUT THE WRITING IS BEYOND anything, Cruz's best. There are set pieces here of perfect beauty, but they seem unrelated to anything until, much farther on, you suddenly see the light. Exciting writing rather than exciting story, although that part is not so bad at all.

New Mexico and the Atom Bomb in 1945

This is the first Martin Cruz Smith book that I have read, although I have seen the movie version of Gorky Park. This book is a different genre. It is an historical novel, not a suspense thriller. The author has done his research well. He has gotten his facts right about the physics and engineering of the Manhattan project. Some of the New Mexico settings that he describes, for example La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, are ones that I have visited, but decades later than his 1945 time period. There may be some let down at the conclusion of the story because we know from history how the first atom bomb test worked. We also know the fate of the Titanic, but Hollywood keeps making movies about it. Historical films and novels share a similiar attribute. People will object if you change history too much. To make you like this book, the author has to get you interested in the characters and the background setting for the novel. I think that he succeeds in both.

Star Crossed??

I went looking for this book for a friend. I had read it when it was published years ago and was more than impressed with the story. It was just a great read! I noticed all of these "1 Star" ratings and could not imagine who might give it that sort of evaluation. It just "ain't so." This is a terrific book and,although, Cruz may not hit four or five "Stars" everytime out, he did with "Stallion Gate!!" Try it, you'll like it!

Ten Of The Most Important Seconds In History!

"Stallion Gate" is a character novel, as opposed to the plot-driven suspense thrillers Martin Cruz Smith usually writes. It is also historical fiction, about one of the most extraordinary events precipitated by mankind, concluding with ten of the most important seconds in world history - the countdown for the test of the first nuclear weapon at Los Alamos, New Mexico.The story opens at Los Alamos in December, 1944. U.S. Army Sergeant Joe Pena, a Pueblo Indian who had seen action in the Pacific, was specifically requested by the Project's lead physicist, Robert "Oppy" Oppenheimer, to join the select and top secret group, in New Mexico, as his personal driver and body guard. Oppy had known Joe in his boyhood, when he left New York, for health reasons, to spend the summer in New Mexico. It was one of the happiest times of his life. Young Joe taught him to ride...and years later had still retained Oppy's trust.All the important historical characters are present at Los Alamos. Oppenheimer, his wife Kitty, scientist Klaus Fuchs, the Army general in charge of the project, Fermi, etc., are here. Anna Weiss, a fictional German Jewish mathematician, who had fled the Nazis, and been recruited by Oppy, is present. So is Joe's superior officer, Captain Augustino, an insane and bigoted intelligence officer with his own agenda. He believes Fuchs, Weiss and Openheimer are Soviet spies and has blackmailed Joe into informing on them...although Joe resists mightily and successfully, most of the time.There is little suspense in this novel. After all, we know that the atomic bomb test was successful, as well as we know of the other bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the Enola Gay. We know now who was a spy and who was unjustly accused. The storyline, is centered on Joe Pena, a complex, talented and very underestimated man. He disappointed his family, and had been disowned by his now deceased mother. Joe will never be a white man, nor a black man - although his ability to play jazz on the piano and understand the language of music like a native born to the country of chords and riffs, may have made his soul part Afro-American. He is really no longer a Native American either. He has seen and partaken of too much of the world to ever come home again. Pena fought like a hero on Baatan, and has fought heroically in the ring. Boxing was his sport and he was good. Throughout much of the book, he has no hopes for the future - no dreams. He observes everything and everyone, and comments occasionally with his sardonic humor. He thwarts Augustino's paranoid plots and assists a few renegade Indians, who try to work native magic to disrupt the explosion to come. He listens to Oppie who has lost weight and sleep with his anxiety over the Project. At one point Oppenheimer, while waiting for the rain to stop so he can meet the deadline for the test, says, "I am like the king of a rainy country, wealthy but helpless, young and ripe with death." Then, Joe, a lady's man - beddi

a book that you don't expect

Stallion Gate takes myriad elements- the Native American experience, be-bop jazz, boxing, the Manhattan Project and pottery- and melds them into a story that lives and breathes on its own. The characters are not only at odds with each other, but with themselves. While not Smith's best work, this is a clear example of why he is one of the finest and most versatile writers alive today