Clung

By Max Brand

There was mystery surrounding Clung''s birth - but none about his skill with weapons. At first he shot in self-defence, but then he killed recklessly to avenge an in sult and was forced to flee. ' This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• ISBN: B001618D5G
• Release Date: January 1948
• Publisher: Dodd, Mead
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Shakespeare of the West

As a Western author, Brand did not shrink from controversial topics such as race relations in the Old West. Clung is the son of EuroAmerican parents but was brought up by the Chinese laundryman Li Clung and, as culture always triumphs genetics, the boy Clung is as Chinese as his adoptive father. As a "Chinaman" in the frontier west, he is subject to all the prejudices of the day. Two strong plots war for dominance in this novel, for the bridge between the two is a young woman who sets one man, Will Kirk, against another, Clung aka John Ring. Clung is one of Brand's most finely drawn and complex characters and, although the prejudice and discrimination against the Chinese for that period appears appalling to us today, it was real racism and touched everyone who lived in a multi-racial setting as all western towns inevitably were once the Spanish had arrived. Clung proves himself in the Chinese-American world in subtle Chinese ways. Readers will find the Eastern mysticism they seek, Confucian ethics, and a kind of loyalty they may not expect set against one thrilling action scene after another until finally, Winifred does go away with Clung/John Ring.