Ride the Wind: A Novel

by Lucia St. Clair Robson

Book Overview

In 1836, when she was nine years old, Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanche Indians. This is the story of how she grew up with them, mastered their ways, married one of their leaders, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345325222
• Release Date: November 1985
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 1.0" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

One of the great reads u will not. want to put it down

Ths is one of my top keepers books I could not put it down It was as if u were there. I. cry some win. i lost my two favorite people. I have order. 4 of her books.I have really enjoyed this author

Very well written but brutal

Honestly I really did enjoy this book, but for all the beauty that was written it was also extremely violent. I researched the characters in the book and they were real people which made this even more horrific for me. This book is real history, both sides were very violent. It is an excellent book but I could only get halfway through and I just had to stop. I feel like it should come with a warning label.

My Absolute Favorite

The author did a ton of research, which is obvious throughout the book. A vibrant portrayal of both sides of the story, not all pretty and glamorous, but real. I absolutely love this book. It is in my top 3 of all time!! Take a chance and enjoy this masterpiece!

Magnificent...Brilliant

This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read. The story of Cynthia Ann Parker is fascinating and Lucia is brilliant in her storytelling. The detail and research in her writing cannot be matched. It puts you right there in the Comanche camp. I have read it probably 20 times (the first time being about 20 yrs ago) and each time I finish I cant wait to read it again. From the very first page I was completly hooked. And I did exactly what the back of the book says. It made me laugh and especially made me cry and mourn the loss of the great Comanche Nation. The chapter where Naduah is in the tent with Molly tears my heart out everytime I read it. And when Wanderer goes to the river the night before facing Placido and remembers Naduah from the first day when he captured her is so emotional I can hardly read through my tears. Several times after I finished the book I just had to contact Lucia and tell her how moved I am each time I read it. I have always had a interest in Indian culture and anyone who has the slightest interest in Native Americans or the west should read this book. You will not be dissapointed. I have bought so many copies of this book for friends hoping that they will have the same reaction I have had. I have 2 copies that have never been open tucked away in a safe place just in case. I cannot wait til my children are old enough to read this book. I've tried to find any and all the information I can about Naduah. This is THE BEST book I have ever read. Nothing else I have ever read even comes close. I think about it for weeks after each time I finish it. If you never read another book......READ THIS BOOK......

A haunting tale you won't forget.

When I was in highschool, my best friend handed me a tattered, worn out, pages- falling- out- of- it book. The cover was even missing! She just looked at me and said, "Read it." I was rather turned off by the disheveled look of the book, but nonethless I promptly took it home and winded up spending the next three days locked up in my room. Since highschool, I have re-read the book many times and each time I read, it's as if I'm revisting old friends.To put it simply, this was one of the first books that made me love reading. What stands out about Robson's writing is that everything seems so real. Though it can be considered a historical romance, there is nothing fairy taleish about it that is characteristic of so many other romance novels. Lucia St.Clair Robson is a librarian. One day, she came across some information about a person named Cynthia Ann Parker and how she grew up with the Comanche tribe. The more she read about Cynthia, the more she was hooked. Finally, she decided that she had to write out Cynthia's story. This book is the result. Now of course, this book is a work of fiction becuase Robson took many liberties by filling in things that were missing from the actual historical record. Still, the whole story seemed very real to me. It gave me moments of pure joy in addition to moments in which I bawled my eyes out.

Undiscovered Western Classic

Don't be fooled by the cover. This is not *Throbbing Raven's Passion*. Robson's novel about Cynthia Ann Parker is gussied up as a piece of historical romance, but it is a solidly researched, well-written biography of one of the most fascinating women of Texas, the mother of Comanche chief Quanah Parker. To avoid lunkhead complaints about "spoilers," I can't tell you what happens to her, but in the literature of women kidnapped by Indians, her story is unique.Robson does a great job of maintaining a delicate balance between the "savagery" of the Comanches (a horrifying massacre of the Parker family opens the novel) and the rich, positive side of their lives. She has set out to understand and communicate how a young white woman could come to regard her "rescue" as a second kidnapping, and she pulls it off. *The Searchers,* based on the same story, may be a greater work of art, but *Ride the Wind* has the taste and smell of truth about it.

Interested in Native American history?

Then I suggest you pick this book right away and start reading ~~ it will be one book that you will never forget. I know. I re-read it every year and have been doing so for the last 10 years. I first picked it up during a summer working in Yellowstone ~~ that was when I started becoming interested in Native American Indian History ~~ and needing something lighter and easier to read, I started with "Ride the Wind." This is such a great beginning introduction to reading about the Comanches ~~ even though the book is a novel ~~ it is based on what few known historical facts on Cynthia Parker and the man who she calls husband ~~ Wanderer, one of the last great Comanche chiefs. Robson writes with passion the story of a white girl kidnapped by the Indians in her youth ~~ and how she transformed her ways to those of the tribe. It is a heart-warming story, one that will haunt you for the rest of your life. It also shows a softer side to the Indians that you normally won't see ~~ they're not the savages as people make them to be. I'm not saying that they're not fierce warriors ~~ they are and do practice warfare with a savergy that is different from what historians call "civilised society." But Robson shows the fierce loyalty the Comanche have for their tribe and one another ~~ and their way of life.Pick this book up. I guarantee that you won't walk away from it without being haunted by the stories that Cynthia and her friends share with you. It is an eye-opener into the way of life then. And it is a heart-breaking story as well. Try it and see. I don't think you'll regret it.