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Red Grass River: A Legend Paperback – July 25, 2000

by James Carlos Blake (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 165 ratings
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James Carlos Blake is a masterful chronicler of the restless, outcast, the lawless, and the lonelyheart. His previous novel, In the Rogue Blood, was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Now he has written a powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn enemies: John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world—and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami—a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril...while his adversary contrives a dark, personal vengeance that could leave countless lives—his own included—in ruin.

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  1. Print length
    384 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harper Perennial
  4. Publication date
    July 25, 2000
  5. Dimensions
    5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0380792427
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0380792429
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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"Ladies and gentlemen, the next Cormac McCarthy...Blake already stands among the best explorers of our lost frontier...The execution of his talent has grown with each book."--"Texas Monthly""Vivid...enthralling...well worth the read...This lively saga barrels along through years of mayhem and outlawry that rival anything found in the annals of the old West."--"San Antonio Express-News""No one writes about blood and guts better than James Carlos Blake. He knows in his bones that violence is at the heart of our American history. He respects that violence."--"Washington Post Book World""Blake is writing books that move like a stampede of mustangs with prose that ripples like Hemingway on steroids..."Red Grass River "is filled with the casual mayhem of the American fringe in an era when outlaws were heroes to those whose own wild spirits were crushed by the Great Depression. Blake is a unique chronicler of hard lives in harder times, and he gets better with each book he writes."--"Rocky Mountain News""A superb and engrossing novel...Blake [is] one of the best and most original writers in America today."--"Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"

About the Author

James Carlos Blake is the author of nine novels. Among his literary honors are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Southwest Book Award, Quarterly West Novella Prize, and Chautauqua South Book Award. He lives in Arizona.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 25, 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380792427
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380792429
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.86 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 165 ratings

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James Carlos Blake

James Carlos Blake

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
165 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert L. Marion
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Yarn and Well Told
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2014
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The author spins a great yarn and I like his writing style. This is a tale of a family living in the Everglades in the early 1900s and how they make the way by selling moonshine and doing whatever else comes along and how they deal with the conflicts these activities bring up. Has an interesting cast of characters ranging from the patriarch of the family and his five sons to an Indian handy with a knife and a blind soiled dove. I liked the book well enough to read it twice--something I don't often do. And having said all this, I have to add that the guy really needs a proofreader. About half of the book has so many spelling errors or wrong words that they become a distraction. It reads similar to something that was dictated on a bad voice recognition program. I do not recall the hardback book being flawed in a similar manner.
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Miguel Tonnies
5.0 out of 5 stars superb story telling
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2013
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Of an era that has long gone, in the swamplands of Southern Florida and the makings of Miami.

This book is so well descriptive, you actually feel the smell of the swamps and see them and the spanish moss in the trees.

A very good Saga of breeds of men that no longer exist, with their raw natures, passions and lusts.

One negative note: very poorly edited. Schock full of typographical errors, so bad that at one time or the other has the readerr looking for meaning in a phrase.
2 people found this helpful
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Louis O'malley
4.0 out of 5 stars A good plot: a disaster of editing and proofing.
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2014
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Not a disappointment so far as the writing goes: Blake is a master.

But, in my Kindle edition, the last 30% of the text was a very distracting read with typos, incorrect words, even some uncertain meanings because of all that.

There were, literally, dozens upon dozens of mistakes.

Not at all professional: a grade schooler could do much better.
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Bill
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2021
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The story was great. The characters memorable. Excellent writing. The only negative is there are so many typos as to be distracting while reading.
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Captain Lars
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing read.
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2022
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I was first given this book about 20 years ago and fell in love with it. Over the years I have loaned it to many people and sometimes never got it back. On those occasions, I would go a couple of years and want to read it again. I have purchased this book probably 6 times over the years. Every time I read it I love it.
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Blue Machine
5.0 out of 5 stars Blake's Best, but not for the timid
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2011
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James Carlos Blake is one of America's best contemporary writers. He reminds me of Cormac McCarthy in the way he weaves a brutal story out of American history, with memorable characters and realistic dialogue. Unlike McCarthy, Blake leaves little to the imagination and is less philosophical, but his books are page-turners. I've read all of his novels and think that this is his best work. The situations, characters and stories within his novels seem too real to be made up. Red Grass River is set in Prohibition-era Florida, which is unusual in itself, unlike Under the Skin and Handsome Harry, which are both good novels of the same era, but are missing the wild element (prohibition meets swamp) of this book. If you liked The Friends of Pancho Villa (I liked that one the least), you might not care for this one.
2 people found this helpful
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californiapainter
3.0 out of 5 stars Not Up To Blake's High Standard
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2000
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This is the third of Blake's books that I have read. "The Friends of Pancho Villa" was a truly stunning performance, as I said in my earlier review on Amazon. I then devoured "In the Rogue Blood." I liked in nearly as much as the first book, and that's saying a lot. Unfortunately. "Red Grass River", doesn't meet the very high standard set by the other two. Maybe because the others were so outstanding, I was expecting too much. This isn't a bad novel really. Blake is too fine a writer for that. But it is peopled with a collection of remarkably unlikable characters. As I got further into the story, I realized more and more that I didn't care about any of them. It wasn't only that they were unlikable, so are most of the characters in the great novels by James Ellroy. They were unsympathetic. I felt no tension, I didn't know what their goals were, and I didn't care if they made it or not. Frankly, I had a hard time finding a 'lead' figure in the story, someone to identify with and pull for. This book lacks passion. Oh, sure, it's full of action, adventure, and history, but it reads like a record of events. It has the feel that historical non-fiction sometimes has...a description without the feeling. That's strange from someone who painted "The Friends of Pancho Villa" with the rawest emotion and heart. James Carlos Blake is a fine writer, and I look forward to reading more of his work, but I recommend those who are new to his work start with "Pancho Villa" or "In The Rogue Blood." In my opinion, both are much better than this fairly unsatisfactory work.
6 people found this helpful
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blues_punk
4.0 out of 5 stars filled with typos
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
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i'd certainly give this an enthusiastic 5 stars however the kindle version is littered with hundreds of typos. at least one a page, sometimes three. unfortunately it detracted from engagement in the story. i could be way wrong but i don't think james carlos blake intended to say "the cocks in the kitchen" or "not a could in the sky."
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andrew alan walton
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2015
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enjoying. look forward to finishing
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NWE
2.0 out of 5 stars Trop d'erreurs!
Reviewed in France on June 25, 2015
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Cet ebook est mauvais, c'est vraiment dommage, car le roman en lui-même est très bon (dans la même veine que In The Rogue Blood).
Mais que d'erreurs (2, 3 par pages parfois) clairement dues à une mauvaise conversion en ebook (relecture bâclée après la conversion?).

Je vous conseille ce livre, mais pas dans cette édition numérique!
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B.L.
4.0 out of 5 stars Großartig generisches Gangstergarn, unlesbares eBook
Reviewed in Germany on March 28, 2016
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Wer "Boardwalk Empire" kennt, weiß: Florida war zur Prohibition eine wichtige Alkoholschmuggelroute für den Chicago Mob. Wer James Carlos Blake liest, lernt hinzu: Mittenmang befand sich damals der Ashley-Clan, eine Schwarzbrenner- und Bankräuberdynastie mit Sitz tief in den Everglades. Über knapp 15 Jahre schildert der Roman ihren Aufstieg und Fall als proletarische Legendenmalerei: zyklisch wiederholen sich Binnenstränge um Stick-ups und Shoot-outs, Freunde, Feinde und Frauen, die kommen und (meist gewalttätig) wieder gehen, grundverschiedene Brüder und heimlich sich ähnelnde Rivalen, lust- wie gefahrvolle Aufenthalte in Natur, Stadt und Knast… Kurz: Nichts, was einem nicht bekannt vorkäme aus Gangsterkino und Südstaatenliteratur, aber in hochvirtuoser Genrejonglage und dialektmächtiger Gossenpoesie verdichtet, ebenso oft niederschmetternd brutal wie mit überraschenden Schlagseiten ins Komische versehen.

Gewarnt sei aber vor der hochgradig ärgerlichen Kindle-Ausgabe, die offenbar schlampig maschinell eingescannt und niemals gegenlektoriert wurde: keine Seite ohne falsch autokorrigierte oder verschluckte Wörter. Flüssig lesen lässt sich dieses eigentlich wunderbar flüssig geschriebene Buch so kaum noch.
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P. Fraser
3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2010
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"Red Grass River: A Legend" fails to deliver the legend - the final stages run out of steam and fall a little flat after a compelling build up.
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mr, m l halliwell
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2015
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good listening
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