A Time in the Sun

Book excerpt: A major novel of the Indian wars in the far West, told from both points of view—the Apache’s and the white man’s. Anna Stillman was on her way to Tucson to marry Lieutenant Linus Degnan, the son of the commandant of the U.S. fort there, when she was captured by an Apache raiding party. It was 1870, and the Apaches were making a fierce last stand against the white men who were driving them from their land. The Degnans, father and son, soon realized that any attempt to rescue Anna by force would endanger her life, and so they sent Shafter, an ex-Confederate whom the Indians trusted, to try to ransom her. Victorio, leader of the Mimbreños tribe, willingly set a price for the release of the Mexican girl who had been Anna’s traveling companion, but was unwilling to ransom Anna. Greatly disturbed by the Mexican girl’s report that Anna was living with an Apache brave, Linus and his father made every effort to get her back, only to discover that she no longer wanted to be rescued. Jane Barry develops her characters in depth—Anna, who could not avoid hurting the man she had always intended to marry; Joaquin, who had cast his lot with the Apaches when he found that he was not accepted in the white man’s world; Linus, whose struggle to save Anna made a man of him; and Shafter, who tried to be a friend to both Joaquin and Linus. Most of the Apache chiefs and some of the Americans who figure in the book are historical personages. Mrs. Barry’s thorough research has enabled her to bring the Apache civilization to life in vivid detail. A TIME IN THE SUN is a powerful novel about the conflicts experienced by people at odds with one another caught between two ways of life.