{"id":1046,"date":"2018-12-31T15:23:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:23:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:23:50","slug":"reid-sins-of-the-younger-sons_082717","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1046","title":{"rendered":"Reid, Sins of the Younger Sons_082717"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
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FICTION<\/p>\n

Jan Reid<\/span><\/p>\n

Sins of the Younger Sons<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

TCU Press<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 320 pages, 978-0-87565-428-7 (ebook also available); $32.50<\/p>\n

June 2017<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Si Dunn<\/p>\n

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,<\/span> thousands of Basques left their economically and politically troubled homeland along the border between Spain and France. Many of them resettled thousands of miles away, in parts of South America, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States, including along the Texas-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

Austin writer Jan Reid\u2019s<\/span> intriguing new novel, Sins of the Younger Sons,<\/span> takes readers back to the mountainous Basque country in the mid-1990s, through the eyes and actions of Luken \u201cLuke\u201d Burgoa. Luke is a Texan raised as a Basque inside the fences of his family’s Texas ranch, yet often dismissed as \u201cjust another South Texas Mexican\u201d by suspicious neighbors.<\/p>\n

Luke speaks the Basque Navarrese dialect almost fluently, and he knows Basque customs. Now, he is a former U.S. Marine and former boxer, as well. And this background has landed him a tough assignment with a shadowy American intelligence agency that he can refer to only as \u201cthe Outfit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working alone in Basque country, Luke somehow must make friends with a dangerous group of separatists, members of the feared ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna), \u201cBasque Homeland and Freedom.\u201d The ETA has been fighting Spanish authorities since 1959. They have carried out assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and other violent events, trying to win Basque independence. In Reid\u2019s novel (historical fiction based partially on facts), Luke\u2019s ultimate mission is to bring down the ETA\u2019s military commander, Peru Madariaga, who controls the group\u2019s weapons and money.<\/p>\n

The Texan takes to the Basque mountains with a small team of pack mules and tries to pass himself off as a souvenir dealer and arms smuggler who can deliver Soviet-made sniper rifles to buyers.<\/p>\n

But Peru Madariaga soon sees through Luke’s disguise and realizes he is an American agent. Rather than immediately kill the Texan, the ETA military commander demands that Luke get him some bigger, more powerful Russian weapons that can be used to attack the heart of Spain\u2019s political structure.<\/p>\n

Luke knows the Outfit will never send him the weapons, nor send anyone to help him. So, he must stall for time, figure a way to take out Peru Madariaga, and also escape from the rest of the ETA.<\/p>\n

In Reid\u2019s well-written thriller, even more complications arise for Luke, including Peru Madariaga\u2019s wife, Ysolinda. She is unhappy with her husband and tired of living constantly on the run. Soon she is attracted to the Texan, pushing him deeper into danger.<\/p>\n

One of the book\u2019s other strengths is its vivid descriptions of the Basque countryside and the roots of the region\u2019s conflicts with Spain.<\/p>\n

Many readers are aware of Jan Reid\u2019s nonfiction works focusing on Texas music, Texas politics, and his near-fatal experiences in Mexico, plus earlier novels, including Comanche Sundown.<\/span> Putting a Texas Basque ex-Marine into the middle of Spain\u2019s bitter Basque conflict marks a surprising and refreshing new direction for his fiction.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FICTION Jan Reid Sins of the Younger Sons TCU Press Hardcover, 320 pages, 978-0-87565-428-7 (ebook also available); $32.50 June 2017 Reviewed by Si Dunn During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thousands of Basques left their economically and politically troubled homeland along the border between Spain and France. Many of them resettled thousands of miles away, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}