NINA VIDA

Starred Review: Vida's luminous, dramatic seventh novel finds Joseph Kimmel, a Missouri school teacher, heading to mid-19th-century Texas to claim his recently deceased brother's belongings; he's left for dead when his horse is stolen. Across the plains, after her Texas Ranger husband dies fighting Comanches, Aurelia Ruiz takes refuge at a Comanche camp and adopts their ways. Henry Castro, a Frenchman with dreams of creating an Alsatian-immigrant-populated town in his own name, not only rescues Kimmel but marries him off to Katrin, an unattached white emigre whom a Comanche leader had espied and wanted for his own. The newlyweds head off to create a distinctive ranch, one that welcomes members of the Tonkaway tribe, Mexicans, escaped slaves, free African-Americans and others in distress. Affairs of the heart are never neglected in Vida's novels (Goodbye, Saigon, etc.,) and Kimmel soon finds himself enraptured when he meets the beautiful Aurelia, just as a posse of xenophobic ranchers wreak havoc on the ranch. This radiant work of historical fiction - vibrantly atmospheric and emotionally dense - spans 12 years in the lives of many engaging characters, who come to life on every page.(Oct).

Starred Review: In a story as vast and action-packed as Texas itself, Vida (The End of Marriage, 2002, etc.) follows four strangers who join forces during the lawless years of early statehood. During the early 1850s, despite rumors of Comanche attacks, settlers are pouring into the new state of Texas. Some, like Aurelia Ruíz, a Mexican widow who possesses healing powers, and Luck, a slave on the run from Tennessee, have no resources save their courage and wits. Others, such as 19-year-old Katrin, have put their faith in an Alsatian Jew named Henry Castro, who promises to build them a new city. Only Joseph, a Polish Jew from St. Louis, wants nothing from Texas except to settle his dead brother's estate in San Antonio and move on. But when he stops to help the injured Luck, who in turn steals his horse, Joseph is stranded. To the rescue rides the caravan of Europeans led by Castro, en route to the land on which he intends to found Castroville. Resting with them before continuing his journey, Joseph learns that Comanche chief Ten Elk intends to kidnap Katrin. At Castro's urging, Joseph consents to wed the young woman and take her away. Their wedding day is disrupted by the renegade Texas Rangers, who are losing their authority as government begins to be established in the state. With them is Luck, found sleeping near the Rangers, who intend to hang him. Joseph intervenes, thanking the troop's suspicious captain for reuniting him with the slave he lost on the plains. Joseph, Katrin and Luck set off to homestead on their own, somewhere far from their enemies. The three become four when Joseph meets the beguiling Aurelia, who works in a shantytown kitchen making tortillas for soldiers. Rich with period detail, an elegant, character-driven novel about the clash of cultures that forged the Lone Star spirit. Should be required reading in the contemporary immigration debate. (Oct. 2006)

Vida, Nina THE TEXICANS Soho (304 pp.) $23.00 Oct. 1, 200 ISBN: 1-56947-434-6

Vida, Nina. The Texicans. Soho, dist. by Consortium. Oct. 2006. c.304p. ISBN 1-56947-434-6 [ISBN 978-1-56947-434-1]. $23. Most of what has happened to Joseph Kimmel since he came to Texas in 1845 has been unpredictable. A runaway slave named Luck stole his horse, leaving him near death when Henry Castro of Castroville rescues him. Although he considers himself a loner, Joseph goes on to marry a young Alsatian woman. (Otherwise, she will be claimed by Ten Elk, a Comanche chief.) Years later, Joseph saves Luck from punishment at the hands of the Texas Rangers. Though Joseph's marriage lasts, and he becomes a successful rancher, he is haunted by a woman named Aurelia Ruíz, a healer who calls down storms with her screams and is able to dispel the racism she frequently encounters. Aurelia and all the other diverse characters of Vida's (The End of Marriage) compelling novel re-create a hair-trigger time in the great state of Texas. A Larry McMurtry readalike; recommended.

IN THE DECEMBER 29, 2006 EDITION OF THE MONITOR (MCALLEN TEXAS), THE TEXICANS WAS CHOSEN AS THE BEST TEXAS FICTION OF 2006 WITH THE COMMENT:

"The Texicans by Nina Vida. Previous novels on early Texas marginalize the plight of those who've been here since the land belonged to Mexico. Vida's novel puts them at center stage, and creates a vivid picture of the heartache and isolation settlers' endured."

IN THE NOVEMBER 3, 2006 EDITION OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, THE TEXICANS WAS "A" LISTED FOR OCTOBER WITH THE COMMENT:

"A dry wind of magic realism blows through this thrilling novel that follows a young Mexican woman as she finds love and adventure in the Texas hill country of the 1840s."

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" 'The Texicans' is a genuine pleasure to read. Its crisp, lyrical style is a nice blend of commentary and exposition...The story has a strong penchant for magical realism, not unlike Gabriel Garcia Marques and Isabel Allende...The narrative has a cinematic feel. You can visualize each scene....Vida is a natural story teller. "

EL PASO TIMES
El Paso, Texas
By John Pate


" For a Californian, Nina Vida sure knows Texas, right down to the live oak-lined vistas and mesquite-scented prairies...That Vida brings so much fresh energy to the timeworn Western genre - complex characters, engaging stories, cutting edge historical revisionism - is no small feat...Her decision to mess with Texas - Texas history, no less - is a bold move for an author who seems to have something of the plucky, fighting spirit of her characters. Whether Vida settles in this area of genre fiction or not, she's done a good job of kicking up some dust."

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
FREDERICKSBURG, TX NEWS
By Amanda Maria Morrison

" Just when you thought the great Texas novel has already been written and any more attempts would be just running over the same armadillo again and again, comes the Texicans, a tremendous historical novel set in the aftermath of the Texas' independence and its burgeoning statehood. ...The author's ability to reveal the human heartache that plagued so many settlers in their cabins and on their ranches drives the novel's convincing plotlines....

....Vida's work should be placed on the same shelf with Lonesome Dove, Texas, and Pale Horse, Pale Rider. "

THE MONITOR
McAllen, Texas
By: Martin Winchester

" This is rough-and-tumble Texas, lawless and chaotic, and Vida throws her characters against it, almost defying them to find their way through....she [Vida] is especially strong with dialogue and conveys to perfection the cadence of a foreign accent, the texture of a slave dialect and the wordy excesses of unschooled pioneers....any honest, atmospheric book like this one is always welcome."

VICTORIA ADVOCATE
Victoria, TX
By: Cindy Bonner

"...the book, set in 1840s Texas, is a completely engaging tale following a handful of remarkable settlers...together they struggle against the perils common in that day: disease, hunger, and outlaw bands of Rangers....the hill country purely of Vida's powerful imagination, shot with a dose of magic realism, with 'the clouds girdling the mountains in a rainbow of color' and the sun 'a golden button overhead.' A- "

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
By Tina Jordan

"It's not your typical Western, John Wayne doesn't come riding in with the U.S. Cavalry. And the Lone Ranger is certainly absent from the long list of characters. But that is what makes Nina Vida's book, 'The Texicans,' so refreshing. She paints realistic characters, focusing on the underdogs in the Old West - Mexicans, Native Americans, African Americans and women of all colors and creeds....Add comanches, renegade rangers and slaves and you have a potent cocktail for this interesting tale. "

LONG BEACH PRESS TELEGRAM
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
By Richard Irwin

" What happens to Aurelia and to the rest of this rough-and-ready cast of characters makes enthralling reading. It's the characters, full of rough edges and foibles and determination to survive, who propel this book forward. At times brutal, and always full of lively detail, Vida's carefully honed prose knits together this sprawling frontier world of lawless Texas Rangers, enterprising ex-slaves, warring Native American tribes and everyone else trying to survive in the early years of the Lone Star State. "

THE SEATTLE TIMES
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
GREATER MILWAUKEE TODAY
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
THE MIAMI HERALD
TAIWAN NEWS
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE
THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER
JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
By Melinda Bargreen

" For those tired of the old Texas story with cowboys and cattle drives, Rangers with white hats and the Alamo, 'The Texicans'is a must read.....Spanning 12 years, 'The Texicans' is an imaginative and thoroughly researched tale driven by intriguing characters, reminders of the largely overlooked but rich mix of men and women who helped shape the Lone Star State. "

DENVER POST
By Sybil Downing

" Nina Vida combines reverent tones of magical realism with the brutality of a Cormac McCarthy novel to create a captivating and original vision of the Texas frontier circa 1845....Like a wagon ride above the thin rim of a bottomless canyon, The Texicans threatens the reader with unexpected twists and unrelenting suspense. Vida brings the reader from the horrors of a cannibalistic ritual to the comforting banality of fresh-baked bread without ever slackening the reigns on her story. "

KGB BAR
By Jonathan Lachance

In the years since it opened in 1993, KGB has become something of a New York literary institution. KGB has been named best literary venue in New York City by New York Magazine, the Village Voice, and everyone else who bestows these awards of recognition.

" The exciting plot is rich and complex, and the author successfully enables readers to see events from the viewpoint of the many well-drawn characters. "

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Fairfax County, VA
By Sandy Freund


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Praise for Goodbye, Saigon:

"Exuberant.....performs the miraculous by making us laugh even as we cry....Not a word rings false, not a moment feels untrue...a book to be treasured, to be read and read again."
New York Times Sunday Book Review

"Head-spinning, hilarious and haunting."
Glamour

"Powerhouse fiction."
Kirkus Reviews

"Goodbye, Saigon" has more to say about California'a changing mores, increasing violence, cultural disharmony and, in the end, brave new world than many authoritative nonfiction books published today..indelible and endearing.
San Francisco Chronicle

"Generous of spirit, as full of loss as it is of gain, the ultimate good luck here is the reader's"
Los Angeles Times

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