All God's Children

Starred review from August 17, 2020
Gwyn (Wynne’s War) unleashes a powerful, decades-spanning novel of Texas’s violent birth in the mid-19th century. Duncan Lammons, 20, a gay son of a preacher, travels from Kentucky to the frontier in 1827, hoping he can somehow purify himself of what he calls his “unnatural hunger.” Duncan joins the Texian army’s fight for independence in 1835, and during the course of his service develops feelings for fellow soldier Sam Fisk. A parallel narrative follows Cecelia, a literate and resourceful young enslaved woman who repeatedly escapes and gets caught by her Virginia master throughout her teens, until she is resold farther South to pick cotton. Her fortunes change when Sam rescues her from a Louisiana auction block and takes her back to Texas, where he settles on a parcel of land in central Texas. They eventually become lovers, and Cecilia bears a son. Now a retired Ranger and Mexican War veteran in 1846, Duncan settles down nearby, but tension brews between him and Cecelia over the way Duncan looks at Sam. When Sam’s land claim is contested over objections to Sam living with a Black woman, Duncan tries to save them from danger. Whether it’s Cecelia struggling to pick enough cotton to avoid a whipping while enslaved or Duncan taking part in the siege of Monterrey, Gwyn creates an overwhelmingly visceral and emotionally rich narrative amid Texas’s complex path to statehood, making readers care deeply about the characters’ fates. This is a masterpiece of western fiction in the tradition of Cormac McCarthy and James Carlos Blake.

August 15, 2020
Three lives intersect in 19th-century Texas in this sprawling adventure novel. In 1827, young Duncan Lammons sets off from his home in Butler County, Kentucky, to stake out a new life in Texas, then part of Mexico. "It's a peculiar sort of man who needs a fresh start by the age of twenty, but I was always peculiar," he explains--in part because he's gay, which has made him the subject of rumors in his county. He befriends another young man named Noah Smithwick along the way, and after a few years the two decide to join the nascent Texian Army to fight for the territory's independence. Meanwhile, an enslaved Black woman named Cecelia is sold several times to different cruel masters, eventually ending up in Louisiana, where she's stolen from the man who bought her and freed by Samuel Fisk, who fought alongside Duncan in Texas (and for whom Duncan nurses a significant crush). Gwyn switches points of view between Duncan and Cecelia as the two navigate pre-Civil War Texas, with Duncan remaining a soldier and Cecelia and Samuel raising a child, until a series of violent events threaten the safety of the couple and their son. Gwyn knows how to tell a story--he builds suspense wonderfully, and one long section that deals with Duncan and his fellow soldiers fighting in the 1846 Battle of Monterrey is some of the most thrilling prose readers are likely to encounter this year. But the book's ending, set at the advent of the Civil War, seems tacked on and unnecessary, and while Gwyn treats Duncan's homosexuality with real sensitivity, some readers might rankle at the plot involving Cecelia and Duncan, which veers toward White saviorism. Still, readers who enjoyed books like Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (1985) will find much to admire here. Gwyn's book isn't perfect, but his excellent writing and gift for pacing make this an enjoyable historical novel.

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September 1, 2020
Escape. It's what drives Cecelia to run from her owners in Virginia at the age of 15, and to keep on trying to flee owner after owner for years afterward. It's also what brings young Duncan Lammons from Kentucky to Texas in 1827, lured by the promise of territory but also frightened of both Mexican soldiers and Indians. In the decades that follow, Duncan develops a taste for battle, joining up with the storied Texas Rangers and taking charge of a rough-and-ready crew. He also develops a taste for liquor, and finds it takes more than distance to outrun the shameful secret he carries. Cecelia, meanwhile, is released from a slave owner by Sam, a young man with piercing blue eyes wearing a panther-skin hat, a man whom Duncan had fought beside and never forgotten. Years later, Duncan finds Sam and Cecelia and the tenuous life they have built on their homestead, their lives entwining through heartbreak. Readers will relish these unforgettable characters and this expansive view of Texas' wild ride to joining the Union.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)