Cindy
Bonner:
Romance and Rascals in the Wild, Wild West
by Janis
Butler Holm, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701
Over a period of six years,
self-taught writer Cindy Bonner has published a trilogy of books in a hybrid genre:
the romance/western/historical novel. Lily, Looking after Lily,
and The Passion of Dellie O'Barr are based on events in McDade, Texas,
a small town in Bastrop County, during the late 1800s--on historical accounts
of local outlaws, vigilantes, Populists, and farm families. Bonner has used the
names of historical figures whenever possible, though many key characters and
all love interests are a matter of invention. The protagonists of the first and
third books are recognizably old-fashioned romance heroines; Lily and Dellie are
socially and sexually naive, childlike and sometimes childish, waiting to be awakened
by (and then actively pursuing) the passions that will release them from the drudgery
of their lives. More interesting is the protagonist of the second book, an outlaw
named Haywood, who slowly moves (in first person) from clueless machismo to a
more complicated humanity involving attachment and concern. In all three books,
the author has made clear the hardships of physical and emotional survival in
late-nineteenth-century rural Texas, the hazards of living and loving in the pre-industrial
Southwest.
In Lily, a motherless
fifteen-year-old farm girl falls in love with one of the Beatty boys, a gang of
outlaw brothers whom the town of McDade holds responsible for every crime and
mishap in central Texas. Compelled by Marion Beatty's soft brown eyes, striking
red hair, and amorous attentions; by her father's cold, hard ways; and by her
anger at the townspeople's false accusations, Lily DeLony finds herself in sympathy
and eventually in cahoots with the outlaw band. When the town's mood turns violent,
she casts her lot with her lover, knowing that there is no turning back. The romantic
journey is a slow one, fraught with denial and much teenage yearning, and some
readers will grow impatient with sweet stolen kisses and unwise choices. But stories
about good, hard-working girls who fall for charming bad boys are popular with
a large audience, and many will sympathize with Lily's attempt to exchange her
joyless, toilsome farm life for the excitement of love on the run.
In Looking after Lily,
Bonner continues the young woman's story through the point of view of another
Beatty brother, a tough hombre with far fewer charms than the object of Lily's
affections. As events transpire, Haywood Beatty is obligated to play protector
to the now-pregnant Lily, and the new role does not sit well with him. Recently
released from jail, this twenty-year-old hooligan is more interested in gambling,
whoring, and drinking to excess, and he periodically deserts his ward, leaving
her in a number of perilous situations. (Readers will note that Lily seems destined
for hard domestic labor.) Over time, however, the young woman's courage, strength,
and common sense touch his heart, and his relation to his charge becomes both
kinder and more problematic. Though Haywood's emotional growth is sluggardly--at
times he seems impenetrably dense--and his recurring screw-ups grow tiresome,
Bonner's portrayal rings true: thoroughgoing miscreants do not become lovable
overnight, however much we might want them to. This book, though it takes up the
traditional romance theme of taming the dangerous male, does so without asking
the reader to abandon reason and credence.
The Passion of Dellie
O'Barr shifts attention to Lily's younger sister, Dellie, who has married
a successful, conventional, and conservative lawyer/farmer, in part to escape
her harsh life with Papa DeLony. Bored and less than happy with her husband, she
pines for Andy Ashland, her father's tenant farmer and a committed Populist. Dellie's
passion leads her to Populist politics, an out-of-town tryst, and even arson,
but her hopes of romance go up in smoke. She returns to her husband all the wiser,
to face some of the consequences of her actions, and eventually becomes an active
suffragist--a move that seems disconnected from the events and feelings that have
preceded it. Though this book's engagement with late-nineteenth-century political
and social unrest is potentially an interesting one, the character of Dellie O'Barr
fails to come into focus, and her participation in liberationist movements seems
arbitrary, rather than fundamental to her identity.
These three novels, produced
at two-year intervals by a writer who is learning on the job, are suited primarily
for a popular fiction market, and Lily, in particular, has met with commercial
success. Critics may point to weak characterization and an overreliance on episodic
plot structure, but Cindy Bonner's McDade cycle has a large and enthusiastic readership,
one that is happily awaiting the next installment, Too Close to Heaven.
Bonner has a good ear for rural Texas dialect, and, for many, her linguistic authenticity
and commitment to Texas history more than make up for any literary shortcomings.
Janis
Butler Holm is an associate professor in the English
Department at Ohio University, where she also serves as Consulting/Contributing
Editor for Wide Angle,
the film journal.
Professor
Holm was recently chosen as 1999 Writer-in-Residence at the Pudding
House Writers' Resource Center.
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