Skip to main content

The Kid

Review

The Kid

It is difficult to write a historical novel, particularly one that concerns an iconic figure. The spoiler, to use modern parlance, well precedes it. We know how things end up. This is particularly true of Billy the Kid, who has been the subject of everything from dime novels and comic books to a (short-lived) television series and a (flawed but seriously underrated) feature film. Has the topic been done to death? Maybe, and that is what makes Ron Hansen’s new treatment of William Bonney so impressive. The author, seemingly effortlessly, breathes new life into the legend and reality.

Hansen works this magic in with a subtle presentation of the era, one that dives beneath the sagebrush and dust to bring the politics and lawlessness of the New Mexico Territory into sharp focus. There is a vignette in THE KID that is particularly striking, wherein two groups of deputized posses, representing divergent interests, attempt to serve warrants on each other. It might seem almost comical, like an outtake of Blazing Saddles, but it was deadly serious. Billy, of course, was in the middle of it, and his penchant for being in the wrong place at the wrong time contributed to his legend. It wasn’t so much that he killed people, whether in pursuit of gain or in self-defense; it was a given that when he was around, people died violently, regardless of whether or not he pulled the trigger.

"Has the topic been done to death? Maybe, and that is what makes Ron Hansen’s new treatment of William Bonney so impressive. The author, seemingly effortlessly, breathes new life into the legend and reality."

It was also part of the function of the times that loyalty was a commodity that could be bought and sold. So it was that the players in the game would change sides, with allies becoming adversaries (and vice versa). Think of a significant part of the development of the West as an ongoing game of buzkashi, with land as a substitute for the goat. Double-, triple- and quadruple- (yes) crosses occur with such rapidity that it is a wonder that anyone could be trusted, other than, ironically enough, William Bonney himself, who remained true to a rough, bent-but-not-broken code.

If there is a message in THE KID --- and Hansen is a master at showing rather than telling --- it is perhaps that Billy was no worse than those who pursued him at any given moment; he just zigged when he could have zagged one or two times too many. Another interpretation might be that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time on just too many occasions, thus becoming the object of a cautionary tale concerning the evil of bad companions. What is more or less undisputed is that, near the end, Billy became what he beheld.

This is not just Billy’s story, though. Colorful characters abound, the traces of some remaining among us to this day. Take Lew Wallace, the governor of the New Mexico Territory, who reputedly offered Billy a way out of his difficulties and then may have reneged on the deal --- if, in fact, there was a deal at all. There weren’t any cameras or recorders back then to trip up a lying politician, something of which professionals of all stripes, possibly including Wallace, took full advantage. If the Governor’s name sounds familiar, it should. In his spare time he wrote a novel titled BEN HUR: A Tale of the Christ, among other, less ambitious or successful works.

But it is Pat Garrett whose name and persona survive after well over a century. As we see in THE KID, the kismet that haunted Billy for a good deal of his existence rubbed off on Garrett, who placed himself in a difficult position and chose the path of lesser resistance. This is Garrett’s story, and more, from beginning to end. And, as Hansen indicates at the beginning of the book, most of what occurs therein is true.

One more thing before I ride off into the sunset. I would be remiss if I did not include a shout out and tip of the fedora to Hansen and his publisher, Scribner, for including an extended and extremely helpful list of the cast of characters of THE KID, as well as a number of maps of the New Mexico Territory detailing where the events described in the novel took place (Roswell, to name but one locale, was well known before the infamous crash of 1947). Thank you from readers everywhere, who occasionally lose track in a novel of who is doing what to whom, and when, and where. It makes this worthwhile book even more of a joy to read.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on October 14, 2016

The Kid
by Ron Hansen

  • Publication Date: November 21, 2017
  • Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Western
  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner
  • ISBN-10: 1501133306
  • ISBN-13: 9781501133305