Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993 TAG: 9302070239
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by JOAN SCHROEDER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
`LILY' WILL PLEASE WESTERN FANS
LILY. By Cindy Bonner. Algonquin. $17.95.Cindy Bonner's first novel is a nice piece of work: a serviceable Western and an old-fashioned love story rolled into one.
It's got all the right ingredients - good guys and bad guys, and some who are both; a domineering father and a plucky daughter; loyal horses and straight-shooting pistols; lovers on the lam and hot poker games.
Fifteen-year-old Lily DeLony is a motherless child, playing housekeeper for her father and brothers in the dusty Texas town of McDade in 1883. One day, on a trip into town, she catches the eye of Marion "Shot" Beatty, younger member of the notorious Beatty boys gang. Forsaking her well-meaning but dull suitor, Lily dreams of Shot, knowing he's forbidden fruit.
On a bitterly cold Christmas Eve, Lily's father joins a vigilante group riding against the Beatty boys. Christmas morning, three men are found swinging from trees. The die is cast: Lily runs away with Shot without a backward glance.
There's nothing especially surprising about this novel - nothing Gothic or magical or flashy. That's what makes it such an easy, quick read, refreshing in its predictable simplicity. You simply find a place on the sidelines and start cheering for Lily. You're obliged to use adjectives like "plucky" and "tough" when you describe her - the book's cover copy compares her to the heroine of Charles Portis' "True Grit." You've got to love her; she's never boring and she always tells the truth.
Author Bonner does make one misstep in her book: choosing to attach a three-page afterword explaining in exact detail which of the people and events in the book are historical truth and which are fiction. The fact is that truth and fiction become one in a good novel. It never occurred to me to question how much of "Lily" Bonner made up, because it all belongs and fits into the fictive world she creates so seamlessly.
Simply put, Cindy Bonner has written a touching, well-paced book. It won't set off high fireworks on the literary horizon, but it will quietly satisfy any reader looking for a nicely-written romantic Western tale to pass the long winter nights.
Joan Schroeder has a story in the anthology "Life on the Line."