Killing Cynthia Ann

by Charles Brashear

Kidnapped as a girl and raised by the Comanches, Cynthia Ann Parker is rescued by Texans she considers kidnappers and is determined to escape back to the Comanches.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875652093
• ISBN13: 9780875652092
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Heartbreaking end to a remarkable life

Cynthia Ann's story and that of her famous son Quanah are well known, but her tragic end is not. A wrenching testimony to what ignorance, prejudice, and well-meaning but thoughtlessly cruel intentions can do, Brashear's novel is highly recommended for history readers and serious students of Native American culture.

Great!

This was a great book, and I think it is enjoyable to read. I think if you want good books with more of a down-to-earth base, then you should read this.

Killing Cynthia Ann

This novel should be read as a part of our Texas history classes. It gives a wonderful perspective from the Indian point of view. It is the most moving novel I have read in a long time. Highly recommended!

Excerpts from some reviews

Excerpts from some reviews:from Midland (TX) newspaper, Nov 7, 1999: The story of Cynthia Ann Parker has become legend. Kidnapped from Parker's Fort near Mexia by raiding Comanches in 1836, she was completely assimilated into the Noconi band. She married tribal leader, Peta Nocona, and bore him two sons, Quanah and Pecos, and a daughter, Toh-Tsee-Ah. Late in 1860, she and toddler Topsannah, as the whites called her, were recaptured by Texas Rangers and returned to "civilization" and the extended Parker clan. Cynthia Ann never adapted to white culture. She was shunted from one Parker family member to another. Convinced she was a captive of the Texans, Cynthia Ann was determined to escape to the high plains and the Comanche way. The Parkers neither cared for nor understood Cynthia Ann's obsession with returning to her homeland and her people.from Judy Alter, The Bookish Frog, Fall 1999: ... an innovative novel about Cynthia Ann Parker. Just when we thought there are no new twists to that old story, Charles Brashear proved us wrong-in a novel with footnotes. (Don't ever say were are afraid to try something new!)from Amarillo News-Globe, Sunday, Dec 12, 1999, p. 19D: Two novels particularly suited for fireside reading are _____ and "Killing Cynthia Ann" by Charles Brashear.... this new book focuses on her life after her return to Anglo culture. Though presented as a novel, the story is well-researched. The book is even annotated, unusual for fiction.from Fort Worth Star Telegram, Sunday, Dec 5, 1999: Charles Brashear is a conscientious author who is careful of his sources. What he's done is search out the most authentic records available, then build a novel by filling in imaginary details of emotions, relationships, conversation and background. The fiction device gives the reader a historical overview of the period, plus a vivid picture of a woman who lived with constant, unhealable heartache.... I like the placement of historical notation along the side margins very much. They are less disruptive, easier to go to and return from, than footnotes at the bottom of the page.from Waco Tribune-Herald, Saturday, Nov 6, 1999 (Brazos Living, p. 8B) Brashear believes our interest in Cynthia Ann Parker more than a century after her death stems from a variety of reasons: our disbelief that someone could prefer another way of life to the American way; our collective guilt in the ultimate fate of American Indian cultures; and an unconscious desire for a simpler life, such as American Indians practiced. "Cynthia Ann's story of wildness keeps haunting us because we see in it a gross injustice that has never been righted. They killed the wildness in her, which we half suspect may have been the better part. And, while we may not be personally responsible, we feel a sort of communal guilt for the wrong done her," he explained.

pre-publication reviews

From LIBRARY JOURNAL, 1 Sep 1999: This novel might more accurately be titled Killing Náudah because when its central character is recaptured by Texas Rangers in 1860, having been abducted by Comanches 24 years earlier, she has long since ceased thinking of herself as Cynthia Ann Parker. Basing his fictional speculation on a careful reading of the historical record, Brashear chronicles the heartbreaking descent into despair of a proud woman who could not forget her warrior husband and two sons. With no one heeding her requests to be returned to her husband and sons or even to receive news of them, Parker finds images of their torture and death blending with her recollections of Comanche life. Uncomfortable with the tight clothing, unfamiliar language, and restrictive social customs of white society and rejected by much of her family, she finally begins a scheme to go back to the Plains. Public library patrons will appreciate this engrossing novel, which can also supply a personal perspective to supplement history texts.From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, 30 Aug 1999: Previous novels based on the sketchy history of Cynthia Ann Parker, the white mother of Quanah Parker, the legendary Comanche leader, have focused mainly upon her life among the Comanches, which began in May 1836, when the nine-year-old daughter of a Texas Ranger was taken captive by a Comanche raiding party. Brashear adheres to the facts, but goes further in imagining her inner life after she becomes a Comanche in spirit. Unlike other captives, who over the next five years are returned to their families, Cynthia Ann steadfastly refuses to be bartered back to white civilization. She marries Comanche Chief Peta Nocona and bears two sons and a daughter. In 1860, Cynthia Ann is seized-with her baby daughter, Toh-Tsee-Ah (anglicized: Topsannah)-by a band of Texas Rangers who massacre and mutilate a camp of Comanche women and children. Taken against her will to an elderly uncle near Fort Worth, she protests bitterly and begs to be returned to her Comanche family. Thwarted and grieving, she gradually withdraws deeply into herself, changing her name to She-Mourns, and making several unsuccessful attempts to escape from the mostly well-meaning but inadvetently cruel relatives where she is sent in succession. After Topsannah dies three years from her mother's recapture, Brashear depicts Cynthia Ann as becoming virtually catatonic; she dies in 1870. Brashear's research is impressive, and the members of the extended Parker family are fairly and carefully drawn. If his habit of rendering his heroine's speech in Comanche is distracting, he succeeds in conveying her anguish as an eternal exile. But the narrative drags on with needless detail, and Brashear's elaborate recreation of She-Mourns's inner life eventually leaves the reader numb.[Note: this reviewer apparently couldn't tell Comanche from Spanish, in which some of Cynthia Ann's dialog is rendered-with translation