About This Book
Did Davy Crockett die during the battle for the Alamo or was he captured and executed? The Trial of Davy Crockett presents a speculative dialogue between Crockett and Generalissimo Antonio López de Santa Anna, meeting in a clash of will and wit over the ideology of the Texan Revolution and American expansionism. The Trial of Davy Crockett presents a new Crockett, true to the original; a man embittered by his own failure, disenfranchised from the government he loved, a man forced to recognize his own shortcomings and those of his country. He is a man whose most supreme faith is brutally tested. Likewise, Santa Anna is presented in more depth and detail than any in fiction: This man is vain, erratic, perhaps slightly unhinged. But he is proud of his nation, determined to serve her at the expense of his own life. He is rightfully offended by many United States policies, especially as regards expansionism and slavery. He stands for what he believes is right, and in the expression of those beliefs we hear, finally, the Mexican perspective on the invasion of their country and the desecration of their way of life. The Trial of Davy Crockett is an unusual work in other ways: Nearly its entire length is occupied by a single scene. The POV is in the second person, but not told in that character's voice: it is instead a second-person limited omniscient viewpoint; rare in fiction. It is a trial which is not a trial, where the defendant is the jury and the punishment is life, not death. It forces the reader to entertain an internal conflict of emotion against intellect, dividing sympathy between two diametrically-opposed forces. It challenges the reader to reconsider his society and its place in history and his place within that society. It challenges history and convention. But it speaks of more than politics; it addresses the vanity that propels men to abuse each other for their own self-satisfaction, a condition which sadly out-lived all involved with the Alamo and will probably out-live us all. This Crockett is the truest to the actual David Crockett, showing him with all his foibles and those of his time; this was no demigod, but a man typical of his lowly times. Only in understanding the truth of his humanity can we appreciate his great leap into legend; only as men can the lives and deaths of these rebels help us understand our own motivations and actions, our own vanities and sacrifices. Is Crockett's character assaulted? No -- this is a more complex but more patriotic than any other in fiction; for only when faith is tested can it be said to be pure.
