The Reincarnation of Bennett McKinney by Steve From
Don't let the title fool you. The Reincarnation of Bennett McKinney is a cowboy book, a powerful novel of life lived to the fullest in twentieth-century America. The novel follows the adventures of five young cowboys on the rodeo circuit, starting in a Rapid City motel room and ending in a dingy, high plateau bunkhouse. In between, the reader experiences the exhilaration, danger, and sometimes pain and injury of being launched into the arena on the back of 2000 pounds of aggression. The tranquil interludes--a roundup and calf-branding in the Rocky Mountain foothills, family visits, and even a rodeo school--provide brief respite from the hard work, excitement and danger keeping the reader on the edge of the chair to the very last word. Steve From started riding bulls at age 15 in Ogallala, Nebraska. The author sums up his experience: "Second bull stomped on my chest and broke my collarbone and three ribs. Rode for 22 years (never did much good). Started fighting bulls in Queensland, Australia. I was over there rodeoing, dead broke, when a bullfighter from there I'd become friends with needed a partner so I jumped in with him. Been fighting ever since."
The Reincarnation of Bennett McKinney