Book Review – William W. Johnstone’s “Remember The Alamo”
On the eve of the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo Mission to Mexican General Santa Anna’s troops on March 6, 1836, I finished reading a modern day telling of the story that puts Texans against Mexican troops once again.
Jonhstone’s Remember The Alamo takes modern day tensions and places readers in the middle of a bloody political fight deep in the heart of Texas.
The action begins as Mexican extremists known as reconquistars gun down eight Border Patrolmen. This is followed by the bloody and horrific massacre of innocent American families attending a picnic outside of a VFW hall. In an attempt to calm the violence and essentially appease the Mexican extremists (a.k.a. terrorists), the Hispanic, vote-buying mayor of San Antonio and liberal President of the United States of America come up with the idea of handing over control of the Alamo Mission to the Mexican government, temporarily of course.
The belief is that showing the Mexican government respect by giving them control over an American icon, the extremists would refrain from further attacks and everybody will see that Americans and Mexicans really can work together. The problem is that in the book the Mexican government and military is corrupt and under control of the drug cartels, and those cartels fuel the extremists and a more sinister plan is afoot.
A plan that involves not returning the Alamo back to the Americans at the end of the treaty, instead declaring it to be Mexican property as well as large chunks of land allegedly stolen by the Americans during the Mexican-American War in the 1840s.
As we read along in Remember The Alamo, the sinister plan almost works.
The liberal media sides with the American president, and a massive spin effort takes place as honest citizens band together to try to thwart the reconquistars and fight for their beloved symbol of bravery. These citizens save innocent lives during the attempted capturing of the Alamo, are branded as terrorists by their own American president, and fight for their life as the Mexican army tries to storm the compound and kill them all.
Be warned — Remember The Alamo is a giant political message tied around a simple story. Oh, there are plenty of politics involved in this work of fiction.
Johnstone isn’t afraid to call out liberals and left-wing extremists in this story of standing up and doing what’s right, even if you know that doing so may result in your own death. There are enough political shots in this story to turn almost any liberal red in the face. The same is true for calling out members of the supposedly impartial media and exposing them for what most of them are —- blind liberals eager to please their political party companions and keep them in office.
Is this a story about a bunch of hick rednecks goin’ out and shootin’ Mexican ’cause they hate them? No way. A few of the Alamo defenders are Hispanics, and most of the Texans that come out for the rescue in the end are also Hispanics. But this certainly isn’t a racist story, nor does it glorify firearms or gun violence. This is about standing up and doing what’s right even if the path to do so is dangerous and potentially life-threatening.
Depending on how you receive your news and how many of the articles you actually read, this story may bore you because you already know of the border problems; it may scare you if you’re really concerned; or it may even entertain you as gun-toting Americans risk their life to protect a building, ignoring calls from their own police department to surrender peacefully.
Personally, I found the story a bit simplistic a times and it came to a really quick conclusion, but Remember The Alamo had enough elements to keep my attention going and those pages turning. The premise alone was fairly interesting albeit a bit hard to believe. Stereotypical characters were plentiful here, but the story was interesting, even with all of the modern day politics being repeated over and over again.
In general, Remember The Alamo was a fun read.
Perhaps I’ll keep an eye out for more of Johnstone’s work in the future. That is, as long as his other novels can focus on a story instead of a political message.
——————————————————
These reviews and much more are available at my other website, Chamber of Reviews!