"At the end of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, on the eve of the Civil War, Huck and Tom Sawyer decide to escape 'sivilization' and 'light out for the Territory.' In Robert Coover's [book], also 'wrote by Huck,' the boys do just that, riding for the famous but short-lived Pony Express, then working as scouts for both sides in the war ... This period, from the middle of the Civil War to the centennial year of 1876, is probably the most formative era of the nation's history. In the West, it is a time of grand adventure, but also one of greed, religious insanity, mass slaughter, virulent hatreds, widespread poverty and ignorance, ruthless military and civilian leadership, huge disparities of wealth. Only Huck's sympathetic and gently comical voice can make it somehow bearable"--Amazon.com.