Remember Santiago

In yet another of his outstanding chronicles of American history, Jones ( Roman ) vividly illuminates a turning point in the nation's consciousness. When Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders invaded Cuba in 1898, it marked ``the beginning of imperial America. . . . Now, by God, the sun would never set on Old Glory.'' Eben Pay, openminded U.S. attorney from Arkansas, and his bighearted Osage Indian sidekick Joe Mountain are both drawn into the war against Spain. Though the unlikely friendship between the protagonists seems somewhat forced, Jones's inspired rendering of the other characters more than compensates. Among them are Dylan Price, cracker-barrel philosopher of soldiering; prim Carlina Newton, who awakens to the blood-red horrors of war; her mentor, Red Cross nurse Clara Barton; and profane-mouthed Major General William Shafter, ``that great, sweating, inefficient man.'' Jones captures the cowardice, heroism and confusion, the jingoism whipped up by the press, troops dying of bullet wounds and typhoid in mosquito-infested jungles. Employing his assiduous research with panache, he spins a narrative crackling with authentic, gritty detail. (October)