Western Novels

[MalibuSheriff 1088]

As mentioned up thread - True Grit by Charles Portis.

Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter (book that Outlaw Jose Wales is based on).

Both are fantastic.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

On 5/15/2022 at 6:21 PM, Gil Bang said:

I also like CJ Box a lot.  And that's also now a TV series, although on an obscure channel.

Box' main character is a Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett. 

Both are "modern" westerns. 

I started reading the Joe Pickett series based on this thread. I've finished the first three books so far, and they are great. I also watched the first few episodes of the TV series. Let's just say I am really glad I started the books first. I don't think I would have wanted to if I saw the series first. It's pretty bad. 

[Gil Bang 25865]

44 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

I started reading the Joe Pickett series based on this thread. I've finished the first three books so far, and they are great. I also watched the first few episodes of the TV series. Let's just say I am really glad I started the books first. I don't think I would have wanted to if I saw the series first. It's pretty bad. 

I haven't seen the show, and I really don't have any desire to do so.  

For some reason, I was really excited about Bosch getting developed for TV, but this one doesn't do it for me. 

[WBT 20397]

Still working my way through the Elmore Leonard westerns and this was excellent:

[UncleBuck 6444]

About 20% into Lonesome Dove. Read Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon first, so the "differences" in the past are interesting. I made laughing tears reading the part about the creation of the Hat Creek sign. A book has never done that to me. 

[UncleBuck 6444]

Speaking of Lonesome Dove.... your QB:

 

 

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

On 8/30/2022 at 2:20 PM, WBT said:

Still working my way through the Elmore Leonard westerns and this was excellent:

I just finished the three books in the Raylan series. Not really westerns. But they were decent enough. I need to check out this one. 

[billfromlaketravis 11352]

On 7/12/2022 at 12:08 PM, Seasick Sailor said:

I read Streets of Laredo a while back. It was fine, but paled in comparison to Lonesome Dove. I have Dead Man's Walk in my TBR pile. I hope it's better. 

Streets of Laredo starts off pretty sluggish. I have about 3 hours left on the audiobook, and I’m enjoying it. It is pretty bleak. Feels like an over correction from McMurty. He set out to write the anti-Western in Lonesome Dove. It of course was adapted into the beloved mini-series and became a classic Western. So McMurty just kills off all of our favorite characters within the first few chapters. 
 

It kind of reminds me of The Sopranos. David Chase hates the mafia, but he created the greatest mob show ever. 

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

13 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Streets of Laredo starts off pretty sluggish. I have about 3 hours left on the audiobook, and I’m enjoying it. It is pretty bleak. Feels like an over correction from McMurty. He set out to write the anti-Western in Lonesome Dove. It of course was adapted into the beloved mini-series and became a classic Western. So McMurty just kills off all of our favorite characters within the first few chapters. 
 

It kind of reminds me of The Sopranos. David Chase hates the mafia, but he created the greatest mob show ever. 

Bleak is a perfect way to describe it, and I agree it feels like an overcorrection.

I just finished the Dead man's Walk audiobook. I enjoyed it much more than SoL. I am looking forward to listening to Comanche Moon next. 

[billfromlaketravis 11352]

40 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

Bleak is a perfect way to describe it, and I agree it feels like an overcorrection.

I just finished the Dead man's Walk audiobook. I enjoyed it much more than SoL. I am looking forward to listening to Comanche Moon next. 

Dead Man’s Walk is next on the list.

Streets of Laredo thoughts: 

- Of course LM has to kill off Clara in the epilogue. Because why not? Already killed everybody off.

- Call’s super power appears to be persistence. You get a hint of it in Lonesome Dove, but he’s just an old grumpy bastard too stubborn to die. 

- I like Pea Eye and Lorena’s story line. Good, healthy family. Maybe the kids will lead peaceful lives without extreme violence and trauma.

- I liked all of the supporting cast of characters. Famous Shoes, Billy, Goodnight, Brookshire, Roy Bean, and Ben Lilly.

- I guess Maria is Lorena on the other side of the border that never got out of her shitty hometown. She didn’t get a happy ending.
 

- I was ok with villains Mox-Mox and Joey Garza, but they’re pretty 1 dimensional. Just evil for the sake of being evil. I guess we get some back story on why Joey broke bad. Mox-Mox I guess was created out of LM’s imagination. Oh by the way there’s a guy more evil than Blue Duck in his gang, but LM didn’t bother to mention him in Lonesome Dove. 
 

- John Wesley Hardin has much more developed and has interesting dialogue. I guess Texas’ most notorious outlaw is easier to write.

- I liked the epilogue especially after such a bleak beginning, middle, and most of the end. Pea and Lorie make it home to raise their kids. Call finds meaning again through Teresa and sharpening blades. 
 

Question for the thread, what’s the best book on Loving and Goodnight?

[atomheartbevo 89362]

On 6/20/2022 at 4:55 PM, Kennythetiger said:

Last picture might be from “The Shadow Riders”. 

Yep, I stand corrected, Sam had darker hair and a beard in Sacketts.  Selleck kinda looked the same.  Speaking of the cast, Sacketts had a great fucking cast.

A great fucking cast.   Glenn Ford as Tom Sunday.  Ben Johnson as Cap Rountree.  Jack Elam as Ira Bigelow.  Slim Pickens as Jack Bigelow.  Mercedes McCambridge as Ma Sackett.  Ruth Roman.  Buck Taylor.

[tomahawk dunk 318]

On 5/30/2018 at 8:23 PM, SilasCoade said:

The walking drum for me. As for the LL Westerns Comstock lode is great. More colonial than Western but To The Far Blue Mountains and Jubal Sackett are too five for me.

Loved the Walking Drum as well.

[tomahawk dunk 318]

On 11/19/2018 at 2:38 PM, Ten Bears said:

I have found several good western books by reading the credits of movies where they list what the movie was based on.  Three of the better ones were:

Little Big Man

Dances with Wolves

The Outlaw Josie Wales

 

Elmer Kelton's The Time it Never Rained was set in 1950's West Texas, but I consider it a western.  Damn good book.  He wrote a bunch of decent pulp Westerns too.

 

 

 

 

Really enjoyed time it never rained. Almost finished reading The Way of the Coyote by Kelton. It’s been great. Really covers a fair amount of the Comanches in Texas and does so accurately, I feel. Great and underrated writer.

[billfromlaketravis 11352]

Yeah, Dead Man’s Walk isn’t an improvement over Streets of Laredo. 
 

Congrats LM you did it again, killed off every character except for Gus and Call. That said, Buffalo Hump is an interesting villain. 
 

The ending is the most troublesome. LM painted himself into a corner. Gus and Call are stuck in a leper colony outside of El Paso. They can’t take a rocket ship back to Austin, so they do the next best thing. Haha, Lady Carey. A leper ex pat with plenty of money to outfit an expedition. I’d like to read the editor’s notes on her character. 

[billfromlaketravis 11352]

Any Fort Davis/Alpine/Marfa surly guys out there? I’m confused on why Larry McMurty writes the Far West Texas like it’s Antarctica. Based on median temperature charts, it looks like Marfa has pretty mild winters.

I understand much of Comanche Moon, Streets of Laredo, and Dead Man’s Walk takes place in the Baldy’s so elevation is involved, but surely Gus and Call would have had better weather. Months of constant ice storms doesn’t sound right for Texas. The weather would have broke at some point and they’d catch a warm day. 

[billfromlaketravis 11352]

I just finished Comanche Moon. I’d rank it a distant second after Lonesome Dove with Streets of Laredo and Dead Man’s Walk bringing up the rear. 
 

Captain Skull in Comanche Moon is probably the third most interesting character of the series. I’d read the hell of a Skull Civil War book. His wife is pretty interesting too. 
 

I think McMurty did a really good job of writing about Comanche and Kickapoo culture? I know he was an avid reader, so I assume he read dozens if not hundreds of books on the subject before he wrote Buffalo Hump, Kicking Wolf, and Fancy Shoes. 

[baboso 6047]

Famous, not Fancy, Shoes.

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Not really a western i suppose, but I guess there's not better thread to discuss McMurtry. I just finished Terms of Endearment and thought it was excellent. Aurora Greenway is one of McMurtry's best characters. Some of the Rosie/Royce stuff dragged a bit, but, overall, I thought the book was very well done. Has anyone read the other books in his Houston series?

[jdhorn92 1535]

On 4/12/2018 at 12:48 PM, F250 said:

If anyone is a fan of the Western genre please provide some recommendations. I've read the Lonesome Dove series a couple of times and these are my favorite to date but there are still a lot books out there I haven't read. If there are any other similar series out there worth reading please let me know.

I've read most of Elmore Leonard's westerns which I would recommend. I've also read Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Trails and Rainbow Trail as I've been told they are a must read if you appreciate the genre. I also read Cormac McCarthy's works but those really are not my cup of tea. The Crossing felt like someone in a deep depression wrote it while tripping on acid after getting lost in Mexico.

Never picked up a Louis L'Amour book because they seem to give off a romance novel vibe. Anyone read these?

The Son, great book about a multi-generational family along the Texas-Mexico border.  Combines a modern story with 1900 era cattle/Cowboy feud that bubbles over to the current family saga, very good.   Cormac's  Blood Meridian is a hard read but its about as western as it gets.  If you want an Indian slant, Empire of the Summer Moon is an outstanding Comanche/early Texan oral history.

[F250 28659]

8 minutes ago, jdhorn92 said:

The Son, great book about a multi-generational family along the Texas-Mexico border.  Combines a modern story with 1900 era cattle/Cowboy feud that bubbles over to the current family saga, very good.   Cormac's  Blood Meridian is a hard read but its about as western as it gets.  If you want an Indian slant, Empire of the Summer Moon is an outstanding Comanche/early Texan oral history.

I've read The Son and Blood Meridian not Empire of the Summer Moon. That one has caught my attention before but I've haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

[jdhorn92 1535]

1 minute ago, F250 said:

I've read The Son and Blood Meridian not Empire of the Summer Moon. That one has caught my attention before but I've haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Its been awhile since I read The Son, was my description close?  Layered story?

I read BM based on recommendations on this thread, its a ball-breaker to read and i will likely need to read again as there were many passages that went right over my head.

[F250 28659]

35 minutes ago, jdhorn92 said:

Its been awhile since I read The Son, was my description close?  Layered story?

I read BM based on recommendations on this thread, its a ball-breaker to read and i will likely need to read again as there were many passages that went right over my head.

Yeah, fairly close but I would say The Son also strips away the mythology of Texas by covering the more horrific history that occurred but is rarely discussed. My family on both sides were Hispanic ranchers in SE Texas and I grew up with the oral history of some of the things covered in The Son.