Boone's Lick by Larry McMurtry. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. ISBN: 0-684-86886-5
After rereading McMurtry's Lonesome Dove sequel, Streets of Laredo a few blog entries ago, I decided to try some of his more recent stuff, and picked this title as a likely candidate. I was not disappointed. This is a rollicking western yarn, sure to be enjoyed by most anyone who picks it up.
Our protagonist (or at least the first-person voice through whom the story is told) is a teen trying to become a man, growing up along the Missouri River not too many years after the Civil War with his brother, G.T., sister, Neva, their Ma, and baby sister Marcie. Oh, I almost forgot Granpa Crackenthorpe and Uncle Seth.
Where's their Pa? He's a freight hauler, partner to Uncle Seth, who makes his living hauling freight to the new forts up in the north. He shows up for a few days every year or so, generally just long enough to put Ma back in the family way, although four of her babes lie in the cemetery nearby.
At the time our story begins, Pa hasn't been seen for 14 months, and Ma gets it into her head that she's going to take the entire family and go find him, and if he doesn't like it, tell him that she's leaving him. And thus the adventures begin. All told in the usual down-home humorous style for which the author is so famous.
This book may not be ha ha LOL funny, but it's definitely a comedy, with plenty to keep you amused along the way. Definitely recommended.
After rereading McMurtry's Lonesome Dove sequel, Streets of Laredo a few blog entries ago, I decided to try some of his more recent stuff, and picked this title as a likely candidate. I was not disappointed. This is a rollicking western yarn, sure to be enjoyed by most anyone who picks it up.
Our protagonist (or at least the first-person voice through whom the story is told) is a teen trying to become a man, growing up along the Missouri River not too many years after the Civil War with his brother, G.T., sister, Neva, their Ma, and baby sister Marcie. Oh, I almost forgot Granpa Crackenthorpe and Uncle Seth.
Where's their Pa? He's a freight hauler, partner to Uncle Seth, who makes his living hauling freight to the new forts up in the north. He shows up for a few days every year or so, generally just long enough to put Ma back in the family way, although four of her babes lie in the cemetery nearby.
At the time our story begins, Pa hasn't been seen for 14 months, and Ma gets it into her head that she's going to take the entire family and go find him, and if he doesn't like it, tell him that she's leaving him. And thus the adventures begin. All told in the usual down-home humorous style for which the author is so famous.
This book may not be ha ha LOL funny, but it's definitely a comedy, with plenty to keep you amused along the way. Definitely recommended.
posted by Will at
8:45 PM
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