Billy The Kid [Paperback]

Elizabeth Fackler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2003

When young Englishman John Tunstall arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, in 1876, he felt he had found the true frontier at last. Here was the toughest little spot in America, and he jumped eagerly into the game of getting rich. Lawyer McSween coated his own ambition with pious motives, but his worldly wife predicted disaster. Their marriage, and McSween's alliance with Tunstall against the local kingpin of the corrupt Santa Fe Ring, set the fuse for the bloody Lincoln County War. In the explosion of violence that followed, Billy Bonney slowly rose from obscurity to become 'the' Kid of American legend. This is how it happened.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With his cold smile, youthful charm and blazing six-guns, Billy the Kid (1859-1881) was, depending on who you talk to, a popular hero, a vicious killer or both. Fackler's third novel (after Backtrail) tends to glorify the Kid's legacy, portraying Billy as basically a good boy, a loyal friend and a victim of corruption and betrayal. The New Mexico Territory in the 1870s was a violent place where bullets settled most disputes?and Billy liked the simplicity of that. Henry McCarty, aka Kid Antrim, William H. Bonney and Billy the Kid, was a drifter and small-time cattle rustler who joined forces with the Tunstall-Chisum faction in the bloody Lincoln County War, fighting against the powerful Murphy-Dolan gang. In Fackler's telling, when Billy's friend, John Tunstall, is murdered by a Dolan posse, Billy vows revenge and cowboys start dropping all over the range. Billy and his saddle pals, dubbed "Regulators," are soon on the run from the law. Fackler's Billy is a likable hero, adored by the local folk but feared by the murderous Murphy-Dolan gunslingers. Finally, he is tracked down by his erstwhile friend Sheriff Pat Garrett, who, according to the author, shoots Billy dead while the Kid is unarmed. This is an exciting tale, crammed with historic detail and told with skill, action and a bit of whimsy.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"An exciting tale, crammed with historic detail and told with skill, action, and a bit of whimsy." -- Publishers Weekly

"Fackler recognizes the enduring appeal of Billy’s brand of individualism run amok, but she tempers the romance with reality." -- Booklist

"Relies on letters, court records, and eyewitness accounts while filling in the holes with plausible fiction and realistic dialogue...." -- Kirkus Reviews

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Sunstone Press (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865344019
• ISBN-13: 978-0865344013
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,601,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Billy The Kid, February 23, 2004

By 

Neil Flowers (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Billy The Kid (Paperback)

I'm a writer and actor who became interested in Billy The Kid and the events of the Lincoln County War in southeastern New Mexico when I played Pat Garrett in a production of Michael Ondaatje's play "The Collected Works of Billy The Kid", based on Ondaatje's poetic "novel" of the same name.

Over the last twenty years, I've visited the town of Lincoln, NM, on several occasions, talked with many of its inhabitants, and I think I've read every major historical work and most of the reputable works of fiction written about Billy and the war. I've seen a goodly protion of the movies, too; every single one of them laughable or lamentable, except for the director's cut of Sam Peckinpah's film, and even it has episodes that make you cringe.

Since 1973 there has been an astonishing amount of first-rate, genuine historiography done on The Kid, Garret, and the Lincoln County War. It is obvious from her novel that Ms. Fackler has read and thoroughly assimilated all of these recent histories. Consequently, if you have any interest in the Wild West, or Billy particularly, or just American history in general, or good writing, you have to read "Billy The Kid: The Legend of El Chivato," since the author puts all of this together in a very readable way. Also, her take on Billy is immensely sympathetic, well-rounded and most believable.

Even if this period has never attracted you, the novel is worth the time to read. I am not a big fan of historical novels, but it's a remarkable fact that in the long history of imaginative material about Billy there are hundreds of works including the ballet set to Copeland's music, and of them only one that I know of that is of any substance is written by a woman, Ms. Fackler, and her book is so much better, so much more thorough, so much more subtle and political and understanding and tender and detailed than all the rest put together (Mr. Ondaatje's work is in a sort of category of its own).

I have the hardcover, but her novel was published in a cheap paperback a few years ago; if you come across it, don't let the lurid cover that belongs more on a bodice ripper put you off. I see on Amazon that there is now a new paperback, more upscale, that has a cover more appropriate to the excellent writing and the nature of the material.

I highly recommend this book. It is certainly one of the greatest novels of the Wild West ever written, and it seems closer to the truth abut Billy than anything else we're ever likely to get.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST telling of a GREAT story, May 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Billy the Kid: The Legend of El Chivato (Hardcover)

I have read just about everything about Billy and the Lincoln County War, and this book is the best, and in my opinion, most accurate portrait of those times. Ms. Fackler's use of dialogue is compelling and real. The characters in this story have never been more alive for this reader, and the author's ability to weave all of the complex elements involved truly puts this work on the level of masterpiece. John Henry Tunstall, Alexander McSween, Susan McSween, James J. Dolan, Pat Garrett, Billy, and even the "minor" characters, are all clearly drawn. A book of this size and scope is usually read over the course of days or weeks, but the flow of action and language the author skillfully constructs kept me riveted to my chair until I finished reading. This is, undeniably, not only a great work of historical fiction, but a great work of fiction. If you enjoy reading a great story told with the utmost skill and passion, you must read this book. And I guarantee, you'll read it more than once. It is that good! Bravo Ms. Fackler!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling "can't put it down" character study., January 13, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Billy the Kid: The Legend of El Chivato (Hardcover)

Ms. Fackler is capable of getting into the minds of those who lived in the past and making them come alive in the pages of her book. Not only does she create a fascinating character study of "the Kid", she gives an accuarate picture of all those events that launched him into infamy. Her account of the Lincoln County War was presented in a manor that made me believe that I was actually experiencing it as it must have happened. This book is not just for fans of western novels. It is for everyone who enjoys an intelligently written and highly entertaining novel. Pat Fitzgeral