23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-written story of conflict on the open range. . ., August 1, 2004
Kelton's novel has some of the ingredients of pulp western fiction - big ranchers against the little guys, justice at the end of a rope, an honorable hero wearing a sheriff's badge - but he brings a great deal of insight, experience, and historical background to the task of telling this story. It is enjoyable and full of well-drawn characters and unexpected turns of plot from beginning (a squabble over the brand on a cow) to the end (a gripping courtroom drama).
The title suggests that the book might be a more light-hearted story that focuses on the cowboy strike of 1883, but Kelton's aim is to explore the more complex psychology of the men who live by the Code of the West. The ill-fated strike is over before we are well into the book, and the author focuses on the unexpected and far-reaching results of its aftermath. Like many books about the West, this one is about loss and the passing of an era. The cowboy way of the open rangeland is quickly disappearing as settlers move in and towns spring up, the cattle business falls under the influence of venture capital from the East, and rough justice must give way to law and order.
Most enjoyable for this reader is the characterization of its main character, Hitch, a single cowboy in his thirties for whom circumstance, loyalty, and honor lead him out of a job he loves and into harm's way, until he reluctantly assumes a role of no small responsibility and risk in the new social order on the Texas plains. Not the fearless hero of standard cowboy fiction, Hitch has a good many conflicting feelings,he's more diplomatic than quick with a gun, and his actions require considerable courage.
Kelton's rural Texas background and knowledge of frontier history clearly come through in the many details that enrich the tale he tells. He notes a horse's dislike for flapping laundry on a clothesline. The cowboys drink more strong coffee than whiskey. He realistically describes a man's slow, painful recovery from being pistol-whipped. A man angrily observes the terror of a cowboy who wet his britches as he was being hanged for thievery. And there is much about managing cattle on the open range and the complicated, neverending process of ensuring their ownership.
I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the historical West, cowboys, roundups and branding, frontier social history, the landscape of the plains, frontier justice, the Code of the West, and the struggle for political power and shifting alliances in changing times. Kelton's book is well-written, with memorable characters, and a fair share of suspense.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Red Letter Read!, September 26, 2001
"The Day the Cowboys Quit" goes down as a red letter day for western fans! This Spur Award winner by Elmer Kelton is one of his all-time best. His hero, Hugh Hitchcock, is caught between the cowboys he ramrods and the rancher he admires. But when the local cattle barons lay down their own brand of range law by refusing to permit working cowboys to own their own cattle, a strike ensues. The result is a gritty and honest story of real men in desperate times that ranks in the Top 10 westerns ever penned. If you like your westerns confrontational where justice is served in unpredictable fashion, you will love "The Day the Cowboys Quit!"
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very realistic look at cowboy life on the plains of Texas, September 5, 1999
By A Customer
this book takes place on the plains of Texas. And shows a passage between the "good ol' days" and the new times ahead. Cowboys are pitted against ranch owners, who start to consider the cowboys more like machines then people. The ranchers post a series of "written rules", that in effect greatly angers the cowboys. Most of the Cowboys in response quit or leave their ranch, to join up in a stike. The stike fails to acomplish it immediate goals, but in the long run, creates a ripple that will change everything. This book was well written, and is able to capture the essence of being a cowboy. this book is based on an actual stike that took place in Texas at a similar time. But since the history books only show brief accounts of the strike, and only that of the ranchers view. The Author based the book "loosely" on the facts, so that he could create a more objective view. This is a fantasic book, I recomend you buy it
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