High Plains Tango - Large Print Edition [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Robert James Waller (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 506 pages
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart/Doubleday Lp; Large Print edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739455737
• ISBN-13: 978-0739455739
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,549,590 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it!, July 1, 2005

By 

Ellie (NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Plains Tango: A Novel (Hardcover)

The book is wonderful. There will, of course, be plenty of people who will say exactly what they've said about all of the author's work. That it's sentimental and romantic and fanciful, as if those were bad words or bad things. (If you think they are, then simply don't read the book. Choose something more cynical. There's plenty of it out there.) This book is about how individual lives, though seemingly so unconnected, intertwine and influence each other. It's about finding out who you are, and what your life is about. It's a story of discovering what really matters and deciding what's worth fighting for. It's both a sad commentary on the state of the country and the level at which, sadly it seems, most people live their lives. At the same time it's a reminder that there is much to be thankful for and much to be hopeful about. Waller has a way of writing characters so that they become not just characters, but people, and of turning their everyday lives from the simply mundane into the mythical. Sentimental or not, I'm so glad he still thinks it's worth doing, and doing so well.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something for everyone, August 5, 2005

By 

Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: High Plains Tango: A Novel (Hardcover)

Forget all the publicity about this title being a spinoff of "The Bridges of Madison County." Its tether to that book is quite thin, strung by the mere fact that Carlisle McMillan is the son of Robert Kincaid, photographer.

Carlisle McMillan is the kind of character who appeals to both male and female readers. He's masculine, he's sexy without being overtly so, and he does great work as a carpenter. This California boy somehow lands in the rural central U.S. plains and decides he likes the place. The plot follows a typical big-city-boy-settles-down-in-small-town-and-falls-in-love-with-hometown-girl format until the news gets out that an unnecessary interstate highway is planned to plow through Carlisle's new digs. Suddenly a casual romance turns into an environmental mission in which the bad guys wear suits and drive vehicles with official logos on the doors. Yes, Carlisle likes tango music and Susanna likes to do freeform naked gyrations on Wolf Butte, but it's the suits who take temporary center stage as they tapdance their way around ethical behavior. Once that battle is over, Life resumes, albeit just a bit differently.

Waller's descriptions are among the most vivid in literature today. But the book is not without its difficulties. The story unravels through several varying and overlapping viewpoints that might confuse the reader. The identity of the occasional first-person reporter is never revealed, which was personally frustrating to me. And though a heavy environmental message is thrust into the middle of the book, that segment winds up without a clear and satisfying conclusion. Nevertheless: decorated with a few Native American stories and mystical speculations, "High Plains Tango" is a decent read that can stand on its own merit.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waller still works his magic, August 15, 2005

By 

Jenny Epperson (Danville, KY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Plains Tango: A Novel (Hardcover)

I just finished reading HIGH PLAINS TANGO an hour ago, and I'm still swirling in all the imagery and sensuousness of the South Dakota setting and characters. Waller once again has helped me view my life in a much bigger perspective than I did before reading his book. For awhile at least, I will exist in a world of wild tangos, high plains, and all the attendant romance they encompass. For awhile, I can forget the heartbreaking truth that "the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation." Let's hope it will not be long before Waller offers another of his romantic, hauntingly beautiful, soul-touching novels.