Customer Reviews

The James Boys: A Novel Account of Four Desperate Brothers

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The James Boys is not only a very funny book -- and it is that -- but also a book that tickles your brain in unexpected ways. It plays with history and what was and what could have been so that I started wondering what I really knew and what I just imagined. The sometimes deadpan approach and scholarly references put you in one kind of mood, then the slapstick collisions between the characters hit you and turn you in a different direction. It's cinematic in its ability to create different moods and absurdist in the way it brings the characters from one point to another. At the same time, it explores the worlds and accomplishments of the major characters -- all the real Jameses -- in enough detail so that you could write a good SAT essay from what you learn assuming you can separate what happened from what didn't. I hope they make it into a movie because it would make a great one.

Prepare to enjoy yourself - The James Boys is a rapid fire tour de force, a whimsical, winning imagined look at our country in the 19th century.

For starters, forget pairing notorious outlaws the James brothers with the Younger brothers - it is now totally the James brothers, four, an unlikely quartet if there ever was one. Just imagine, if you can, that intellectuals William and Henry James discover that Frank and Jesse are their brothers, lost to them during the Civil War and now found. Liebmann-Smith brilliantly mixes fact and fiction to keep us listening intently and laughing uproariously.

Our story opens in 1876 with Henry not only riding a train to St. Louis but also riding the cusp of success. He's just had one of his novels serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, an occurrence in which he takes great pride - that is until a fellow passenger, the pretty and to-be wealthy Elena, sits reading said magazine and pronounces his piece "Dreadful."

Well, that's quite enough to ruin one's day but thanks to the fecund imagination of Liebmann-Smith that's just the beginning - the train is robbed by Jesse James who takes his long lost brother prisoner. Henry once wrote in a letter, "It's a complex fate, being an American...." His fate is not only complex but comedic once in the hands of gunslinger Jesse.

Liebmann-Smith's judicious use of historical fact as he artfully positions it with his tongue-in-cheek narrative is both erudite and entertaining - a gem to be enjoyed and shared with friends.

Author/composer, actor Malcolm Hillgartner (remembered for his aces reading of American Gangster), gives a thoroughly delightful narration of this irresistible tale. His voice is low, well modulated with just a tad of huskiness, which makes for very pleasant listening. He seems to have as much fun as the author as he segues from character to character.

- Gail Cooke

That's what one hears during a lecture at Harvard by the psychologist William James, a 'true history' event fictionalized by the presence of outlaws Frank and Jesse James, whom author Richard Liebmann-Smith has "discovered" to be the lost younger sons of Henry James Senior, Wilky and Robby. The snores come from the semi-fictionalized tycoon Asa Hite, father of the nymphomaniac Elena 'Phoenix' Hite who is mid-career in the seduction of all five Jamesian progeny. "Odobenidan" refers to the genus of walruses: a cool coinage, if you relish such things. Me, I had to look it up. There are more than a few words in this parody of academic biography which most readers will need to look up. The book IS a parody; it's intended as such. Every four or five pages, the author reminds us of his satiric intentions by lapsing into "rough" language - vulgarity, slang, dialect - in jarring contrast to the dry, pedantic style of narrative he affects throughout most of the text. Likewise, the author delights in catching the elder Jameses - William and Henry - "with their pants down". One has to suspect that Liebmann-Smith harbors a grudge against the novelist brother - a grudge the average reader is not unlikely to share, based on memories of homework assignments in high school and/or seminar sessions in college - since he never misses a chance to depict Henry in the most humiliating circumstances. That, I think, is what people who like this book have liked best about it, its snarky irreverence.

The contrafactual parody is maintained with impressive thoroughness; one has to congratulate Liebmann-Smith on such sustained effort, but the question is really whether the effort is worthwhile. The 'joke' wears thin (at least it did for me) less than halfway through the book. The humor is only moderately funny, based as it is on mockery of pretentiousness that requires a "Harvard education" to be appreciated. Honestly, if you don't already have at least a modicum of knowledge about the James dynasty, if you haven't read a couple of Henry James's novels and taken a look at William James's version of psycho-philosophy, I can't conceive why you would find this book interesting. Do NOT expect to find serious insights into either of the James brothers works; neither Henry nor William were quite the figures of absurdity depicted here.

The other two James Brothers - the famous bank and train robbers Frank and Jess - are probably more accurately portrayed, apart from the contrafactual whimsy of making them the lost siblings of William and Henry. Liebmann-Smith's research into their careers is solid; I checked several of the more astounding bits of it against sources. But the historical context of their careers, the larger picture of post-Civil War violence, is shallowly presented. The two outlaws are once again "sold" to us as 'dime-novel heroes' with the sorts of eccentricities that would endear them to the hyper-educated 'Eastern' reader.

There are quite a few scholarly biographies of Henry, William, Alice, and Henry Senior, and some of them are elegantly enough written to outshine this eventually quite silly little book. To be frank, I'd start with one of them.

This book is a delighful read. Fact and fiction collide with hilarious results. Richard Liebmann-Smith is clearly an extremely intelligent writer with a wonderful sense of humor.

Not at all too "academic," as an earlier reviewer says. Liebmann-Smith gives nineteenth-century American literature just what it's always needed: a sexually active (and how!) woman hight Hite, just like the Hite (Sheree) who did so much for sex in our time.

This is an amazing book that takes an interesting premise and makes it real. Leibman-Smith can turn a phrase and his sparkling sentences stay with you after the book is done. If you're looking for a great intellectual and entertaining read - you've found it. Can't wait for his next book.

The construct of this book is fabulous and it is so much fun to read, I laughed out loud, something i rarely do with the books these days.Please read this book, you will be so glad.

The novel was an original idea and a creative premise, with some true entertainment value at times. Unfortunately, I didn't consider it nearly as funny as the author probably intended, and as some other reviewers enjoyed. Perhaps I am not as familiar with the two sets of Jameses as I needed to be in order to get inside jokes or whatever.

The fictional Elena Hite is the center of the story, bridging the easter and western twosomes with entanglements of various types. She is gorgeous, sexy and active, and an early feminist of some interest, but not developed enough to be compelling.

The novel got off to a bad start by a discussion of William James and masturbation that set the wrong tone and was unnecessary.

This was a selection for my reading discussion group. For the very first time in ten years, nobody in our group enjoyed reading the book. The James Boys got all thumbs down. One member said she wanted to strangle the author. I don't usually write negative reviews, but since I chose this one based on good reviews, I thought I should balance it out. Don't choose it for a book group until you've read it yourself.

While the subject matter has been well-researched, the story is a bit strained. Humor is not the word that comes to mind when reading this book. Contrived? Yes! If you have an interest in any of the four historical characters (particularly Henry and William), the book will hold some interest for you. However, expecting anything beyond some historical insights into Henry and William may set you up for serious disappointment.