Customer Reviews

The Last Cattle Drive

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At last, a fiction set in Kansas that gets the state out of the old "Wizard of Oz" trap! I grew up in the Hays area and moved to Lawrence several years ago, so it was sheer delight to see places I've always been familiar with, e.g. Betty's Cafe in Gorham, Dirty Dan's, Brookville Hotel, gain notice in popular fiction. This book captures so well the contrast between eastern and western Kansas -- the snobs versus the hicks, the suburbs of Johnson County against the flat horizon of Gorham, the rushed noise of mechanized diesel, such a part of the industrialized world, against the solitude and stillness of the High Plains. The people around the Hays area whom Day describes are based on real folks, and in some cases ARE real folks, though I think he exaggerates their crudity and profanity excessively. I recall working for ranchers and farmers who remind me a lot of Spangler Tukle. And the main character's clash with a film crew is based on the trouble that the crew of "Paper Moon" had with locals when they shot that movie in northwest Kansas in the early 1970s. As the cattle drive commences and works its way toward Kansas City, the reader is swept along the plains landscape adjoining I-70, beautiful little spots that most tourists miss as they set their cruise controls, race through the state, and see only enough to confirm their prejudice of Kansas as a flat, character-less place. The ending seems to synthesize the two worlds of country and city, with cowboys driving their herd into the KC stockyards over expressways and interchanges, and city people lining the route to welcome them as heroes. To my knowledge, no such cattle drive ever took place, and I suspect the residents of KC, Missouri would react more with horror than with the fanfare presented here to see tons of hoofed beef clopping down their streets. But this book, after all, is fiction. Thanks, Prof. Day, for what hopefully will become an enduring classic on twentieth-century Kansas and Kansas people.

I originally purchased this book because it was required reading for a college course. Much to my suprise, it became one of my favorite books. The story revolves around a cattle drive taking place during the 1970's. Though exagerated, the characters ring true - particularly if you've ever spent any time in midwestern farm county. I've loaned this book to so many people the cover has fallen off, and I've always received positive feedback from those who have borrowed the book. It's a great read!

Anyone who has lived around cattle, horses, and the people who work them knows these characters under a different name. Same is true of the dialog. The author has done a great job bringing these things to life.

I am a native of Kansas and am familiar with the part of Kansas where this story takes place. The book had me laughing all the way and the characters ring true. A real gem.

This book is true classic. It is a hilarious account of cattle drive across modern day Kansas. The book is written from the perspective of an city boy who has just graduated from college and takes a job teaching at a small town in western Kansas. He takes a job with a local rancher for extra pay and ends up driving cattle across Kansas. Its more than about cattle but a lot about the characters found on the Great Plains. The route will be a familiar one to Kansans but the drive will be one never to forget for anyone else reading the book.

This is an excellent book if your from anywhere near Hays Kansas and the surrounding area. Heck it is probably a great book no matter where your from. I've lost my copy and have thought about buying another just so I can share it with people. Maybe a red tomato beer is what you need to drink while reading this.

Several of the scenes in this book are hilarious. While it is set in Kansas, you don't have to be a rancher or a Kansasan to appreciate this work.

If you want a well written, highly entertaining and truly funyny book, this is your baby. The story centers around Spangler Terkel a modern day cattleman in Hayes Kansas and his misguided efforts to drive 250 steers to Kansas City. His misadventures are many and range from hilarious to heartbreaking. By the time the book is finished you will haave become good friends with allof the characters and will miss them when you p;ut the book down.

Barry Davis University of Kansas class of 1951

I just can't think of a book I've ever enjoyed more, in my last two decades, and I've read all kinds of things in my adult life.

I'm 45. In my college years at the University of Kansas in the late 70s, I kept hearing about this book, but it *sounded* kinda boring, so I never bothered reading it. I wish I had -- it's a great book. I wouldn't have felt so alone.

I've lived in kansas most of my life, and the character sketches Day makes of his book people -- especially Spangler and Opal Tukle, and Jed, and the farmers and ranchers that they meet along the way to Kansas City -- are so well formed! And funny! And the depictions of Kansas as being far away from real civilization are dead on, too -- like the non-degreed teachers at the protagonist's school just laughing and throwing away the new dictum from the state, saying that all teachers have to be degreed and certified. That would have happened in Kansas!

Great, great book. The only person I didn't like was the protagonist -- he was a whiny, spoiled little ingrate, I thought, not much better than the awful Harold -- but despite that, I loved the book.

I have started my Christmas shopping and ordered this for my son-in-law. I'm sure he will enjoy it. This looks to be right up his alley (chimney).