Customer Reviews

Liar's Moon

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I initially read the book jacket, I thought it might be a good read, but I didn't immediatly buy it. Being born and raised in Philadelphia, I hadn't really felt any kinship with the Old West. Every trip thereafter to the bookstore, brought me back to the shelf where this book lay. Each time I would pick the book up and read a page or two, still not entirely sure. I thought it kind of eerie that each time I was called to that book. I was meant to read it. I was completely taken in after the first chapter. I read a chapter each day, savoring each one. After reading the entire book, I was sad it was over, it shouldn't end so soon. This is American folklore at it's best. Though folklore, it's an opportunity to reflect on our history, the way things were, or could have become. Philip Kimball deserves an award for this work. I'm happy to discover this treasure for my collection. It belongs with my Hemingways and Faulkners.

Kimball puts a new spin on folklore to serve up a quirky tale of the opening of the old West. The characters are an odd collection of common folk, each with a story that is more peculiar -- and enjoyable -- than the last. Throughout it all is a sense of resignation that an era is passing and a way of life is quickly fading away.

This is story telling at its best. Kimball weaves a captivating tale of the Old West, combining original stories and characters with legends. He weaves intricate scenarios then stretches them as tightly as an artist's canvas. Once readers start down the descriptive path of this novel, they'll become entangled until the last word.

Philip Kimball's book is perhaps the best American novel I have read for several years. Since I am a Hungarian reader, I have not known much about the intricate history of the Wild West, the development of the United States into the kind of mythical melting pot as it is often remembered. Liar's Moon is a balladaic story of that process told in a magically compelling prose style. Everything is in it: the frontiers, the Indians, the settlers, the religious missionaries, the buffalo soldiers, the cowboys, sex, fight, and clownery -- all with lyricism but without the usual American sentimentalism. I would say this is the best initiation for an European into the deep collective psyche of America; true, compelling and still pure fiction. An interesting additional feature: the narrative, perhaps unintentionally, plays on some hot issues of cultural theory. One of the key concepts is 'power', as several times spelt out in the book. The female-centered awareness of gender studies can also felt here: the book's most powerful characters are all women.

I would have thought that by now it would be impossible to write anything interesting and new about the settling of the American West. However, Kimball does just that. The way he tells a unified story from so many different angles is brilliant and engaging. As the novel progresses to its conclusion, the reader can feel right along with the characters how the eastern expansion starts to (literally) fence in the frontier. I've always enjoyed reading Cormac McCarthy's treatment of the same topic, but I enjoyed this book even more.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable epic trip to the old west. If you enjoy raunchy western characters, that parallel historic events, this is the book for you. Gravelly with realism, Liars Moon runs the gamete on what if scenarios. Two child infants one black one white, fall from a wagon, gone from their families ,then raised by coyotes. The lives and struggles of the families that lost them and yearn to recover them hold captive your imagination with vivid descriptions of the times and toils of the early west. The novel includes the settling of Nicodemus Kansas and one of the last cattle drives. I haven't enjoyed a western so much since Lonesome Dove. It's a good read and worth the investment.

A bit of magical realism infuses this story of the taming of the western frontier. Recounting the lives of a variety of characters, this compelling account focuses on what was lost and what it cost.

Liar's Moon is a joy from the first page. Filled with gripping tall tales, it is also beautifully written. A combination of oral folklore and down-to-earth realism unlike anything I've read before. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to feel the wind on the prairies again--or for the first time.

A bit of magical realism infuses this story of the taming of the western frontier. Recounting the lives of a variety of characters, this compelling account focuses on what was lost and what it cost.

Passion, pathos, intrigue, colorful characters, great stories told with a great rhythm and sense of timing and funnier than the Sunday comics. What more can a reader ask for? I really enjoyed it.