Long Night of Winchell Dear [Hardcover]

Robert James Waller (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: GOLDEN BOOKS @ (1980)
• ASIN: B000N77PVM
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Romp From Versatile Writer, November 29, 2006

By 

Charles Glover - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Long Night of Winchell Dear: A Novel (Hardcover)

Fans of Madison County will be surprised and a little shocked by this book, but fans of all of Waller's books should appreciate it. After his first three romance books took off, Waller changed directions and started doing something few writers do... he started writing what he wanted to write and didn't hold to any one genre. While I like his love stories best, even the one contained in High Plains Tango (his most developed to date) I did enjoy "The Long Night of Winchell Dear."

Borrowing lyrics from his song "Blue Suspenders" from his excellent and underrated album "Ballads of Madison County," Waller creates Winchell Dear, a professional gambler with a checkered past and a few regrets. Dear lives on a ranch he won in a poker match. On this property also lives his maid, an American Indian, and a rattlesnake that is mentioned several times to foreshadow it is going to play some part in the story. Staying with the maid in her adobe is an aging Mexican drug runner. On the way to the ranch, for reasons left unexplained until the very end, are two comical stereotypical mob hitmen who banter back and forth and use language the average "Madison County" romance reader will likely find inappropriate. Waller builds up all of these characters, makes us care about them, and brings them all together in the end. He also introduces a few others along the way and tosses in a pinch of romance (but not quite enough to satisfy.)

As always, it takes a chapter or two to get used to Waller's style of writing. He skips from one character's point of view to the next without using section breaks. Some of the narrative and a little of the dialogue is clunky. It is kind of hard for a man who lived in Iowa all his life to move to Texas for a couple of years and pick up on the rough Texan vernacular, but Waller gives it his best shot. Some of it is kind of forced, as if lifted from old west movies from the forties, but once you get into the story you overlook things like that. And he misuses the term "ya'll." Northerners take note: "Ya'll" is PLURAL. No Texan is going to tell one person, "Ya'll want to go to the store?" The term means "You all," much like, "You guys" or "You's twos."

Aside from those minor complaints, the story is fast paced... I can see it being made into a pretty good movie. Waller's prose, as always, captures the winds and mystery of the rugged Texas night. He holds a great respect for the reclusive ways of life and the dreams that surround them. He captures the essence of his characters and doesn't disappoint. I look forward, as always, to his next one. And hopefully next time it will be another love story, as that is the kind of book he writes best.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not a good title for the book, February 20, 2007

By 

C. Hoffer (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Long Night of Winchell Dear: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book reads like a classic. The literary quality flows. It's unfortunate that a lot of people might not read the book because of the title. I'm a librarian so I get a chance to look beyond titles and summaries before I choose to read a book. I give books a chance to interest me. I'm very glad I did with this one. However, still I say, Winchell with the last name of Dear would of kept me off balance while reading the book because the last name (one word!) unknowingly sends a mixed message regarding the content. Everytime I read the word "Dear" my mind kept wanting to revert to light romance reads. There is a meaningful story inside this book and well worth the time it takes to read it. I hope the book doesn't become a "albatross" for the author.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A long night, indeed..., February 6, 2008

By 

jcro72 (Birmingham Al) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Long Night of Winchell Dear (Paperback)

The review by Charles was pretty accurate, however, I'd like to add my two cents. The plot was good, but I didn't like the way it was put together. I had a hard time with the setting; the story had a feel of the old west, but there were items mentioned that told you it took place in the here and now. There was a lot of attention paid to Dear's education in gambling. In fact, most of the book was about it. There were complete paragraphs and sections of pages I just skipped through because there was just too much detail. I thought the story was a bit slow. And what are the odds, even in a piece of fiction, that half of the players who came together (finally) in the end, not only had run into each other previously, but one was actually related? And what's the deal with 'the driver'? Why didn't he have a name? And was all the cursing really necessary? Something every once in a while when something went wrong I could handle, but every other word? So, if you like to gamble and know something about it and the terminology, and you like stories about drug runners and dumb thugs, this is the book for you.