Customer Reviews

The Outlaw Josey Wales

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I'm a big proponent of judging an author by his work. Whatever ideals author Forrest Carter espoused, or whatever deceptions he perpetrated, during his life, you can't deny his powerful storytelling. A perfect example is The Outlaw Josey Wales (also published under the title Gone to Texas).

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a sneaky kind of "sleeper" novel. At first it didn't seem to be affecting me, but before I knew it, it was over, and I was eager to revisit the characters. (A sequel, The Vengeance Trail of Josey Wales, is also available.)

Carter ensures that we sympathize with this feared outlaw (he seems to be notorious wherever he goes) by giving us some history. Josey Wales was a farmer and family man. But when he found his cabin and family burned black by red-leg raiders, he became one of the Missouri guerillas, the first gunfighters, considered enemies of the Union. Carter shows Wales's other aspects subtly in how he deals with other people: the young boy Jamie Burns; Lone, the Indian who becomes his "brother"; and the two women he saves from Comancheros and who ride with them.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is not action-packed, though plenty happens. It's a portrait of a man not easily understood. Ed Sala reads the audiobook version with a similar approach -- seeming to not put too much of himself in the characters, in order to allow the listeners to put more of ourselves into their places. This is one of those novels that reveal more on subsequent readings, a modern classic.

Having almost always recommended reading the novel before seeing the film, I wish I would have done so. Clint Eastwoods' classic film is outstanding, but the novel still adds elements that the film did not possess.

Forrest Carter pens a novel, much like other well regarded books such as To Kill A Mockingbird, that builds up sympathy for Josey Wales inspite of his reputation. A 'regular' guy before his outlaw years, he could be anyone of us given the same circumstances.

This is a splendid novel that stands well without a film to recommend it. You would be well rewarded by reading "Outlaw Josey Wales".

Love the Clint lookalike cover.

Tim Lasiuta

The Outlaw Josey Wales is a great movie. After reading Forrest Carter's The Education of Little Tree and reading about Carter's bizarre life story, I looked forward to Josey Wales. The book is pretty good, but I was mildly disappointed.

Carter is a storyteller and Josey Wales has some excellent passages. There are wonderful descriptions of nature and the style is spare, without wasted words. Carter's solid prose helps him make a familiar story work. Carter adds some spice to the plot with a few nice twists and turns.

Why did I feel let down? Josey Wales is a larger-than-life hero, similar to James Bond, Superman, or Sherlock Holmes. Josey's the toughest, smartest, fastest gunfighter in the West - no one can beat him. Josey's gun battles, therefore, are predictable. On the whole, Josey's characters are shallow and one dimensional.

One tiresome aspect of Josey is that Carter writes the dialogue in the southern dialect of the 1800s. I wish that he had just used standard English. Consider reading passages such as this one for 200+ pages -

"Re'clect that oncet Pa been coughin' fit to kill fer a month of Sundays. Everybody said as how he had lung fever. Gran'ma commenced to feedin' him tonic ever' mornin'. Then one night Pa had a fit of coughin' and spit up a rifle ball on the pillarcase... next mornin' he felt goodern' a boar hawg chasin' a sow. Gran'ma said was the tonic done it" (p. 23).

Josey Wales isn't a bad book. But it is "light reading" best kept for those times when readers want a diversion.

Book was as described and arrived in timely manner. I would buy from this seller again.