From Publishers Weekly
The literature and the reality of the American West collide in these 12 brilliant and wide-ranging essays, originally published in the New York Review of Books. Pulitzer winner and bestselling novelist McMurtry (Lonesome Dove; etc.) rhapsodizes over an impressively eclectic array of subjects and styles, from his poetic-historical meditation on the Missouri River to his determined but sympathetic deconstruction of Western mythology. Two of the best essays focus on the Lewis and Clark expedition; after reading the pioneering duo's newly published journals, McMurtry pronounces their adventure "the first American epic." Two other essays directly confront the almost uniformly tragic experience of Native Americans in the West; in "Zuni Tunes," McMurtry devastatingly critiques the impact that anthropologists "bloodsucking leeches" have had on the famously unique Arizona tribe. Perhaps the most amusing piece is "Pulpmaster," a bemused ode to western pulp novelists like Zane Grey, whose prodigious output McMurtry ascribes to a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder: "The sufferers can't really write well, but they can't stop writing, either." Each of these essays is sharp, intelligent, sincere and winkingly funny in other words, vintage McMurtry. With penetrating wit he notes that Custer's death was "his most glorious career move." For fascinating characters, there is We'wha, the male Zuni transvestite who met President Grover Cleveland in 1885 and became the "hit of the social season." Not every piece succeeds perfectly, of course: McMurtry's musings on water use in the West are (unsurprisingly) somewhat dry, while his loving, elegiac essay about the forgotten writer Janet Lewis feels like an orphan from another book. Overall, however, this collection is a fine performance from a man who, excepting perhaps Cormac McCarthy, is our most talented and important chronicler of the West.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
The well-known author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove and other popular novels, McMurtry has also written numerous essays and reviews. Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood, a collection of his pieces on scriptwriting and other aspects of Tinseltown, was well received. This new collection focuses on the literature and writers of the American West and on the West itself, considering topics such as popular entertainers (e.g., Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley), fiction writers (e.g., Zane Grey), and historians (e.g., Angie Debo). McMurtry is extremely knowledgeable about the subjects he covers, and his writing is witty and incisive. The essays were all originally published in the New York Review of Books. Recommended for any academic or larger public library collection interested in the history and literature of the West and especially for libraries where McMurtry's novels are popular. Charlie Cowling, Drake Memorial Lib., SUNY at Brockport
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
