Customer Reviews

The Secret Life of Cowboys

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a great title for maybe a different book. Expecting to find some salty insight into the hearts and minds of cowboys, the men who live and work as agricultural laborers in the modern West, I found instead the memoir of a young man from Chicago, still in his 30s, who falls in love with wide open spaces and tries to live out a dream of working with cattle and being a rancher. The problem is that he is almost totally unprepared for the arduous task of running a ranch and lacks the seasoned philosophy of a man who has experienced lean years, loss, and failure. Taking on a 15-square-mile ranch outside Miles City, Montana, he is quickly in over his head and in a matter of time is surviving on anti-depressants.

Hard winters, hard luck, and lack of experience combine to turn his dream into heartbreak. I seldom read a book that makes me tear up, but this one did, about page 220 when on a September day, he watches as his neighbors gather to buy at auction his machinery and equipment. Any reader used to the unforgiving seasons of the plains, especially in Montana, might remain dried-eyed at Groneberg's foolhardy and romantic expectations of ranching, but to know him for the tender, ingenuous soul that he seems to be in his book, it's hard to see his failure as anything but the unhappy end of a big-hearted dream.

The secret in the secret life of cowboys remains something of an elusive mystery for Groneberg. Along with him, we observe cowboys from the outside, a fraternity of men engaged in hard, physical labor, masters of skills learned from boyhood, able to do their jobs in severe working conditions, and possessors of a kind of grace beyond words to describe. Groneberg's book is an attempt over and over to capture this grace in words, always falling a little short, while making ever more vivid the extent of his admiration. He even takes a class in saddle bronc riding in hopes of breaking through this barrier and feeling at least for a moment like a cowboy.

In anyone else's hands, this might all seem over the top, but his love of cowboys comes from a heart that is pure as a boy's, and it is easy to allow him his earnest wish to become and be accepted as a man of their perceived character - honest, true, fearless, tough, physically agile, and ethically uncompromised. At the end of the book, he has not yet forgiven himself for being less than all that, but he has found a place for himself as a hand on another smaller ranch, chastened by his experiences toward a kind of self-respect and most importantly loving the life he has found for himself, his wife, and young son.

I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone with an interest in ranching, the modern West, Montana, rites of passage, and soulful memoirs. Along similar lines, I'd recommend the personal stories of some other youthful writers from the West: C. L. Rawlins' "Broken Country," Mark Spragg's "Where Rivers Change Direction," Pete Fromm's "Indian Creek Chronicles," and Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire."

This is the best book I've read all year. It surprised me--The Secret Life of Cowboys is a book for anyone who has ever had a dream--of a different job, a different future, a different life--and wondered what it might take to pursue it. The book left me feeling energized to live my life to the fullest, to take a few chances, and to appreciate what I already have. It made me laugh, made me cry in places, and made me think. I recommend this book highly. Everyone should read it.

This book renewed my belief that good things do happen to people who have dreams and are willing to pay the price to achieve them. Tom Groneberg, in my opinion, is such a person and maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to meet him and tell him that. His story is beautifully told in unvarnished prose and readers will enjoy his word pictures and his smooth writing style. I really enjoyed this book very much and I highly recommend it.

Armed with not much more than an English degree, Groneberg responds to an ad in, of all places, the literary Utne Reader, for someone to work on a horse ranch in Colorado. Before you can say "giddyap," he's working toward another degree in horses in Montana.
There's a girl involved, of course, and you somehow suspect they'll ride happily off into the Western sunset together. But things take a darker turn...
Beautiful writing; the effects of Groneberg's English degree show up in the beautiful and poetic language of this surprising and very good book.

As you may have gathered from the other reviews, this book may not be what you are expecting. But in the end, you may well find its something more.

It is not so much that its romantic, poetic, or any of the other 'literary' virtues you may associate with the American West.

It is something bigger, something better: its true. Not merely in an autobiographical sense, but in a universal, human way that will touch you deeply if you let it.

Truth is its skin and skeleton, and the sinews that hold it together. If that isn't enough for you, if you can't see the poetry and romance in the triumphs and tradgedies of life on the land told with utter honesty, then your mind is too small for this book.

And much too small for Montana: I've lived and worked on ranches here for 25 years, and we seriously don't need more people looking for sequined cowboys or photo ops with 'old salts'...

But there will always be room for Tom Groneberg, and people like him.

This book is an amazingly honest and forthright autobiography of a man who started life as a midwestern suburbanite and who found his way to the Wild West and learned to ranch in the harsh environment of Eastern Montana. After spending years working as a hand with horses and cattle, and after owning and working his own ranch, Tom Groneberg still does not believe himself to be a true cowboy. But to me, he and his wife, Jen, are true American pioneers. To those of us with the desire but without the guts to make a life in the romantic but difficult world of cowboys, he is a mythical figure. To those of us who want to take the hard road, he is an excellent example. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

I respect and admire Groneberg's tenacity and will to become part of the West and to write this book. The book takes us through Tom Groneberg's experiences as a horse trail guide, ranch hand, and ranch manager. Gone are the perfectly dirtied cowboy hats that today's country "musicians" wear...Groneberg learns that life in the West is hard, cold, and unforgiving.

Groneberg wants so desperately to be a part of this culture, but he never fully explains why. Perhaps this is part of the mystery of this region, the allure. This book reminds me of a modern-day My Antonia in parts--especially his descriptions of the harsh winters he and his wife endure in Montana.

What I come away with after reading this memoir is that it's difficult to be a man today--especially when you're a man drawn to a hard life. Ranching is not as simple and pastoral as it seems. Growing up on a farm allowed me to empathize with Groneberg in parts and allowed me to predict outcomes in others. I would encourage those who haven't had much experience with the "cowboy way" to read this memoir and leave the country music videos on mute. Groneberg paints a realistic picture of what the life of a cowboy is like in the modern age.

Having grown up on a ranch in Idaho I've been around many different sorts of cowboys and the wannabes. Mr.Groneberg has reminded me once again of how demanding and rewarding that life can be. His insight and honesty is everywhere throughout the book and I found myself pausing often to reflect on his observations. Let's hope his love of writing is at least half as strong as his love of the cowboy life and we continue to hear from him.

Can a city guy go from college to wrangler, ranch hand and ranch owner? Can he live through the Montana winters? Will he give it up and take up accounting in his home town? The author is brutally honest as he answers these questions. The angst is hard on the reader, but you want to follow him through his tough decisions. Many of the characterizations are memorable. I look forward to reading the next installment and seeing where this continuing experiment in ranch life takes him.

I feel that this book was quite refreshing.I really enjoyed the book in the end, but at first I thought it read somewhat slow. I was very suprised at the way Groneberg pulled me in by displaying such a well written description of his life. Mr. Groneberg is a strong writer who keeps my attention, displays good organization/structure, however he could do a better job of giving definitions on certain "cowboy" terms that those from the city may not know or understand. Mr. Groneberg establishes his credibilty in this book by explaining that he has lived and worked on cattle ranches. He does a good job of giving descriptive details, personal experiences and observations, and examples and illustrations. Mr. Groneberg's book is recent and more applicable to this generation of "wannabe" cowboys. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the cowboy way of life.