Customer Reviews

West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns

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2 star:		(2)
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This is a great book, great criticism, beautifully written (charged with the same energy as her favourite writers). I read it non-stop. I would give it 6 stars if I could (one to go on her chest where the deputy sheriff's badge would go.).

I confess I don't completely agree with aspects of the gender argument (that the western is essentially an anti-Victorian female activist genre), but I don't care. It is the best book about the West I have read since Ariel Dorfman's great essay on The Long Ranger.

Tompkins made her name as a professional literary critic, principally (but not only) for her book on Reader-response criticism, which somewhat counter-intuitively holds that texts' meanings are dependent on readers' values and assumptions, etc. I mention this because she brings her assumptions to bear on a genre (Westerns) that she fundamentally doesn't understand ... or want to understand. Tompkins' book will tell you plenty about what sophisticated literary theorists will do with texts (how to situate them in cultural traditions and how to discuss the relationship between cultural artifacts), but for a truly enlightening discussion of Westerns, you should turn to Peter A. French's magnificent treatment: Cowboy Metaphysics, Ethics and Death in Westerns. French's book has all the merits that Tompkins book should (also) have had. It is lucid, argumentative, illuminating and thoughfully respectful of the details of the Westerns he discusses.

For a fascinating read turn to French instead. Where else can you get a discussion of Westerns that illuminates this genre by way of Aristotle, Nietzsche, Homer, Melville, Kant and Aeschylus?

This is an amazing book. Jane Tompkins looks at the different symbols in westerns -- cattle, horses, food, work -- and discusses what they *mean*. She also discusses the evolution of the genre -- where it came from, and what it was a reaction to, and why the different symbols work together so well. And all the while, her writing style is engaging and interesting and pulls you along as you nod and say "Oh! Right!" You don't have to be a student of writing to enjoy this book. The information translates immediately to male-female communication, and to interactions you may have with colleagues. You'll find yourself gutting through some project and saying in a John Wayne accent "well, it's the cowboy way, ain't it?"

Highly enjoyable. An amazing piece of work.

Tompkins is infuriatingly cutting-edge, but in the end she's just a gal who likes men in jeans serving up piping hot pork and beans. She writes an accessible prose, none of that academic trash prose. She's old school. There's lots of lefty, snotty condescension, but also a sound love for the great American genre. Tompkins treats the bread and butter pulp classics of the Western genre as literature with a capital L. Why not? She persuades us that there is gold in them thare hills.

Ms. Tompkins makes many good points about Westerns and how they came to be, but she negates her best points with her personal agenda of modern attitudes and political correctness. She obviously appreciates Westerns, but she doesn't seem to really get them. If you are looking for a good book about Westerns try Peter A. French's COWBOY METAPHYSICS. He even discusses Ms. Tompkins key points so you can avoid reading her personal and political commentary which she blatantly weaves throughout the entire book.

An interesting look at Westerns from personal and literary perspectives. Focuses attention on a rich genre that has not been looked at enough by the fields of literary criticism and literature.