Boone's Lick

As a Larry McMurtry fan, I found Boone's Lick a little short but still well worth the read. Though lighter than his usual fare, I loved the characters and wished I could have spent more time with them. Hopefully he'll resurrect them in a sequel. I've never been disappointed with a McMurtry western and look forward to the next.

There's nothing better than a good Western from Larry McMurtry. It's hard not to compare "Boone's Lick" to "Lonesome Dove" - both novels are named after small, depressed post-Civil War towns and evolve into journeys across the Western frontier. However, while "Lonesome Dove" was a grand epic, "Boone's Lick" is more of a novella. It follows the fates of the Cecil family - mother Mary Margaret, Uncle Seth, narrator Shay, dim-witted brother GT and assorted characters they meet along the way - as they set off across the Oregon trail to find their wayward patriarch. As always, McMurtry's characters are uniquely memorable, and he effortlessly conveys both the grandeur and the challenges of the West. McMurtry's realism is so comprehensive that he even weaves real historical characters and events into his narrative. The story itself is charming - I read it effortlessly in one sitting.

If I could possess any talent on earth, it would be to write as author McMurtry. His previous Lonesome Dove series ranks as my all time favorite books and I looked forward to reading Boone's Lick based on my experience with his earlier works. I was not disappointed. While much shorter than his previous novels, it nevertheless contained a beautifully written story about love and family. Set against the American West after the Civil War, it is the simple story of a woman taking her family westward to find her wayward husband. The characters of Mary Margaret Cecil and her brother in law Seth were wonderfully drawn in the sparse but evocative prose of the author.I read the other reviews posted and most seem to comment solely on the brevity of the book. Size should not matter if the content is good, and once again I found McMurtry delivers a story better than anyone. While the price is steep for such a short novel, the story is worth it. I only hope that this is the beginning of a new series for the author.

Good God, Larry McMurtry has bloodied up the West again with a story I couldn't put down. After the Civil War Mary Margaret Cecil packs up her Missouri family to find her husband who is in Wyoming freighting for the Army. This is undoubtedly the most bizarre Western that has ever been written.Unlike other novels of the adventuresome travelers who went toward a Western star to search for treasures, the Cecils travel across an unmarked wilderness in search of the husband of Mary Margaret. Not content with a lazy wagon trip, McMurtry has thrown in the most dysfunctional bunch of people who ever followed the setting sun. A priest who swims naked across the Missouri River, Indians who are the most flea bitten of any of the savages, accompanied by a brother-in-law who worships the ground she walks on, Mary Margaret ain't the shrinking violet that you usually meet along the route to the Big Sky Country where mountains meet the sky.And then if murdering Indians aren't enough, wait until you read about Mary Margaret finding out about her husband's wives numbers one and two. Beware, this isn't a John Wayne Western where women are women and men are men. This is a Western where one hell'uv a scorned wife destroys the myths of the Western heroes, and along her journeys, she makes even the cruel Indians cower down in fright. Luther Butler http:/www.erath.net/butler/