Cowboys North and South

Will James was quite a character, who arrived in the West from the province of Quebec with a ready-made legend about himself. He knocked around the cattle country, learned cowboying, and used his knowledge as the basis of his fiction. This book, not really fiction at all, is about his experiences as a cowboy. It is remembered best for James's writing style, which is slangy and semi-literate, but perfect for what he's trying to accomplish. It's all about riding and roping, rustlers, and fencing the plains - and it's all very nostalgic. Interesting and quite a good book of its kind.

Have you ever wanted to be a cowboy? To ride the range in the old west? If you are anything like me, and the answer is yes, I highly recommend you read on. Cowboys North and south, by Will James, contains many insights from the authors point of view into the lives and times of the great cow-punchers of the north and southwest. In it, you learn everything from how to rope cattle to how to walk into a saloon to managing a hundred head. It is, so far as I have read the most comprehensive book on the subject and a primary source to boot, and the hand-drawn pictures by the author are a nice touch. However this book is to be found lacking in many areas. While there is a tremendous amount of information presented, it is very disorganized and seems to follow no contiguous pattern. Also, there is no plot to this book, instead each chapter deals with a different subjects, with the barest hint of a story behind it. This made the book less than convenient to read, and made it hard to keep track of the characters fluctuating in and out of the "story." All in all though, when taken as a whole, I found the book very appealing, and if you are interested in cowboys, absolutely buy this book. But, if a novel is what you seek, I'm afraid you should gidyap, and move out to greener pastures.