The James Boys: A Novel Account of Four Desperate Brothers

Prepare to enjoy yourself - The James Boys is a rapid fire tour de force, a whimsical, winning imagined look at our country in the 19th century. For starters, forget pairing notorious outlaws the James brothers with the Younger brothers - it is now totally the James brothers, four, an unlikely quartet if there ever was one. Just imagine, if you can, that intellectuals William and Henry James discover that Frank and Jesse are their brothers, lost to them during the Civil War and now found. Liebmann-Smith brilliantly mixes fact and fiction to keep us listening intently and laughing uproariously. Our story opens in 1876 with Henry not only riding a train to St. Louis but also riding the cusp of success. He's just had one of his novels serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, an occurrence in which he takes great pride - that is until a fellow passenger, the pretty and to-be wealthy Elena, sits reading said magazine and pronounces his piece "Dreadful." Well, that's quite enough to ruin one's day but thanks to the fecund imagination of Liebmann-Smith that's just the beginning - the train is robbed by Jesse James who takes his long lost brother prisoner. Henry once wrote in a letter, "It's a complex fate, being an American...." His fate is not only complex but comedic once in the hands of gunslinger Jesse. Liebmann-Smith's judicious use of historical fact as he artfully positions it with his tongue-in-cheek narrative is both erudite and entertaining - a gem to be enjoyed and shared with friends. Author/composer, actor Malcolm Hillgartner (remembered for his aces reading of American Gangster), gives a thoroughly delightful narration of this irresistible tale. His voice is low, well modulated with just a tad of huskiness, which makes for very pleasant listening. He seems to have as much fun as the author as he segues from character to character. - Gail Cooke

This book is a delighful read. Fact and fiction collide with hilarious results. Richard Liebmann-Smith is clearly an extremely intelligent writer with a wonderful sense of humor.

The James Boys is not only a very funny book -- and it is that -- but also a book that tickles your brain in unexpected ways. It plays with history and what was and what could have been so that I started wondering what I really knew and what I just imagined. The sometimes deadpan approach and scholarly references put you in one kind of mood, then the slapstick collisions between the characters hit you and turn you in a different direction. It's cinematic in its ability to create different moods and absurdist in the way it brings the characters from one point to another. At the same time, it explores the worlds and accomplishments of the major characters -- all the real Jameses -- in enough detail so that you could write a good SAT essay from what you learn assuming you can separate what happened from what didn't. I hope they make it into a movie because it would make a great one.