The Wandering Hill

Threw in trash. Filthy!

Throughout most of this book it seemed like a four star effort, not quite up to the hilarious standard set by Sin Killer, the first in this series. The Wandering Hill is not hilarious. It's a good action story with interesting and very unusual characters. The final chapter of the book is what earns that final fifth star. It is an awesome scene involving Pomp Charboneau, Tasmin Berrybender, and Pomp's deceased mother Sacagawea. I could see it in a movie, bringing tears to everyone's eyes, including Tasmin's. There is a sort of humor in death. Larry McMurtry kills his characters off more than just occasionally, and those he doesn't kill he will often maim. One of the oddest scenes I've ever read involves Lord Berrybender, his son Bobbetty, and a fork in the father's hand. Poor Bobbetty really gets it in this story, harmless and silly though the teenager is. He seems like a nice enough kid to me, completely unsuited to the wild, but having lots of fun, come what may. Tasmin is still the star of the book, as she was in Sin Killer. She's amazing. I'm really glad I discovered this series. Sin Killer just showed up in a drawer. I don't know who bought it or how it got there. It had been sitting there for a long time, maybe years.

I had not read the first in McMurtry's Berrybender Narratives, so this book came as a complete surprise, and I have to say that it stands alone as a Western masterpiece. I don't even know where to begin to adequately describe his colorful characters, both Indian and European, and the way the tale simply bubbles along like one of the streams in the story. In a nutshell, the book begins with a very pregnant Tasmin and her "bad boy" taciturn mountain man husband in an uneasy situation. She talks to much, he doesn't talk at all. And here he is in the middle of the very voluble Berrybenders, from the old Lord who is now missing a leg, several fingers and heaven knows what else (but thankfully not, as he says, his "favorite appendage"), to the extremely foppish and whiney Bobbety (the son), to over-the-top younger sister Mary. And then there is Cook, who stands ready to provide double duty as midwife; and the laundress Millicent, who has caught more than Lord Berrybender's eye. There are tragedies and the stark reality of frontier life is certainly not glossed over, but the humor and just blank good humor of the book is entertaining in the extreme. I'm looking forward to catching up with the entire series.

This second book in the Berrybender Narratives is even wackier and woolier than the first book.I read Sin Killer over a year ago,see my review dated November 30,2003. I purposedly decided to wait till I had the other three books before continuing.I am glad I made this decision because there are so many characters and stories involved ,that if too much time passes the story will get too foggy,at least for me.I strongly recommend that one reads them in order and read them as close together as you can. Also,the multitude of characters makes it necessary to keep a "scorebook".Larry helps by giving a list of characters in the front of each book.I tagged it and added notes as I read the book. All these characters are going to be great when the time comes,and it will,to turn the books into a movie or TV series.I am sure it will be every bit as good as Lonesome Dove. As you read this book,never mind what's coming in the next chapter,of which there are 60,this book moves so fast,you never know what to expect in the next paragraph.It's a very fast paced read,with lots of great lines and statements.However,every so often Larry throws in some word to keep us on our toes.For instance: lachryymose pudendum bastinadoed Overall,McMurtry at his best!

Larry McMurtry's The Wandering Hill is the second installment of his proposed tetralogy following a wealthy English family and their trek to the west in the 1830's. Whereas the first novel, Sin Killer, started slow and revealed a zany, action-packed tone, Hill charges straight out of the gates but mellows eventually to attach the reader closer to the glorious characters. This tetralogy is essentially one giant novel that will equal Lonesome Dove in characters and story. The writing combines subtle humor, fast-paced action, and startling violence that brings the reader directly into the savage world. If you have read Sin Killer, pick up The Wandering Hill immediately. If you haven't read Sin Killer, pick up both books and lose yourself in the exciting yet tragic world McMurtry has created.

The Larry McMurtry of "Lonesome Dove" renown delivers on his promise of great storytelling in this second volume of the Berrybender narratives. As master of the bizarre in characterization, McMurtry takes the mountain men tales of real life characters like a young Kit Carson and laces them around the lives of the fictional English noble, Lord Albany Berrybender and his children and servants, and presents a rousingly good story. In fact, picking up where "Sin Killer" left off, this book leads the reader into the next phase of exploration along the Yellowstone River in 1833, with the likes of the son of Sacajawea and his father, a Scots noble, a Dutch botanist, the artist George Catlin, a German prince, and a most unlikely cast of frontiersmen and Indians. The lustful romance between Tasmin Berrybender and her spouse Jim Snow, the Sin Killer, center the story, but they are just a part of the whole. There is not a dull character in the lot. Each Berrybender, and there are still a lot of them remaining, is a unique rounder. The mountain men live up to their legendary mythos. And the Indian nations exhibit the curious position of those being victimized by the ensuing white man invasion. Their reactions represent a spectrum of violence, manipulation, and partial coexistence. But Indians and the beasts of the wild keep the level of suspense ever present. Even the superstitious belief in the impending doom from sighting a wandering hill, foreshadows the possible danger lurking around each part of the journey. This vivid cast of larger-than-life beings, lives life to the fullest in the most earthy manner, exhibiting quirks that parallel the folks appearing on talk shows of today. Despite a severely hampered and diminishing physical being, Lord Berrybender commands his entourage on this great "safari" into the American northwest, as he wastes the virginal plains of its four-legged bounty, and uses up all things of the flesh and of nature to sate his own boundless mania. One can only imagine this story put to film. For it would be unforgettable, indeed. The cast truly rivals those of the earlier "Lonesome Dove" saga. And one can hardly wait for McMurtry to publish the third tome of the set. Excellent adventure, unforgettable characters, fascinating plot.