I don’t read Westerns – or, to be more accurate, I don’t read many Westerns. I did read Mary Doria Russell’s novels about Doc Holliday and his associates – Doc and Epitaph, both of which I thought were brilliant. I also read Lonesome Dove (see my review here) which is by Larry McMurty and I enjoyed it so much that I picked up The Last Kind Words Saloon by the same author, which coincidentally deals with the same events that Mary Doria Russell wrote about – it is, however, a very different novel.
This book is short and it contains short chapters, written from a variety of viewpoints. The main characters are again Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and the book includes the events at the OK Corral. It is, however, less of a straightforward narrative and more of a series of glimpses into the lives of these rough, often violent man and the people around them. It’s really about the end of the myth of the West and the reality of what this meant for the men who knew little different.
This is a book about despair, impulsive behaviour, violence and the end of things. It’s very atmospheric and has an air of regret threaded all the way through the narrative but, on occasions, it can be funny too. The characters are very real and the author has given appropriate time to the women who were drawn to these difficult, and often brutal, men. Although the characters and events are roughly the same as those in Mary Doria Russell’s books this story is shorter and, I thought, less forgiving. If the events interest you then Jeff Guinn has written a very accessible factual account – see here for my review.
I read this book in one day and became immersed in the author’s spare, but elegant, prose. I would definitely read another of his books but I still don’t see me reading a lot of Westerns. I have decided not to keep this book and, as the cover has had at least three large stickers applied firmly to it at various times in the past, I shall pop it on the book table at my local Sainsbury’s for another reader.
Anne Is Reading 