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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 20 KB, 266x374, Warlock.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
20357845 No.20357845 [Reply] [Original]

Just finished this. Basically a retelling of the shootout at the Ok Corral and Tombstone mythology, but in a more demythologizing way. Pretty good, I liked it.

The only other western I've read is Blood Meridian. I plan on reading Butcher's Crossing and Lonesome Dove.

Any thoughts on these books or others? Any suggestions?

Wester general, I guess.

>> No.20357849
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20357849

>>20357845

Guess I should add, I first heard about this book through the intro to Richard Farrina's book. Apparently he and Pynchon had a "cult" around the book they liked it so much.

>> No.20357851

>>20357845
Haven't read the others, but Lonesome Dove was mediocre. Most characters don't have an interesting story, apart from the Hat Creek Outfit. Forgettable overall.

>> No.20357858

>>20357851

Shit, really? That's demotivating since it's so long. I just heard about it through searching 'best western novels' online and it's always up there. That's alright, plenty of other books in my (non-western) tbr list.

>> No.20357871

Absolutely loved both this and Butcher's Crossing. I read BC as a young guy just out of college, and seeing a character exactly like me get absolutely shattered by the world was pretty moving.

>> No.20357877

Quit it with this edgy hipster shit and read Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey like a man.

>> No.20357908

>>20357858
Yes, it could've been way shorter, but the author wandered off to side characters and most of the time it didn't work. Try Butcher's Crossing, might be promising since it's way shorter

>> No.20359186

>>20357845
Bump

>> No.20359671

You must read In the Distance by Hernan Diaz. Only a select few of us have read this masterpiece of a western.

>> No.20359680

>>20357845
I thought true grit was alright. Not a knee-slapper like the critics would say. But it was generally fun and it was nicely written.

>> No.20359710

elmore leonard wrote a lot of western short stories in his early days. "10:30 to yuma" or whatever it's called is one. a lot of his stories were made into movies
if you like cormac mcarthy, he has kind of western called "all the painted ponies."

>> No.20359810

>>20357858
Don't listen to this guy, Lonesome Dove is a masterpiece

>> No.20360832

Butchers crossing is very good. But don't expect something as violent as blood meridian.

>> No.20360872

Warlock is probably the only western I have read but I quite enjoyed it. Blaisedell's characterization of a mob where every man is more scared of his neighbor than he is of the guy they are lynching stuck with me.

>> No.20361813

>>20357845
The Ballad Of Dingus Magee by David Markson

The Virginian by owen wister

Joesy wales by forest carter

These last two aren’t really westerns but the setting is the American frontier. which i guess westerns are already set in.

Drums along the mohawk by Walter d. Edmonds

Northwest passage by Kenneth Roberts

Now I haven’t any of these; with the exception of drums and ,currently, reading northwest. But, from what i heard they’re very good books (So treat them well): ballad is, i heard, very funny; the Virginian is a revered classic; that acts less like a complete novel but like a short story collection; and josey is a fun pulp book.

Now drums is a great book. Set during the American revolution, the story has that same noir vibe that warlock has. every character in the book is not completely good or completely evil. The book is also great at showing what it was like during those times. I just started on northwest passage but so far i like it. In the first ten pages I already know the narrator’s back story.

>> No.20361831
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20361831

>>20357845
S Craig Zahler is good if you like violence

>> No.20361837

>>20357845
I thought this book was really great. I want to read more of his westerns but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Between Butcher's Crossing and Lonesome Dove go with Lonesome Dove first, it's like 5/5 on the kino meter.

>> No.20361855

>>20357845
Lonesome Dove is amazing. Don’t listen to the contrarian. You’ll feel like you’re right there with those guys. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you won’t regret it

>> No.20362212
File: 8 KB, 182x277, Lonesome Dove.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
20362212

>>20357845
>Brothers, Froglip, and me come across a couple sodbusters on the plains; I blow their brains out
>They got nothing worth robbing, the sons of bitches
>At least they have some coffee; make some, meditate on their corpses
>Tell my brothers, we're gonna hang these sodbusters
Hang 'em, Dan? They're already dead.
>I know, but this here is the only tree for miles around, and it'd be a shame to let it go to waste
>Hang the sodbusters
>Have some more coffee, watch hanging sodbusters
>Goddamn, I hate sodbusters so much; I hate their guts, I hate their livers....
Well that's fine Dan, cuz these two are dead enough all right.
>No they ain't dead enough! A sodbuster is never dead enough for me....
>We're gonna burn these fuckers
Burn the hanging corpses?
>That's right
>Set fire to the hanging sodbusters
>Sit back, watch hanging, burning sodbusters
>It was a good day

t. Dan Suggs

>> No.20362266

I'm finishing Lonesome Dove right now. It's pretty good. I don't know if it's truly a work for the ages, but it's still quality literature. And the characters are great.

Another poster pointed out how meandering it is, and I suppose I see his point. But it's not the sort of book where there is one compelling plot and several overly long, irrelevant digressions from it added solely to pad it out (like Stephen King's book about the Kennedy assassination). Instead it's entirely interwoven threads from start to finish; there isn't really a main plot to digress from. But it would definitely be poorer without any of those threads, and somehow taken together the book is better than merely the sum of these separate parts.

If you do read it, OP, and if your edition has a preface, DO NOT READ THE PREFACE. There is a fucking spoiler from the author himself.

>> No.20362997

>>20361831
Very poorly written and uninteresting.
Don't let the cool cover fool you