Buffalo Girls

This was another interesting listen to a book that I first read years ago. It was probably among the first four or five McMurtry books that I did read, and I recall not liking it very much. Yet this time the book turned out quite differently from what I remembered and it had some interesting moments and turns that made it quite a bit more enjoyable.

The narrative structure of the book alternates between Calamity Jane's letters to her daughter and various episodes told from different characters' points of view. McMurtry brings in a host of historical figures that lend creedence to the events: Calamity, of course, Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock, Sitting Bull, and Teddy Blue. Other characters may be drawn from real life, but if so, they are not as well known: Dora, Bartles, Jim Ragg, No Ears, Potato Creek Johnny, Doosie. All of them were characters who had escaped out west, but their time had come and gone while they were still alive, so a kind of wistfulness pervades the book as the way of the beaver trapper, the gold prospector, the indian fighter, the indian warriors, the cowboys, and the madame lose meaning. They must adapt to the new west, and most are not very successful. Calamity becomes a drunk, Jim Ragg becomes enamored of the only beaver he can find--at the London zoo, No Ears finds that his knowledge is no longer wanted by the younger members of his tribe, Teddy Blue gives up driving cattle and takes up running a ranch. Only Buffalo Bill seems to thrive as he takes the Wild West Show on the road, parading as entertainment what had been the substance of their lives.

In the end, the book belongs to Calamity, and the final letters to her daughter provide a surprise ending and a final poignancy to the story, underlying much of the bleakness and hopelessness running through the book.

Author: McMurtry, Larry

Date Published: 1990

Length: 9hr 53min

Buckley, Betty

Comanche Moon

A much better book than Dead Man's Walk, it's McMurtry telling a good story. Second only to Lonesome Dove in the series, and better than the Berrybender series, I think. It's filling in the gaps with Gus and Call, but with some memorable characters in their own right, especially Buffalo Hump, Ahuamado, Inish and Inez Scull, Famous Shoes, Kicking Wolf. Gus and Call develop into the characters we know and love in Lonesome Dove, and the rest of the major cast is set for the book: Dietz, Pea-eye, Clara, of course, although not as prominently here as Dead Man's Walk, Jake Spoon, and Newt. Call's life with Maggie is outlined here, and presages his relationship with Newt in Lonesome Dove. Inish Scull is an interesting character that reminds me faintly, of the Judge (Holden) in Blood Meridian, without the evil. The scenes hanging in the cage and carving Greek hexameters from Homer into the stone wall to pass the time are very good, although his ability to catch doves and to survive in the situation is pretty far fetched. Overall, a very enjoyable experience for me.

Author: McMurtry, Larry

Date Published: 1997

Length: 23hr 57min

Narrator: Muller, Frank

Dead Man's Walk

McMurtry revisits Gus and Call, but what can he do after killing them both off in earlier books? He goes back to the earliest days when they first join the rangers and start adventuring. Buffalo Hump is the great antagonist, but the rangers are no great organization. They are a bunch of opportunists who seek glory and money, but also ignorant and naive in dealing with the realities of the land and the people. The group essentially falls apart and is essentially destroyed on the march across the llano and their encounters with Buffalo Hump. The group that survives is captured by the Mexicans and forced to march across the Jornado Muerte, and even then half of them are executed.

Gus and Call have one great adventure in escorting an English countess across the west Texas desert with a highly unlikely encounter with Buffalo Hump again. The book is nowhere near McMurtry's best and far too many improbabilities and coincidences. Still, a lot of gratuitous violence and bumbling characters with a lot of comic relief provided by Gus. The narrator turned me off at some points. He just didn't have the range of voices to pull it off, certainly not as Lee Horsley did with Lonesome Dove. I enjoyed Dead Man's Walk much more in print years ago when it first came out.

Author: McMurtry, Larry

Date Published: 1996

Length: 14hr 31min

Narrator: Patton, Will