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