The Homesman
Glendon Swarthout. Grove/Atlantic, $17.95 (239pp) ISBN 978-1-55584-235-2
The frontier of the Old West has rarely been evoked as a more miserable, barren land than it is in this melancholy novel by the author of The Shootist. After venturing west of the Missouri to stake claims in uncharted territory, a number of settlers find the earth fallow and the desolate, lonely winters unbearable. When four of the wives go mad, the local minister entrusts a prim, strong-willed young schoolmarm, Mary Bee Cuddy, to transport them back to Iowa by covered wagon. With her, virtually against his will, is Briggs, a dishonest, foul-mouthed land-grabber (he steals other peoples' claims) whom Mary Bee saved from a lynching in exchange for his help. Utilizing a classic western plota journey across rough land under perilous conditionsand a mismatched pair of protagonists who'll remind many readers of those in The African Queen , the author tells a sturdy if by now familiar tale. Unfortunately, once the novel goes wrong, which it does with a bizarre, alienating plot twist about three-quarters of the way through, it never recovers. (September)
Details
Reviewed on: 09/01/1988
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 978-1-4423-8386-9
Downloadable Audio - 256 pages - 978-1-4423-7088-3
Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-451-16429-2
Open Ebook - 256 pages - 978-1-4767-5427-7
Paperback - 256 pages - 978-1-4767-5426-0
Paperback - 256 pages - 978-1-5011-0287-5
Paperback - 346 pages - 978-1-4711-3604-7
Paperback - 343 pages - 978-1-4104-7352-3