Appaloosa

This is a beautifully written book. Its simplicity is astounding. Dialogue led, it is narrated through the words of Everett Hitch who met up with his gun slinging buddy Virgil Cole fifteen years earlier during a shoot out. And shooting it out with rogues, rascals and villains is how they made their living since. Depriving others of any living in order to make a living is for many the way of the world.

I am not a Western fan. I long opted to look down my nose at them. Even in jail as a 16 year old I would cast them to the side as I foraged through the bookshelf that sat in the middle of A Wing Crumlin Road Prison along the wall closest to the main road.  Before I made it to my teens I would read Pocomoto but never found the storyline stimulating. In 1982 a jail friend, Pat Livingstone, told me to read JT Edson, but only for a laugh. Big Liv claimed Edson was an English postman who had never been to America in his life and wouldn’t know what a cowboy looked like. Yet, here he was, an accomplished novelist in the Western genre. Seemingly it didn’t take much to make the grade. 

I don’t think I took his advice, so never went to the bother of finding anything out about Edson but recall at some point reading a brace of Louis L’Amour books. Apart from allowing me to while away an hour or two they failed to cut the mustard in any real sense. They were hardly books that would have me racing to the cell in anticipation of the night time lock up.

During the blanket protest had Westerns been available I would have read them. Any port in a storm as the saying goes, well apart from the port bible. That was one destination I was not bound for, regardless of the tedium induced by the otherwise total dearth of reading material. I guess the Christians who took such delight in torturing us must have felt that with a literally captive audience in their grasp we would have no option but to read their silly book and stupid mini comics with their graphic depictions of hell.  I have succumbed to many wrongs in life but the bible is not amongst them.

In spite of my general aversion to the genre a Western remains one of my all time favourite books, Shane by Jack Schaefer. That remains the unsurpassed Western both on screen and in print. 

I had already watched the film Appaloosa featuring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen and was more than just impressed by it. It is normally reliable advice to never judge a book by its movie, so many films failing to live up to the promise of the book. This is an exception. When my wife suggested I read the book I didn’t hesitate. I began it at Drogheda on a bus on the way to Belfast. By the time I had arrived at Dublin Airport on my return journey I had it finished.

Some readers have cast doubt on the ability of an East Coast Bostonian to write Westerns. In this I am reminded of Michael Manley’s scathing criticism of a Caribbean writer describing snow falling in his face, something he had never experienced.  Yet if JT Edson, Big Liv’s English postie, can try his hand then Parker has some claim.

Bragg is the typical bully of the western genre. The quintessential baddie he is to be found in every walk of life. His men shoot dead a townsman and rape the victim’s wife. The sheriff is shot dead by Bragg investigating. Cole and Hitch are hired to bring Bragg in. There is a sense that both Cole and Hitch fit one of Orwell’s characterisations of people: they want to be good but not too good and not all the time.

Cole, in love with the promiscuous Allie French, is concerned at her waywardness but never so concerned as to be distracted or have his deadly aim diverted. Bragg’s fatal mistake might have been less in shooting the sheriff but in jumping into Allie’s bed.

Even if the end is somewhat predictable the real joy of this is to be acquired from simply reading the plot.

Robert B Parker, 2010, Appaloosa.  Corvus: UK. ISBN-13: 978-1848873438

30 comments:

  1. It is nice that you have finally discovered Westerns. Being a Bostonian, I can attest to the writing skills of Robert Parker, though he usually writes crime novels. My question, is why the gratuitous Christian and Bible bashing ? What lies beneath ?

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  2. Ó Donnchadha,

    I have long discovered Westerns but they were not for me. That is until these came along. The review was written months ago but lay there until I found a slot. There is also another review of Resolution lying there to go up at some point also. I had little There are another two in the series that I have and look forward to reading. Parker's writing is superb.

    I would have thought the bible gratuitous as an explanantion of our world rather than a rejection of it. As a good read, Parker by far.

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  3. Well your Christian hang ups aside, you might like another, he wrote Mystic River and Gone baby Gone. I believe his latest is Mooonlight Mile. Lehane is a real street guy, brought up in Southie.
    Boston writer, Dennis Lehane
    May I also suggest Matthew 11:28 and 29 ? :-)

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  4. They got the weather forecast right yesterday,they said there was a patchy rain band coming.I looked out my window and there were four red indians singing in my garden.

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  5. Ó Donnchadha never mind Matthew and all that crap ,the old Indian chief in Josey Wales got it right when he said "dont piss down my back and tell me its raining"

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  6. Ó Donnchadha,

    I will try at some point to read more of his stuff including the work recommended by you.

    My wife agrees with you on the bible reference, feeling it is not related to the story! Can only win some of them!

    I will decline your offer to read Matthew as it is not my thing. There is so much else good to read – and we all have our choices.

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  7. As a born again blashpemist and boiled in the oil atheist, I have to say your Bible illiteracy is to be frowned upon. As a piece of literature, it is a cracker - nothing more, nothing less. It is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible and I am currently rereading it. Up ever morning at 5:30am, cup of tea, two slices of toast and get tore in. Magnificent language, psychedelic narrative and non-stop blood and gore action. The boys who wrote this would put the video gamers to shame! If nothing else, read the Book of Revelations. Unreal, Man. Whoever wrote that fell in to a patch of some powerful mushrooms. It was Hunter Thompnson's favorite piece of prose and you can tell why. In my humble opinion, you cannot truly appreciate the Western Cannon without reading the Bible. Get her read!!

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  8. Jim,

    you are a brave man if you can stomach that. You are a glutton for both punishment and toast! I genuinely do not like the writing or the style. I found the bible boring - and I did read the Book of Revelations. I just haven't read it since I went on the blanket protest. And it is my intention never to open a page of it again. Even your best efforts will not persuade me. Hitchens and Dawkins talk favourably of its literary content. Just not for me.

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  9. Dont forget the begating Jim,yon begating is a great pasttime,everyone,s at it in the bibles.

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  10. Well boys, to quote an American literary genius named Bob Dylan.

    " You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage
    You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage
    You may be a businessman or some high-degree thief
    They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

    But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
    You’re gonna have to serve somebody
    Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
    But you’re gonna have to serve somebody"

    I respect the OP And his service for the movement. So I will now bow out.

    It is good that we have the love of literature in common.

    Peace out

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  11. If you enjoy watching cowboys and you visit the west,Belfast that is,you can see some real gunslingers going into Thatcher house on the Anytout rd.

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  12. what has 60 legs and stinks of piss? .......the front row of a Daniel O Donnell concert..

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  13. Two paki women talking in the shop and one proudly says "I,ve only been in Belfast six months and already I can speak Polish....

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  14. I'm reading Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman at the moment.

    I had read that it inspired the series Lost and in fact as a tribute one character is reading it in a scene. I only watched Lost for a while before I really did get lost...

    However I think the part with the lift to 'Eternity' and the corridors in The Third Policeman was used to an extent in Lost.

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  15. Dixie,

    most definitely a book I did not enjoy. Alfie recomnmended it but I found it trying and tedious. Not at all like the Poor Mouth which I read just before the Third Policeman. Thought the The Third Policeman had plenty of potential and descended into farce.

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  16. How do you make Mickeyboy go mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm all night?........ Duct tape..

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  17. Marty-

    Jesus no Duct tape- i don't mind not talking but how do i get the drink down my neck with that bold Duct tape in the way- truly that would be hell on earth-

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  18. Some f##ker keeps ringing me and singing Prince Charming and stand and deliver down the phone,I keep telling him to f##k of but he,s adamant....my mates in hospital after being hit on the head with a 1000 piece jigsaw,we dont think he,ll make it.I found the wife dead in bed the other day.she just lay there lifeless,so I decided to shag her one last time,all of a sudden she jumped up and shouted BOO! honestly some people are sick in the f##kin head....I opened my front door this morning to find my neighbour lying face down in the snow with a kitchen knife stuck in his back.I ran back in the house and shouted to the wife"Quick come see whats happened" "what is it "she asked I replied "youll not believe this.....its been snowing"....the wife came home early today and found me in bed with Fatima Whitbread,I said "its not what you think love" she said "what the f##k is it then?" I said "Its a woman"......

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  19. I was at my sex addicts class this morning,the woman who takes it thinks I,ve come a long way these last few months,she believes I no longer see women as mere sex objects and now can appreciate them as equals.......sounds like she wants a good shaggin if you ask me.....

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  20. Mickeyboy a cara all this talk of drink ,I dont understand the hype around Carlsberg supposedly being the best lager in the world,I found half a can on the wall outside the house this morning....and it tasted like piss....for my next trick I will eat a percussion instrument in a bap...drum roll please. Bob doh Brains was in hospital and he,s out having a smoke,across the way another patient is having a smoke,the guy shouts over to Bob "I,m from Sandy Row" Bob shouts back "Andytown" the guy then shouts "Rangers" Bob replies "Celtic" guy shouts "cancer" Bob replies "gemini"....

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  21. Man joins the navy,after a while he asks his shipmates"what do you do for sex around here?" he is shown a wooden barrel with a hole in it. not impressed he tries it anyway and loves it,so he tries it again the next day and the next.."can I do this every day?" .."not Wednesdays".."why?" ..Wednesday is your day in the barrel"!!!

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  22. Hard to beat a good western, found Cormac McCarthy pretty rewarding. Blood Meridien is his best with a truly unsettling villain.
    Waiting for the barbarians by Coetzee is excellent too, not really a western but a similar sense of being at the edge of civilisation.

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  23. I phoned the police today"whats your emergency" they asked I said "theres two women fighting over me" "OK" she paused "whats the emergency?" "the ugly one is winning"...I saw this Dutch bloke walking the other day looking lost,so I stopped and asked him if he needed directions? he said "no I,ve got sat nav built into my shoes" I carried on and thought f##kin clever clogs...when someone says to me "great minds think alike"I just look at them and think you dirty b###ard....

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  24. Isnt it great that thon wee fenian group little micks won the x factor....I was shagging the missus last night when she started moaning that we never have normal sex anymore....and that I,m obsessed weith doing it like they do in porn films....typical of her to start an argument in front of all my mates....if a girl shags twenty guys shes a slag.... but if a boy does it ...he,s gay ...definitly very gay...the pope is told by his doctor that he is suffering from a very special testicular disease that can only be cured by having sex(no Anthony no alterboys) he must go through with this or he will die.the pope says "I have 4 conditions,the woman must be blind so that she does not see me and mute so she can not tell anyone,and deaf so she cannot hear me,"the doctor says "what is your fourth condition"? "massive tits".....Bob doh brains dumped his cross eyed girlfriend...said she had her eye on someone else....I broke down outside a military dinner dance last night.this woman came over and pulled an endless supply of tools from her dress to fix my car.not sure but I think she was a swiss army wife...Mum and dad and kids are walking around the continental market and dad buys the kids a deer burger but doesnt tell them what it is.the kids ask "what is this dad?" he says "I will give you a clue ,its what your mum calls me"the son says to the sister "dont eat it its a ball bag"....China has give Edinburgh zoo two giant pandas,hugely overweight with massive tits and two black eyes.....its like their Scottish already....

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  25. Just bought a jehova,s witness advent calendar....everytime you open the door someone tells you to fuck off...

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  26. The lesbians next door asked me what I,d like foe christmas,I was quite suprised when they gave me a Rolex,it was very nice of them,but I think they misunderstood me when I said I wanna watch...Gerry Itwasntme said to Bob Doh Brains "can you spell orange?" Bob replies "doh the fruit or the colour"

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  27. Great stuff, Marty! How do you remember all these jokes?

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  28. lol Alfie,Nuala ,Anthony and everyonelse would say its the mind of a sewer rat I have,,Nollaig Shona Duit a cara.

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  29. I,m putting out vodka and potatoes for Santa this year......you can bet your life some Polish f##ker has taken his job...

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  30. Frank

    Read about Blood Meridian a while back and am now reading it on Kindle. It certainly got some write ups.

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