Resolution

What makes this book riveting reading, like Appaloosa before it, is the economy of language. While it is a dialogue driven novel each sentence spoken is stripped to the bare minimum yet conveys with razor sharp precision insight, intent, menace and meaning in abundance. It is dialogue as action. Each sentence is measured and distilled before being and delivered as if laser guided.

From the opening page Parker, through his characters, primes his readers for a journey through the lawless West. Human rights didn’t much matter there, business did. Everett Hitch states openly if a guy causes a problem ‘I’ll kill him.’ It was said so mundanely but lacked the banality that Hanna Arendt famously attributed to evil. Hitch wasn’t evil but he was ruthless all in the course of making a living. He slung his gun in defence of the townspeople but was paid by those with the money to pay, business men. They didn’t want trouble, it being bad for business. They didn’t particularly want ‘whores’ defended either, even though they made quite a bit out of the women and girls who worked the saloons and hotels.  So they deducted it from the wages of Everett if he protected them when they should have been working. He didn’t get too excited over it.

While the outcome is predictable enough the real element of tension in this work is whether the relationship that Hitch and Cole have established with two fellow gunhands will survive. It allows the suspense to hover throughout while the narrative meanders on its merry if murderous way.

Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole were not your ordinary gunslingers subject to the control of the local power broker. At one point Cole tells Hitch in response to a question about who runs the town, ‘we do.’ Wolfson might have thought he was the main man but he was always hostage to those who did his gun work.

Evertt’s rule of thumb was borrowed from his long time gun partner, Virgil Cole: ‘You gotta kill somebody do it quick. Don’t look like you got pushed into it. Look like you couldn’t wait to do it.’ They were efficient rather than malevolent. Others were baleful and failed to show the sense of detachment of Hitch when sending the targets of their ‘gun work’ packing from their mortal coil.

Death comes quick to central characters with a minimum of fuss. Parker does it without thrills or trims and while it sits with the pace of the writing there is a sense of unfulfilled expectation.

While they parted to go their separate ways in Appaloosa, Resolution draws Hitch and Cole together again. The loyalty between the two continues to exist as much as ever, although we see the subtle shift of power. Cole is no longer the dominant partner but the transfer is handled with such ease the reader doesn’t even see the joints.

As they fade into the setting sun, there is the sure knowledge that with the coming of dawn, Hitch and Cole will ride again.

Robert B. Parker, 2009, Resolution. Berkerly: New York. ISBN 978-0425-22799-2.

9 comments:

  1. I wonder what sort of cowboy Mickeyboy would have been,I was out shopping with the wife earlier and she called me a lazy f##ker.well I nearly fell out of the trolly...

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  2. Cool FM have just reported that the weather is so bad in Poleglass that some girl has put her knickers on.......
    HOW TO COOK A TURKEY
    1st buy a turkey and a bottle of vodka,pour yourself a glass of vodka and put the turkey in the oven.take another 2 glasses of vodka and set the degree at 375 ovens,have 3 more vodkas of drink and turn the oven on take 4 vodkas of drinky and turk the bastey,stick a turkey in the thermometer and glass yourself a pour of vodka bake the vodka for 4 hours take the oven out of the turkey and floor the turkey up of the pick.pour yourself another glass of turkey, now just tet the table and turk the carvey easi peasi....

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  3. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ANNE
    Srories of republican women ex-prisoners.

    This book is the most comprehensive archive of republican women ex-prisoners stories anywhere in the world.the title of the book was chosen by the late Eileen Hickey as a tribute to the Irish patriot Anne Devlin,who endured torture and imprisonment for her republican beliefs in Kilmainham gaol,1803.
    It has taken ten years to compile and contains 142 stories from individual ex-prisioners spanning more than three decades from 1967 to 2003.they redress the fact that women have largely been written of this period in history,these remarkable stories have never been told before,
    The stories reflect the privations and trauma,emotional and physical that many of these women suffered during their time in prison.
    Told from the heart with candid recall-these experiences are burned into the memories of women who were in many cases mere teenagers when they were imprisioned.
    Hopefully these stories will give the reader an insight into prison life and the historical and political background of that time,these stories are factual accounts of how the war on the outside had a direct impact on the prisoners lives from internment,the struggles for political status,to protests and resistance.
    Their fortitude and collective spirit is described when they kidnapped the prison govenor and three of his wardens...."The women barricaded the stairs and confined themselves to B3 wing.The govenor and screws were locked in a cell.That night the authorities turned of the electric and water supply.as we all sat around the caytwalk on mattresses the OC,Eileen Hickey,gave the order for silence.we were listening for any movement from the wing below,an indicationthat the British army were preparing to move in on us",
    As prisoners of war these women challenged and tested the prison regime,went on no wash protest,hunger strikes and planned escapes,They continued to contribute to the republican cause and forged friendships and bonds that are still robust and supportive to this day.
    Their aim was to achieve a 32 county socialist republic.in the words of their Gaeilge teacher Seasn Ó Baoighill,"Sí Éire mo thír"(Ireland is my country)..BOOK LAUNCH...15 Dec 6.30 p.m Conway Mill...

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  4. Marty,

    Been looking forward to this book, will it be available anywhere on the interweby to buy?

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  5. MDU,

    it is available on Amazon and places like that

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  6. GRMA a chara, it's not on there yet but I shall keep an eye out for it. About time the women had their say.

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  7. Marty down under I,m going to the book launch on Thursday (trying to get Marion,s plight a mention as well) will have more details about how you can obtain a copy,Anthony is probably right here re Amazon ,but I dont think the books are released for public sale yet,but I,m sure we,ll get you a copy .latest info from dear wife... soft back £8.hardback £12.the publishers are SHANWAY PRESS BELFAST...E:info@shanway.com..hope you find this helpfull a cara ..

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  8. Marty,

    you are right. The Anne Frank one is on Amazon, not this one. But it will be as soon as it is out there

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  9. How'd the book launch go Marty? Will email them to see if I can get a copy delivered.

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