Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Sin Killer : The Berrybender Narrative, Book 1 by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0-7434-5141-4 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.78 (78 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A green parrot and a boatload of Brits
Comment: It's 1832, and Lord Albany Berrybender has chartered a steamboat to take him up the Missouri River on a hunting expedition. Albany is one of the richest aristocrats in England, and also a dissolute, selfish, old fool. Along for the ride are his wife Constance, six of their fourteen spoiled children, fifteen of nineteen servants, an aging parrot named Prince Talleyrand, the staghound Tintamarre, and a gaggle of American talent hired to ease their way, including Toussaint Charbonneau, the guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition many years previous.
The first noticeable feature of SIN KILLER, the start of a four-book series, is the lengthy cast of players requiring a two-page character list. In addition to all those on the boat, there's a couple dozen ashore - Indians, trappers, and such - to provide local color. Chief among these is the SIN KILLER, a young trapper named Jim Snow, who has an exaggerated sense of God-fearing righteousness and an awkward way with women.
Since McMurtry's tales of the Old West are, for its characters, affairs perilous to life and limb, I immediately expected some of the English crowd to soon become victims of misadventure. (After all, such a large number is a heavy load to carry.) I wasn't disappointed.
It's apparent early on that the main protagonist of the book, and I suspect the series, is Tasmine, Lord Berrybender's independent and willful oldest daughter. Nothing scares her, not even her Old Man. And I expect the villain of the piece, the cruel, old Aleut-Russian squaw Draga, who passes herself off as a sorceress, won't scare Tasmine either if and when their paths cross. (Draga is a psycho in the grand tradition of other McMurtry psychos such as Blue Duck and Mox Mox. Remember them?)
Judging from this first installment, there are a couple of reasons I don't think the Berrybender saga will be the author's best work. First of all, crucial events happen relatively quickly without too much plot or character development. Perhaps, as McMurtry gets older, he's driven to get it written and published faster. (You never know when you're going to be ambushed and scalped by savages.) Secondly, a lot of the action and dialogue has a slapstick quality about it that seems forced. However, at 300 pages, SIN KILLER is a quick, engaging read.
I loved McMurtry's LONESOME DOVE trilogy. (The 1989 miniseries adaptation of that title starring Robert Duvall is my favorite western of all time.) While perhaps not presaging such excellence, this first volume of the Berrybender epic left me looking forward to the next. Oh, and I hope Prince Talleyrand continues to survive. Like Gus's pigs in LD, he's very cool.
Rating: 4
Summary: A gothic western
Comment: If you've been nostalgic for the years when Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Maverick were hits on television, take heart. Larry McMurtry is still cranking out the gothic westerns.
SIN KILLER is the first offering of a four-volume work set along the Missouri River in the 1830's. An English family that includes Lord and Lady Berrybender and their fourteen children along with their entourage is bent on exploring the untamed American West. The cast of characters numbers fifty-eight (Don't worry, there's a glossary), headed by Tasmin Berrybender, a willful young lady who falls in love with Jim Snow (think Jim Bridger) and is nonplused when he doesn't hang on her every word and deed. The other plot line involves how often Lord Albany Berrybender gets himself in some kind of pickle, shooting off his toes at one point, getting caught in a blizzard in another.
Twelve-year-old Mary Berrybender was perhaps the most engaging character. She is erudite beyond her years and has mysterious powers, the ability to sniff out edible roots, Jerusalem artichokes, tubers, onions.
Ever since LONESOME DOVE and Blue Duck, I've been impressed with McMurtry's facility with Indian names. In this one, we've got Big White, The Hairy Horn, Neighing Horses, Blue Thunder, and Cat Head. Three of these are old men being escorted back home from a parley in Washington D.C. by Toussaint Charbonneau (the guide on the Louis and Clark expedition). He keeps losing them when the steamboat snags on a sandbar.
There's lots of ravaging and fornication going on, rather much if you're the prudish sort. McMurtry is having a wonderful time making fun of nineteenth century aristocracy. SIN KILLER would qualify as a comic novel if so many characters weren't falling down stairs breaking their necks or being hacked to death by axes. The novel also comes to a screeching halt, abrupt, even for a four-part novel.
Rating: 1
Summary: Hugely disappointing!
Comment: After enjoying McMurtry's masterpiece "Lonesome Dove," I had high expectations for this book. However, I can honestly say that it is one of the worst books I have had the misfortune of reading. The numerous characters are unlikely caricatures and the rapidly occurring events are equally ridiculous. There is never an opportunity to understand or care about any of the main characters, and each surprising turn left me rolling my eyes and wishing the book would simply end and spare me the trouble. The tongue-in-cheek language used both in the narrative and in the dialogue suggest that it was meant to be a farce, but the plot unfolds with such ponderous self-importance that I wonder what the author could possibly have been thinking.
 |
Title: The Wandering Hill : The Berrybender Narratives, Book 2 by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0743451422 Publisher: Pocket Star Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: By Sorrow's River : The Berrybender Narratives, Book 3 by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0743233042 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
 |
Title: Boone's Lick : A Novel by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0671040588 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Folly and Glory : A Novel by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0743233050 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 04 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Sacagawea's Nickname: Essays on the American West by Larry McMurtry ISBN: 0940322927 Publisher: New York Review of Books Pub. Date: 09 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
