Appaloosa (Mass Market Paperback)

As you may recall, the most excellent LONESOME DOVE (and its prequels and sequel), followed the careers of two Texas Rangers. Here, Virgil Cole and his trail pardner, Everett Hitch, are two itinerant lawmen hired by the town of Appaloosa to free the place from the depredations of local rancher Randall Bragg and his bullying cowhands. Bragg had killed a previous town marshal and one of his deputies. Anyway, Virgil becomes the new marshal, and Everett his deputy.

The chief delight of APPALOOSA is Virgil's penchant for laconic dialogue. Why string several words together when only one or two will suffice? Hitch and Cole manage to communicate just fine because they've been together for years, but a third party to any conversation or exchange of serious views is left discomfited. Perhaps the best example comes towards the book's end when a town alderman suggests that Cole's methods are, perhaps, a bit too unorthodox for the settlement's reputation.

There is the de rigueur shoot out between our heroes and the Bad Guys, but its description is so truncated that I would've missed it had I lost focus for even a brief moment. And there's a confrontation with hostile Native Americans in which the Indians eventually come across as just some young bucks out for a few laughs and are just kidding around with Whitey.

The substantive essence of the storyline is the friendship between Virgil and Everett, a friendship which causes the latter to take an action so drastic at the conclusion - brought on by a fickle woman, of course - that it emphasized the relationship's value to the man. Indeed, Hitch becomes the real hero of the story in a poignant sort of way.

I don't read many Westerns. (Indeed, I only read LONESOME DOVE after seeing the Emmy-winning, book-based miniseries starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.) Perhaps it's because I grew up in the 50s and 60s when Westerns were still staple TV fare and I came to realize that, no matter how good the material, there's only so much you can do with six-guns, horses, Indians, saloon girls, fast draw face-offs in the street, bank robbers, cattle, and sagebrush. APPALOOSA hasn't changed my mind in that respect.

Virgil Cole earns his living as a town marshal who cleans up lawless towns. For fifteen years, Cole has been backed by his shotgun toting acolyte, Everett Hitch. Before they came to Appaloosa, no one has seriously threatened them.

Appaloosa has been plagued by Randall Bragg and his hands, who take what they want . . . including their pleasure with the town's women. Bragg killed the last marshal, and the town desperately wants to get rid of Bragg. Cole and Hitch take the job.

Cole finds more than he expected when he finds himself attracted to the mercurial Mrs. French who plays hearts better than she plays the piano. That attraction both expands his horizons and opens himself to a new source of vulnerability.

In a straight-up fight, Cole and Hitch would have no trouble taking on Bragg and his men. But Bragg is a wily snake in the grass who knows a lot of tricks. Cole and Hitch find themselves up against new challenges that they find quite difficult to meet.

Mr. Parker also employs the metaphor of an Appaloosa stallion and his mares to help develop his story. I found that the metaphor didn't quite work for me, but perhaps you will find it more compelling than I did.

Much of the story involves a plot that deftly explores the relationships among Cole, Hitch, Mrs. French and Bragg. From those interactions, we learn about their characters.

For me, the characters didn't come to life. The characters also weren't interesting enough to sustain me. As a result, the story carried me along only by its plot which provides plenty of drama and tension. In making the characters so one-dimensional, Mr. Parker writes what is almost a parody of a Western novel rather than a good example of one. Because Westerns are full of laconic dialogue, there's less of an opportunity to experience Mr. Parker's great writing.

I hope Mr. Parker continues to write more about the Old West because it's a good setting for his stories. But he owes us more complex and rewarding characters . . . and stronger metaphors.