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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the road with the last of the Old West, 19 Aug 2008
"That is how you want to be remembered, my friends. Take a picture in your moment of conquest, when your luck is high and bullets still bounce off. That will do for the ages." - Monte Becket
Monte Becket lives with wife and young son in rural Minnesota along the Cannon River during the second decade of the 20th century. To date, Becket's one claim to wealth and fame is his wildly popular pulp Western, MARTIN BLIGH. His publisher wants more, but, lately, Monte's muse has failed him. Becket is drifting and anticipating failure as a writer, husband and father. Then one day, out of the fog on the river, a white-haired old man paddles his boat past. Enter into Monte's life boat-builder Glendon Hale, formerly Glen Dobie of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.
Hale was once married to a Mexican girl named Blue. But, sought by the Federales, Glendon deserted her never to return. Now, years later, he desires to go back and apologize to the woman he truly loved. He invites Monte to accompany him on the journey, and the latter, fearing the stagnation in his life, accepts. Along the way appears Charles Siringo, also once of the Hole-in-the-Wall, but now a self-anointed lawman of some legend, mostly constructed from books that he himself has written. Charles, now an old man himself, is in relentless pursuit of Glen Dobie for past crimes.
SO BRAVE, YOUNG AND HANDSOME is a coming-of-maturation story by Leif Enger. Its characterizations and narrative pace are reminiscent of Larry McMurtry's novels of the West, e.g. the superlative Lonesome Dove. Here, Becket rediscovers not only himself and the talents within, but also learns something about the nature of honor, friendship, love and public fame.
In the McMurtry style, the plot of Enger's book doesn't evolve to a climactic and dramatic ending. Rather, random and relatively mundane events accumulate over time to give meaning to the protagonist's life, much as they do in the real lives of you and me. Enger's writing talent enables him to tell his tale with sympathy for each of the characters and a keen eye for the story's time and place. What results is not a thriller in the popular sense, but still a book that I couldn't put down. Like Lonesome Dove [1989], it could translate to an intelligent and absorbing film of high emotional impact.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
He Left the Love of His Life to Go Rob Trains, 8 Mar 2009
In Eighteen Seventy-Something Glendon Hale was living in Mexico, an outlaw on the run. While there he married the pretty Arandano, who he called Blue. Never had he been happier. But alas, the happiness was not to last. The law got wind of Glendon, so he abandoned the love of his life, because he was afraid of jail. Not too afraid, though to go and rob trains, because once an outlaw, always an outlaw. Besides, Glendon just had this knack for avoiding and evading the authorities.
Now it's 1915, Glendon lives in Minnesota, not far from semi successful writer Monte Becket. Five years ago Becket wrote a bestselling novel, but has been plagued ever since with bad first drafts and now he's running out of money. While worrying about his problems, he sees Hale standing in a rowboat as he oars by the river which flows by Becket's home. Becket is intrigued with this man who comes to be a friend of his family.
Before long Hale tells Becket of his past and how he left Blue so long ago. Now he wants to go back and make it up to her and he'd like Becket to accompany him. Becket is torn at first, but decides to go with his wife's permission. So off he goes, leaving his wife, which made him not unlike Hale. When times get rough, leave the one you love and go off into the world to find out about yourself.
And Becket finds out plenty as the law is quickly on their trail. Becket lies for Becket to throw off the relentless Charles Siringo -- detective extraordinaire, retired from the Pinkertons, but there is that one outlaw he didn't catch -- and he'll stop an nothing to get him. Siringo overtakes them, Hale gets away, but Becket is captured and forced to become Siringo's companion as he chases across the country after Becket.
This book sometimes seems like it slows down, but it doesn't really, it's a testament to Leif Enger's talent that he can slow down the narrative even while moving the story forward. I can't say how long it's been since I enjoyed a novel as much.
This book arrived in the mail damaged. The package looked like it have been eating by a cud chewing cow, then spit into a river. It was barely dry now and the postman wanted to know did I want to file a claim. I didn't, I just wanted to read the book, so since the book was already totally trashed, I decided I couldn't hurt it anymore if I took read it into my bath.
Usually I'll devour a book this good in a single night, but it took me three with this book, as I'd decided to read it only in the tub. For three days I looked like a prune, but boy did I enjoy those hours in the tub, reading about people so real they seemed to step right off the pages. I really, really loved this book, can't you tell?
Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sweet, slow tale of love, adventure and friendship in the Wild West, 28 Aug 2009
Leif Enger continues to be a delightful teller of tales, continuing his love of the mythic West, when the world was full of adventures, heroes and villains who are not always what they seem. I was blown away by his first novel, Peace Like A River, waited a long time for this, his second, to appear. The wait has been worth it.
In an age like ours which has little innocence, the story of a time when life moved more slowly, when the land was larger, the days longer and not so frantic with choice, there's something surprisingly restful and expansive about this story of cowboys and outlaws, of detectives who spend years and years chasing 'the bad un' and the strange friendships which can spring up between men who yearn for adventure and the open land as much as they yearn for a quieter life and the love of a good woman.
Enger has what I love to read - warmth and heart. His 'bad men' can turn out to have good hearts, decency and generosity. Men (and women) do things in youth which they may regret in age.
His narrator, a one-tale-wonder author, is an excellent person to accompany us on a journey, taking in boats, trains, automobiles and horses, rodeos, movie making, turtles, orange groves and true love.
Now i suppose there may be another 7 year wait while Enger writes number 3. There's something fitting about the slow landscape he describes and his own time taken in writing!
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