The old boy still has it: Robert B. Parker's story of Wyatt Earp.
Written: Aug 24 '01 (Updated Aug 24 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: Fine return to form for Parker; economically written and enjoyable.
Cons: Familiar territory for most of us, which diminishes the suspense.
The Bottom Line: This isn't meant to be a towering epic, and it isn't; just a thoughtful, enjoyable, good-hearted Western. It's great to see Mr. Parker recapture his old magic.
toby_baldwin's Full Review: Gunman's Rhapsody Books
Having been disappointed with Potshot, Robert B. Parker's latest Spenser novel, I had little hope that his foray into the old West would be much better. Potshot was set in modern Arizona, but tried to recapture the feeling of a classic Western, complete with a showdown at the end. I thought it was a dud, and I was afraid Gunman's Rhapsody, his telling of the Wyatt Earp story, would be as well.
It isn't. Instead, it displays the strengths of Parker's writing. The language is lean and mean, and much more is implied than is said. This economy of words is not taken to an absurd extreme a la Hemingway, but has more meaning packed into it than one might expect in popular fiction. Take, for instance, this passage in which we learn about Wyatt's relationship with Mattie, his common-law wife:
"Before he went to bed Wyatt put some wood into the big iron stove in the parlor. He left the bedroom door open so the heat would spread. He put his revolver on the floor beside the bed and got in under the heavy quilt where Mattie lay on her back. He could smell the whiskey on her breath. As he settled in, she turned away from him on her side, her back to him. He didn't mind. He felt no desire. When he was with her he felt leaden.
"Helps keep the bed warm, he thought. Good for something."
As you can see, Mattie gets fairly unkind treatment here, but I found the passage and many others like it very effective. The book contains some details about the setting and enough sensory images to make it real, but Parker never digresses into lengthy discussions of the scenery like Zane Grey and sometimes even Louis L'Amour did. The language is sharp, and I never sensed Parker was not in full control of the narrative. The humor is dry and flows naturally from the characters and situations; the violence is jarring but understated.
Everyone who has seen the movie Tombstone or any of the other movies on the subject (Wyatt Earp, The Gunfight at OK Corral) knows the basics of the plot, and this book doesn't do anything too far off of what the others did in terms of story. The Wyatt this story made me envision, however, is much classier and larger and life than the one played by Kurt Russell. Likewise with Josie Marcus; she annoyed me in Tombstone, but is likeable here.
Although Parker has written mostly detective fiction, his doctorate in literate shows through at times in the Spenser novels, and it can be annoying. He has favorite quotes and allusions that recur constantly in those novels, particularly the most recent of the series. Thankfully, Parker leaves those aside here (along with several other annoying habits I discussed in my review of Potshot). The literary background actually helps him here, lending philosophical depth to the spare dialogue and descriptions.
At the heart of the book is the account of the bond between the Earp brothers. Their macho code doesn't allow them to express their feelings blatantly, of course, but Parker does a great job of making the feeling come across in their actions and the things they don't say. That could be annoying and cheesy in the hands of a lesser craftsman, but Parker pulls it off with dignity and grace.
The most surreal the language gets is in the account of what is known as the gunfight at the OK Corral. Parker describes, "Everything seemed to be happening soundlessly at the bottom of a clear lake." When the action actually starts, rather than an unrealistic detailed play-by-play, we see it how those involved might have seen it: a confusing succession of shouts, frenetic activity, and gunshots, followed by a summation of who is dead and wounded and who is still standing.
Despite knowing how the story turns out, as the tension built between the Earps and their enemies (the Clantons, the McLaurys, Johnny Behan, and others), I found myself caught up in the story.
One major redeeming factor for me in the film Tombstone was Val Kilmer's unabashedly over-the-top Doc Holliday. Doc is different here--no babbling about "I'm your huckleberry," or any such nonsense--but just as volatile, self-destructive, and fun.
The story works because it is a good-hearted story. It glorifies things like loyalty and keeping promises. The most questionable aspect of Wyatt's integrity, both in the story and in history, as far as I know, is his abandonment of Mattie. Like Tombstone, this book lets Wyatt off the hook for that by making her beyond help, and further exonerates him by pointing out in the Epilogue that he stayed faithful to Josie for the rest of his life.
Approximately four times in the story Parker inserts a few pages of newspaper stories and advertisements from the era. They appear to have been chosen because they caught his fancy rather than for any relevance to the story. They worked well for me as well-placed chances for me to catch a breath (not that this book makes you work that hard, but they break things up nicely). The book ends with a one-page Epilogue that gives one-liners telling how the lives of the characters turned out. This also worked well for me, and I put the book down satisfied.
All told, this was a nice piece of work. The language had elegance; even the dialogue had real depth without seeming out of place in the mouths of those using it. Anachronism-seekers could probably find some here, but not many. I was worried going in that this would be yet another example of historical figures rewritten with twentieth (or I guess twenty-first) century ways of thinking and talking, but no worries there. Parker is too careful for that. Instead he delivers a story that is well-paced but exciting, poignant but humorous, simple but deep. The 290 pages are relatively small with decent size font, so this is a quick read. This isn't meant to be a towering epic, and it isn't; just a thoughtful, enjoyable, good-hearted Western.
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