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Summary: McMurtry Western with Comedic Overtones
Review: Lonesome Dove, this isn't. I'd guess that many of the other reviews on this page have the same statement somewhere among their words.McMurtry has written a different kind of western than his classic. Sin Killer moves very quickly, is a short book and barely develops characters. In fact, much of their background we learn through dialogue as the story progresses. McMurtry's other books were long, with character backgrounds, wonderfully written prose that made the books read quickly even at four and five hundred pages. Sin Killer is a scant 300 pages in paperback, much less because the 40-50 chapters often end with 2/3 of a page of white space. I don't know if McMurtry set out to write more sparsely, but he has succeeded. It is an interesting book and a good read. The dialogue crackles and McMurtry's gifted story telling skills shine. Here, the frontier is the Mississippi River, and east of that. It is the Year of Our Lord 1830, as one of the characters intones repeatedly. The Berrybenders, landed and rich English aristocracy, have hired a steam wheeler to ply the Missouri so Papa can hunt buffalo and other North American delicacies never before caught in the sights of his European guns. His large family, large staff, various hirelings and other passengers are out of place on the American frontier -- and therein lies the plot drivers for the story. As the Berrybedners steam north, winter threatens and Indians are always a menace. Into their self-indulgent lives comes Jim Snow, the Sin Killer. A young mountain man whose righteousness and ferocity in battle have earned him the respect afforded the ruthless wild places, the Sin Killer is a loner -- until he meets Tasmin Berrybender, Lord Berrybender's eldest daughter. She is the protagonist of the story and the only one of the English ensemble who -- although as insufferable as the rest of the lot, recognizes the boorishness and haughtiness in herself even while she uses it to devastating effectiveness in getting her way and commanding almost every situation. Both Tasmin and the Sin Killer have met their matches in each other. He has found a woman unlike any other who confounds him with her willful ways. She has found a man who lusts for her without thought of estates, station or status gained and who allows her to jettison completely the air of old Europe which she finds utterly stifling and abhorrent. McMurtry follows the English horde as they plow through the waters of the Missouri and American sensibilities. Their intersection with a frontier that respects no titles and recognizes no pedigree provides comedy, outlandishness and a pretty good story.
Rating:
Summary: A green parrot and a boatload of Brits
Review: 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: 
Summary: Hugely disappointing!
Review: 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.
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Summary: AN AUTHORITATIVE READING OF AN EPIC TALE
Review: Returning to the setting he captured so memorably in "Lonesome Dove," Pulitzer Prize winner Larry McMurtry again focuses on the untamed American West. Noted stage/screen actor Alfred Molina gives a vividly authoritative reading to "Sin Killer," an epic tale of an aristocratic English family who journey up the Missouri River to see our country's 1830s frontier. Planning to hunt Lord Albany Berrybender boards a river boat accompanied by assorted Berrybenders and a retinue of servants. Family members include his wife who is ill prepared for the brutalities of this wilderness, and children Bobbety, Buffum, Mary and Tasmin. Without a doubt, Tasmin is independent and brave, doing more than her share throughout the trip and overseeing all. That is until she meets one who needs no overseeing - Jim Snow. Called Sin Killer, Snow is a good looking, irascible maverick. He's a religious zealot who divides his time between preaching and battling Indians. Tasmin and Snow fall in love. Few need to be reminded of the brilliance of McMurtry's storytelling or his remarkable prose, stunning in its clarity. The first in an announced tetralogy, Sin Killer is as awesome as was our frontier and totally captivating. - Gail Cooke
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Summary: A gothic western
Review: 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:
Summary: A Different Kind of Western
Review: Do not start reading this book thinking that it will be another Lonesome Dove. It is not, but it is a great book in its own right. I started out reading Sin Killer thinking it was another McMurtry western but decided it was a black comedy western with a lot of slap stick through in for good measure. Once you discover this, settle back for a read of your life. Sin Killer is the first part of a planned four-part epic about the Berrybender family, a rich spoiled family who comes from England in the 1840s to spend some time on western frontier shooting every live animal they can find. But, in their avarice, they do not realize just how dangerous the old West can be to them instead. The flamboyant and eccentric cast of characters make their way on their luxurious steamboat up the Missouri River. Little do they know what awaits them. Foremost, there is a eldest daughter Tasmin who often disembarks from the boat for treks of her own. There, she meets Sin Killer, a wild--yet fanatically religious--man of the frontier. In a short space of time, they meet, she falls for him, they get married and she gets pregnant, all before returning to the steamer. While she is gone, her mother falls down the stairs and dies, her father shoots himself in the foot and several of the entourage disappear in the wilds of the frontier to be kidnaped by Indians. My favorite character was Prince Tallyrand, but you will have to read the book to see who that is. I really didn't know what to make of this book, yet I was fascinated by it and could not put it down. I am now waiting eagerly for the next installment to see what happens to this odd family and Sin Killer in the early American West.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Easy Read
Review: This is the first of four stories about an English Noble, Lord Berrybender, and his family on their travels through the American West in 1832. This book has an unusual Pickwick Papers style plot where one event leads to another. Unlike the Pickwick Papers there is plently of violence as the huge cast of characters is gradually winnowed down. Many of the deaths are abrupt and comical. The book is entertaining and unpredictable to say the least. It is one of the more unpredictable stories I have come across in recent years.
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Summary: A Tetralogy?
Review: I just finished reading "Sin Killer" which is the first of a four book "tetralogy" on the American West in the era soon after the Lewis and Clark Expedition. My initial reaction is, why a tetralogy? "Sin Killer" is a 300 page book with 62 chapters (62 Chapters!) and plenty of conversation. A little editing and a slightly smaller yet still very readable font and this is a 200 page book. Why aren't all four books included in one epic? At the price of approximately $25 per volume I think that is a fair question. Should "Lonesome Dove" have been a 5-parter? Actually, it was a trilogy of sorts with a present future and past set of books but they were all full-volumed. Larry McMurtry has always been good with keeping his stories moving at a quick pace and loaded with plenty of conversation and interpersonal relationships. In his later novels, he also has an over abundance of outrageous characters. "Sin Killer" certainly fits this mode. We find a European menagerie of off beat travelers many of whom are gone from the story before we have even the slightest idea of who they are. The main characters begin to emerge but it's obvious more will be needed to complete a four book saga. Usually Mr. McMurtry spends a bit more time setting up his characters than he did here. The action is constant and the book move from one crisis scene to another. However, all the action can't seem to hide the impression that the author cranked this one out way too quickly. I doubt that very many readers have found themselves endeared by the characters that are left. I suspect the sales of volume two will be off considerably from volume one. However, the voyagers are just about 100 miles from where I live so this reader WILL get volume two and hope for a significant improvement.
Rating:
Summary: Hugely disappointing!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: McMurtry has done it again!!
Review: This is going to be a great series.As with all of Larry's novels, I contend they are completely different from one another.The first one I read was Cadallic Jack and it got me hooked.At this point I have read most of his books.Surprisingly,the one I haven't read is Lonesome Dove;but I have the video and have watched it several times.Like I said, I find every book different,'Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen',Terms of Endearment','The Last Picture Show'are totally different from one another.
So it is with 'Sin Killer'.Here Larry introduces us to a world of wealthy, wacky, europeans trying to make their way westward in the mid 1830's.It is hilarious and pitiful at the same time as this band of misfits go from one unbelievable event to the next.There are an awful lot of characters involved,but the two page summary of characters at the front of the book helps make it all manageable.I even put a tab there for quick access.A photo or drawing for these characters would have been a great and different addition to the book.'A picture being worth a thousand words'idea would apply here.
There are quite a lot of Customer Reviews, and readers seem to love or hate this book, with few falling in the middle. I doubt if any of McMurtry's other books have left readers so divided.
I happen to think this set of Berrybender Narratives will rank alongside 'Lonesome Dove' and there will be a lot of discussion as to which is best.However;these discussions will never be resolved,because two things so different just simply can't be compared.
I just can't wait to read the next books in the tetralogy.
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