Buffalo Girls Cst

Rating:
Summary: entertaining....but
Review: I didnt find this book on the same level with Lonesome Dove. It is a good story, but I would not say extremely engaging. I didnt like the interruptions of letter-writing, or the surficial style of writing.

Rating:
Summary: IT WAS A GREAT BOOK, BUT NOT NEAR AS GOOD A LONESOME DOVE
Review: I really liked this book, but it made me depressed. It was anything but predictible, and the book was great... but the movie, let me put it this way... SUCKED! It did not follow the book whatsoever. The book is a helluva lot better. Don't waste your time on the movie if you're planning on seeing it. If you liked anything that Larry McMurtry has written you'll like this one.

Rating:
Summary: Slow and boring at times.
Review: I'm glad I finished this book simply for the last lines spoken. Classic! Suffer through some very boring dialog and storytelling for this. McMurtry knows how to end a book.

Rating:
Summary: eh
Review: I'm honestly very surprised by how many people enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the beginning and even part of the middle but the book just kept going for too long. It was rambling, and not in a good way, and barely seemed to have a point. The ending was just weird, though I had an inkling as to what it would be. (But then I had never heard of the rumors that the ending is apparently based on so perhaps that's why I found it weird.) I think that you could find a far better book about the same people if you just want to read a story about Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, and others.

Rating:
Summary: For Women Interested in Historica Women of the West!
Review: Many historic characters are mentioned in the novel, however, the emphasis is on Calamity Jane and her letters to her daughter fathered by Wild Bill Hickok. We know the West is passing when the characters must join a Wild West show and tour Europe. There is poignancy and a feeling of loss. We care about these noble scalawags! A good read!
Evelyn Horan - teacher/counselor/author
Jeannie, A Texas Frontier Girl - Books One - Three

Rating:
Summary: Nice Tale
Review: Maybe if this book wasn't by McMurtry I would have enjoyed it more. However, I have come to expect such great things from him that I was disappointed. Just not the same high caliber characters I have come to expect.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Maybe if this book wasn't by McMurtry I would have enjoyed it more. However, I have come to expect such great things from him that I was disappointed. Just not the same high caliber characters I have come to expect.

Rating:
Summary: Not McMurtry's best, but fun to read anyway
Review: McMurtry's "westerns" are usually big sprawling sages, brimming with great characters, over-flowing with plot developments, packed with humor and tragedy. They make you feel the openness of America's west. In such novels as Dead Man's Walk or The Berrybender Narratives, we get a sense of what the west was like just as white men began to explore it. We see it through the eyes of simple folk, usually, as well as through the Indians. We understand how each side views the other. We understand how cruel the land and circumstance can be.

Other books, such as Streets of Laredo, show the west as still wild but becoming ever more tame. The Indians are less and less of a threat, towns are growing, the "wild" people who inhabited the land are feeling cramped. The buffalo and beaver are gone.

BUFFALO GIRLS fits into the latter category. But the books I mentioned above are different in a couple of key ways. 1) they are longer and more ambitious in scope, 2) paradoxically, the feel more controlled and unified in vision. BUFFALO GIRLS has a smaller cast than most McMurtry sagas, and the time frame covered (except for a hasty final couple of chapters) is fairly short. Yet by the end we feel as though we've kinda slopped all over the place.

Don't get me wrong, there is much to admire. Good characters (Calamity Jane is the "hero" of the book, but she often takes a back seat in the narrative, almost completely disappearing for chapters at a time) are here. Especially good is No Ears, the elderly Indian who remembers the old times and now has no real place among his own kind, so he hangs on with Jane and her male friends...old trappers, scouts and early settlers. He's well thoughout out, sympathetic and funny. We also have Dora DuFran, Jane's great friend who runs a saloon/brothel, and her long-time love, Blue, a man she shares great passions with, but can't get him to marry her. Another key character is Buffalo Bill. The book shows us how his famous show is put together, and paints Bill as a sympathic character.

The best part of the book comes in the middle. Jane and her friends, including No Ears, sign on to the Wild West show, and take an ocean voyage to England. Their experiences in England are terrific fun...well-written, imaginative and full of unexpected turns. There are some scenes at the London Zoo, of all places, that are lovely.

So, while the book has much to offer, it is also weighed down by a nearly constant state of sadness. All the characters are constantly thinking about their own deaths. Some DO die, of course, it wouldn't be a McMurtry book otherwise. But there's a mood of deep despair over the book, and while I admire McMurtry for creating this mood, it isn't always the most pleasant thing to endure. I found that unlike many of his other books, this one wasn't hard to put down. It's heavy going, because of the mood, and McMurtry's somewhat slopping pacing. When you're done, you feel like you've read a book twice as long.

I do recommend the book for fans of McMurtry. Even his lesser efforts are worthwhile. However, if you're new to McMurtry and want to try him...don't start here. Try the Lonesome Dove sage, preferably from the first book. You won't be sorry you did.

Rating:
Summary: A very enjoyable book.
Review: McMurty makes the characters in this book come alive. You particularly develop a fondness for Calamity Jane. This book takes an insightful look at the Wild West as it becomes a civilized place. All in all, Buffalo Girls is worth a look for anyone who enjoys stories about the West.

Rating:
Summary: funny, sad, haunting--vintage McMurtry
Review: Realistic, funny, sad, moving, stays with you. All the reasons I keep reading McMurtry, even re-reading, every chance I get. Will move you to tears at the end, completely unexpected. Thought about it and thought about it afterwards. Where does he get his knowledge of women? It never ceases to amaze me, from Calamity Jane to Aurora Greenway, he never misses. A MUST READ for anyone who loves a good story with real people.