Rating: 
Summary: "It's a poor prophet who can't even save himself."
Review:
Now that I,ve just completed the 3rd book in the series,'By Sorrow's River',I am more convinced than ever that one benefits by getting these books together and reading them all,one right after another.Tonight is Christmas Eve and a little Elf told me that 'Folly and Glory' is awaiting under the Christmas Tree.
'By Sorrow's River' was a fascinating continuation of the spellbinding saga of the Berrybender expedition in the early West.
Every page produced another glimpse of this most unusual adventure.McMurtry continues to come up with fantastic lines ,observations and soul-searching thoughts.I guess this is what makes him one of the great writers around today.
A few of my favourites:
"Life was never so good or so bad as one thought-"
"These damnable American freedoms-this democracy!-were clearly
inimicable to sound British order.Democracy could ruin a good
servant faster than gin."
"What a pity there are no stocks anymore."
"There's no calm like the calm of a battlefield,once the
killing's over."
"We'll all leave husks someday,somewhere.Let's just bury them
and go along."
"I don't even feel that I'm in a place anymore.Places have boundaries or borders,and this goddamn place has neither."
"I like to think of Eternity as having a constant temperature,
though.In the great peace of infinity there should be neither
hot nor cold-one can't say that of Neuvo Mexico."
A great read;can't wait to read the finale!
Rating: 
Summary: Still Shooting But Still Missing
Review: 4. By Sorrows River by Larry McMurtry
Third book in the Berrybinder series, this carries the menagerie to Santa Fe, MN. The book is an easy and interesting read because McMurtry creates such vivid characters and incidents. Unfortunately, he does not have a compelling driving force for the narrative; the characters carry it along in picaresque style. It is rather like being on a raft with them as they flow aimlessly down the river of life. Still, can't wait for the next in the series. As long as Larry churns them out, I'll read. Still looking for the heart of Lonesome Dove.
Rating: 
Summary: More of the same in tetralogy
Review: As the third installment of Larry McMurtry's four-part frontier epic -- "a story of love, passion and death" -- hits stands, many readers are wondering if the Berrybender Narratives are really Old World farces wrapped in a buffalo robe, or merely a confabulation of odd characters acting out an exceedingly long matinee on the vast stage of the West.To be honest, it's not easy to tell. While some scenes in "By Sorrow's River" -- part three in the tetralogy that started with "Sin Killer" and "The Wandering Hill" -- are occasionally absurd and hilarious, others are grisly and exceedingly violent. So maybe it's unwise to pigeon-hole these three books as simply "farce" or "western epic." Nor is it clear if McMurtry is pushing the limits of modern commercial storytelling, or just churning out a long story filled with an extraordinary collection of characters who don't intimately engage. Nonetheless, "By Sorrow's River," continues the saga of the assertive and independent Lady Tasmin Berrybender as her peculiar British family continues on a western expedition in the 1830s, the days of trappers, scalpers and traders. In this segment, the action all takes place between a Green River rendezvous in the Rockies and Mexico. Still, while the character elements of a first-class farce are in place, the story simply doesn't unfold farcically. It's not even a very good western saga, when one considers its author previously told the greatest western epic ever in "Lonesome Dove." The simultaneous beauty and menace of the western landscape is not as integral, for one. How awful for an artist to have set the bar too high too soon! So if book reviews are essential consumer advocacy, a conclusion is not difficult: If you liked "Sin Killer" and "The Wandering Hill," you'll find "By Sorrow's River" as delightful as a third helping of dessert. If you didn't, you'll likely not find anything to kindle your interest here. And if you haven't read any of them, don't start with the third installment, for heaven's sake. This book's strength is in its rapidly unfolding action, but its characters are nowhere near as deftly drawn nor as sympathetic -- nor even as entertaining -- as such icons as Gus McCrae, Aurora Greenway or Sonny Crawford. Tasmin Berrybender is the most fully developed, but remains less engaging. An author's characters needn't supercede their forebears, but it's difficult to explain if a consummate character-builder like McMurtry suddenly isn't turning out legendary characters any more.
Rating:
Summary: Too much Tasmin
Review: I'm a big McMurtry fan, but after the first two books of the series I became weary of Tasmin. The pace slows considerably, with her repetitive musings and reflections on "What am I doiing here?" I started skipping her chapters with no loss of coherence in the narrative. Her husband Sin Killer is far more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Inaccuracy
Review: Larry McMurtrey books are not great literature (well, maybe with the exception of LONESOME DOVE) but they are a lot of fun to read. I especially enjoy listening to these on books on tape or CD. The Berrybender series is no exception. Many Westerns are written for a male audience but Larry McMurtrey has in Tasmin Berrybender a strong female character with many quirks, supplemented by her sisters and stepmother. However, this last book had me yelling at cassette tape player in my car at the end. Couldn't Larry McMurtrey look in his giant bookstore for a biography of "Pomp" Jean Baptiste Charbonneau to learn that Pomp lives until 1866, participates in the California Gold Rush and escorts Mormons across the Rockies? Glaring inaccuracies like this will aggravate readers who like historical fiction but cannot abide this much stretching of the truth. But now I'll wait for the fourth volume in the series, perhaps Pomp isn't really dead and will do an "X Files" reappearance.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Inaccuracy
Review: Larry McMurtrey books are not great literature (well, maybe with the exception of LONESOME DOVE) but they are a lot of fun to read. I especially enjoy listening to these on books on tape or CD. The Berrybender series is no exception. Many Westerns are written for a male audience but Larry McMurtrey has in Tasmin Berrybender a strong female character with many quirks, supplemented by her sisters and stepmother. However, this last book had me yelling at cassette tape player in my car at the end. Couldn't Larry McMurtrey look in his giant bookstore for a biography of "Pomp" Jean Baptiste Charbonneau to learn that Pomp lives until 1866, participates in the California Gold Rush and escorts Mormons across the Rockies? Glaring inaccuracies like this will aggravate readers who like historical fiction but cannot abide this much stretching of the truth. But now I'll wait for the fourth volume in the series, perhaps Pomp isn't really dead and will do an "X Files" reappearance.
Rating: 
Summary: MCMURTRY FLINT AND STEEL
Review: Many people ask me just what it is I see in the works of Larry McMurtry. After all, if taken at face value, McMurtry's stories sometimes seem to be dominated by earthy, carnal themes and the trashy characters involved in them. My response to such queries is simple. As with all good literary works, I believe that one needs to look beyond McMurtry's stories and characters to the foundational dynamics that are there. "By Sorrow's River" invites the thoughtful reader to do just that. Yes there is the willful,[...]Tasmin, along with the rest of the Berrybender entourage, but there is also the innocent, constant, strong and noble Jim Snow, who, despite Tasmin's best efforts, remains his own person, living by his own creed and is never pulled down to her level. McMurtry's juxtaposition of the tawdry and the timeless explores that which is fleeting and that which is firm. Inevitably the firm and constant wins out and, like the meeting of frontier flint and steel, sparks fly. The warmth generated by such meetings is compelling and brings me back to McMurtry's work again and again and again. "By Sorrow's River", along with "Sin Killer" and "The Wandering Hill", taken at face value by western "purists" (or perhaps "delusionists" might be a better description--and there is certainly nothing wrong with the delusion of the west) are likely very frustrating. But when read like all other great literature--panning through the slime and silt in search of the nuggets that are invariably there--the results can be extremely rewarding and yes, I believe that "By Sorrow's River has gold there in abundance. Those interested in western stories for the sake of western stories, in the stereotypical west where everything falls into its proper and probable place, should stick with Louis L'Amour. Nothing against L'Amour, mind you. Let's just see, accept and appreciate the differences. Douglas McAllister
Rating:
Summary: Narratives Draw Reader In
Review: O. K., I'm a sucker for Larry M. and I enjoy MOST of what he creates. We must remember that ; 1) Everything L.M. does is eventually (and unfairly) compared to his masterwork, "L.D." Well, this Berrybender series is NOT L.D., nor is it supposed to be. Yeah, it takes place in the wild west. Yeah, it's got about a million characters. Yeah, yeah yeah! We like that! But why? Well, that takes us to ; 2) L.M. has a way of creating characters and situations that are absolutely ridiculous, horribly brutal, toe tinglingly entertaining and in the final tally, endearing and compelling to the extreme. The B-bender books follow in this thread. The books are demanding because almost everbody in them would, in "real life", be insufferable (yet we keep wanting to know more about them). Also, in the classic L.M. style we are used to, characters are painstakingly developed over hundreds of pages... just to die in nightmarish ways under savage circumstances! Hey, the B-bender books are, if nothing else, entertaining. If they want to make a mini-series, they better put it on HBO 'cause the sex just won't quit!
Rating:
Summary: Dude! This ain't Lonesome Dove?!!?
Review: O. K., I'm a sucker for Larry M. and I enjoy MOST of what he creates. We must remember that ; 1) Everything L.M. does is eventually (and unfairly) compared to his masterwork, "L.D." Well, this Berrybender series is NOT L.D., nor is it supposed to be. Yeah, it takes place in the wild west. Yeah, it's got about a million characters. Yeah, yeah yeah! We like that! But why? Well, that takes us to ; 2) L.M. has a way of creating characters and situations that are absolutely ridiculous, horribly brutal, toe tinglingly entertaining and in the final tally, endearing and compelling to the extreme. The B-bender books follow in this thread. The books are demanding because almost everbody in them would, in "real life", be insufferable (yet we keep wanting to know more about them). Also, in the classic L.M. style we are used to, characters are painstakingly developed over hundreds of pages... just to die in nightmarish ways under savage circumstances! Hey, the B-bender books are, if nothing else, entertaining. If they want to make a mini-series, they better put it on HBO 'cause the sex just won't quit!
Rating:
Summary: Narratives Draw Reader In
Review: The Berrybender Narratives is a story of English people traveling in the "wild west." Sometimes the whole story seems a bit implausible, but somehow it draws the reader along, wanting to know more about what happens to the characters. It is easy reading, good summer reading, not too deep, but an interesting story. I never intended to read all 3 books, but in the end I did. I assume Larry McMurtry is working on the 4th.
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