By Sorrow's River

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.

Rating:
Summary: Lively and Unpredictable --- Definitely Worth the Wait!
Review: The settling of the United States by European interests has within the past 100 years swung radically between glorification and vilification in the telling. Larry McMurty's Berrybender Narratives, now in its third volume with the publication of BY SORROW'S RIVER, takes a middle, and more realistic, course. One comes away from the pages of each volume wondering how the genetic strain of the pioneers endured. Mutilation, and likely death, came suddenly and without warning from multiple sources, whether by animal, nature or fellow human beings.

BY SORROW'S RIVER follows the narrative thread of its two predecessors, SIN KILLER and THE WANDERING HILL, in that it follows what is left of the Berrybender family on their ill-fated trek through the unsettled Western frontier. Lord Berrybender, the besotted, irredeemable family patriarch, is the catalyst for this journey. He is determined to hunt more and more buffalo, even as his family members and his bodily appendages are whittled away by accident and hostile design. It is Tasmin Berrybender, the Lord's irrepressible daughter, who remains the focus of the narrative. Married to Jim Snow, the Sin Killer in the first novel, and yet almost desperately in love with the (almost) non-responsive Pomp Charbonneau, Tasmin is a fish out of water in the American West but seems to be the only crew member capable of dealing with her surroundings.

BY SORROW'S RIVER chronicles the Berrybender trek across the Great Plains toward Santa Fe. It is by far the most interesting and fastest-moving of the Berrybender volumes to date. This is not to slight its predecessors; it is simply an acknowledgment that McMurtry, having ensconced the nucleus of his characters in place, can now introduce new characters and situations at will. And what a motley, entertaining group he introduces! There are a pair of journalists --- one British, one French --- who are set on crossing the Plains via a hot air balloon. Their appearance is at once uproarious and poignant, for Le Partezon, a legendary and feared Sioux war chief, sees the end of his people foretold in the presence of this rudimentary but still revolutionary air travel. There is The Ear Taker, an Indian whose specialty is creeping up on his victims while they sleep and slicing a trophy ear off with a razor-sharp knife. He cannot be caught because he has never been seen. There are hardships to be endured, and death is an ever-present companion.

McMurtry keeps his narrative lively and unpredictable. One never knows when a dialogue between characters will be interrupted by sudden and irrevocable violence --- which, by the way, is a mainstay of the book. McMurtry does not shrink from graphic descriptions; if you've been tempted to switch to a vegan diet, but you've never had the impetus to make the jump, some of the descriptions of cattle slaughtering in this book may be enough to help you break your meat-eating habits. BY SORROW'S RIVER is not for the faint of heart or, for that matter, the weak of gag reflex.

You can heighten your enjoyment of BY SORROW'S RIVER by reading SIN KILLER and THE WANDERING HILL first, if only to gain a feel and familiarity for each of the characters and their situations. Don't get too attached to anyone, however. McMurtry won't hesitate to kill off a sympathetic character, though he does not do so gratuitously. Practically every word of BY SORROW'S RIVER serves to advance the plot along in some way. The only downside to this fine saga is that a year will be too long to wait for the final volume.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: Another Berrybender Bomb
Review: This book is the third in the Berrybender series and hopefully the last. I can hardly believe that the same man who wrote Lonesome Dove wrote this loser! Did he hire a ghost writer to do this mess? It is the worst of the series. The others were bad too
The book had little or no plot, the characters were week and undeveloped and in general was a very poor book! I'm glad I got it from the library and didn't spend good money on it.
Don Dimmick
Rogersville, TN

Rating:
Summary: A Violent But Engaging Look at the Old West
Review: This continues the Berrybender Saga - a seamless continuation with more of the same violence and romance that has populated the first two volumes in this 4 book set. McMurtry is a good writer in that he give you enough descriptions to make you feel a part of the story and enough character "thoughts" to give you insight into their presumed take on all the violence and uncertainty that surrounds them; while delivering some interesting history about a time when the West was a frontier, and change was afoot.

Rating:
Summary: The Saga Continues
Review: This is by far the longest of the first three Berrybender books. I got the feeling that McMurtry decided he liked the story and characters after the first two short but engaging chronicles and decided to add some heft to this follow-on.

The Berrybenders, the dis-functional fictional family of the old American West, are journeying with their contingent of Mountain Men, Indian joiners and others from the Annual Green River Mountain Man join-up to Bent's Fort, a real trading post on the Arkansas River.

In this breezy tale, McMurtry joins the stories (if not always the destinies) of the Barrybenders, Indian warrior chiefs like The Partezon (Partisan - get it!) the real life Kit Carson, Pomp Charbonneau and the Sin Killer, aka Jim Snow who improbably marries Tasmin Berrybender, the protagonist of much of the story and its driving force.

Part adventure, part historical fiction, large part soap opera, the characters weave romance, trysts, witty dialogue, improbable meetings (two European journalists in an early hot air balloon) and blood, death and mayhem in this engaging escape novel.

I still can't decide if McMurtry is sketching some kind of cartoonish caricature of western tales, or just decided to dash off a fun tale packed with as many odd ball (and mostly two dimensional) characters as he could invent. Either way, the series engages and remains good mind candy if one knows not to expect another Lonesome Dove.


Rating:
Summary: Third time's charm?
Review: Well, I must concur that this the third of the Berrybender Narratives may not be the best of the three, but I still find the farcical characters and the historical characters who are woven throughout all three books memorable and generally fun. I guess you can't top Lonesome Dove in some folks eyes, but I will remember Tasmin and her scout husband for a long time as they are larger than life, just like the whole crew that travels those primitive 1830's Indian "infested" trails of the Berrybender entourage's pilgrimmage.

If western fiction that contains larger than life situations and dilemmas fascinates you, this McMurtry is a suitable final installation for you. If you like to read books in a series, you must read this one to finish off this set.

Again, there are gorey parts and reprehensible actions by fantastical inhumane seeming humans. But there is also solid entertainment. Dispel the winter doldrums and polish off a great writer's latest effort.