Rating: 
Summary: "Travel is never as neat as one imagines it will be."
Review:
And that is how the story ends.This book is the finale of McMurtry's exciting Berrybender narratives tetralogy.I did reviews on the others;Sin Killer,Nov 30,2003;The Wandering Hill,Dec 21,2004; andSorrow's River,Dec 24,2004.
McMurtry continued this great saga,and gave us a constant stream of exciting events and always captivating characters.As with all McMurtry novels there is the element of history embellished with fiction to keep the story fresh and exciting.
I believe this saga will find its place along with what I believe to be the best ,most interesting and popular historical novel of America;namely,Gone With The Wind.Until now, there has been no equal to Mitchell's great novel;possibly McMurtry has done it.
In both of these sagas there are a host of characters and readers will have their favorites .Some will pick the main characters while others will pick some of the lesser ones.Ashley or Pittipat in GWTW and Piet Van Wely and Bess are examples who really compete with Scarlet and Rhett in GWTW as does Tasmin and Jim Snow in this story.
Again, I strongly recommend reading these books in order and one right after the other for the greatest effect.
Some of the lines I liked best were:
"There is no reasoning with grief,it wears away slowly like
the face on a coin."
"Life happens day to day."
"You can't hurry life- just got to wait it out."
"The Sin Killer was going to fall on the heathen,screaming
out the Word.His sword and his gun would then accomplish
what needed to be done."
Can't recommend it high enough.
I sure hope a Movie is in the works;it'll be a corker--can't wait!
Rating:
Summary: A Fitting Conclusion
Review: A fitting end to a great epic story. Larry McMurtry outdoes himself on the last segment of the Berrybender saga and as usual paints the West with his harsh but realistic brush. Even so, I would like to see what happenned to Tasmin and the rest of the clan but that would mean that the author would have to travel to England, a venue he is not as familiar with. However, I will not sell McMurtry short and if he is of mind, I am sure a fifth in the series could be on the shelves next year. I, for one, am hoping.
Rating:
Summary: A Fitting Conclusion
Review: A fitting end to a great epic story. Larry McMurtry outdoes himself on the last segment of the Berrybender saga and as usual paints the West with his harsh but realistic brush. Even so, I would like to see what happenned to Tasmin and the rest of the clan but that would mean that the author would have to travel to England, a venue he is not as familiar with. However, I will not sell McMurtry short and if he is of mind, I am sure a fifth in the series could be on the shelves next year. I, for one, am hoping.
Rating: 
Summary: The Berrybenders Flame out
Review: A slight change of pace from Book #3. After a lengthy stay in Santa Fe with the usual descriptions of Berrybender rhetoric and aristocratic decadence - there's a great conversation between the Mexican Governor and Albany Berrybender - the party's over as the gang hits the road again with even more death and misery. A cholera outbreak quickly changes the course of events (deux ex machina?) then the Sin Killer returns with a good old Amurrican "kill them all and let God sort it out" set piece. McMurty takes on the first person narrative/introspection of several charachters and draws a parallel between the end of the Berrybender Expedition and the Native American way of life. A melancholy ending for a unique period of time.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the last
Review: After reading By Sorrows River, I didn't think I would continue with the series, but I am glad I did. Folly and Glory is much better. Depressing? Yes. There is a lot of death in this book and it is especially hard reading about children dying. The plot was strong, the story moved quickly, and I was sad when it ended. Wish there was one more to the series.
Rating:
Summary: Read the Berrybender Saga
Review: Folly and Glory is the last of the four books in the excellent tale. You must start with the first book, Sin Killer. Each story leaves you craving more. In this book, what's left of the entorouge, leaves Santa Fe where they have been under house arrest, and make their way across the plains to St Louis. Birth, death, indians, desert, rages, affairs, adultry, murder,soldiers fancy balls, Tasamin has twins, Jim Snow lets loose the fury of the word on enemeys. This series is a must read, you cannot put it down.
Rating:
Summary: The End of the Berrybenders
Review: Folly and Glory, book four of McMurtry's Berrybender Series, continues the saga of the foppish English family and their hangers-on through the mountain man American West.
This book is both thinner and less well developed than book three of the series. The Berrybender gang start with their genteel imprisonment in Spanish Santa Fe and end up -- much reduced through cholera, Indian attacks and other ghastly means of death -- at the end of the story. I won't give it away, but there is a much reduced cast, new players, surprising relationships and improbable outcomes.
The story is gritty, with lots of hardship and a portrayal of how nasty and short frontier life could be. Historical figures populate this book (Sam Houston, Kit Carson, Jim Bowie, the Bent Brothers), but are used rather loosely and not constrained by their actual lives. This isn't a problem, their appearance certainly adds flavor to the story. Purists may mind that some of the famous die in the book decades before they did in real life, but their use to flavor the story is consistent with McMurtry's approach to this whole whimsical series.
While this book still hangs on Tasmine's whims and management of the story, she is much less a commanding and energetic figure. Occupied by children, bereaved by the death of a lover whom she couldn't quite reach in life anyway, still bewildered by her husband Jim Snow, the Sin Killer, Tasmine hasn't the energy to cause the entire encampment to rotate around her axis as she did in the previous books. Her sisters come somewhat more to the fore as do some new characters introduced in this final installment. The way the Berrybender crowd reacts to circumstance and meets life with their unusual expectations continues to propel this story forward.
As with the other books, Folly and Glory is an entertaining read. In retrospect, this series feels like a long comic strip rather than a Lonesome Dove type of deeply developed novel. While not a great or memorable read, it is entertaining and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Great summer reading
Review: I did not intend to read the whole series, the Berrybender Narratives, but it drew me along to the end, Folly and Glory. This is easy, entertaining reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great summer reading
Review: I did not intend to read the whole series, the Berrybender Narratives, but it drew me along to the end, Folly and Glory. This is easy, entertaining reading.
Rating: 
Summary: This may well be the best of The Berrybender Narratives
Review: It's so nice to see some high-profile Western projects popping up. The first was SIN KILLER, which marked the beginning of Larry McMurtry's four volumes of The Berrybender Narratives. The second was the announced republishing of the works of Louis L'Amour, commencing with a number of short story collections and continuing with the recent publication of a new edition of the immortal HONDO. And the third is the television series "Deadwood," which, in spite of its occasionally gratuitous use of crude, earthy language, may well be the best-written show currently on television. Things now come full circle with the publication of FOLLY AND GLORY, the fourth and final (at least for now) volume of The Berrybender Narratives. It is a pleasure to find that it sustains, and even surpasses, the energy of its predecessors.The Berrybender Narratives are not something you can jump into. While McMurtry is incapable of writing badly, this series is best read from the beginning, as it is most definitely a sequential narrative. FOLLY AND GLORY begins with the Berrybenders under a forced yet luxurious house arrest in Santa Fe, Mexico. The mood of the party, particularly Tasmin Berrybender's, is somewhat subdued due to the murder of Pomp Charbonneau at the hands of a deranged Mexican Army captain. The party as a whole, however, passes the time in relative comfort. Their somewhat idyllic incarceration is abruptly ended, though, when it is learned that the Mexican authorities plan to arrest them --- for real this time --- and, in all probability, execute the entire party. Lord Berrybender plans to proceed to Texas, and the party effects a hurried exit out of the compound. Danger and death await at every turn, not only from pestilence but also from a party of slavers. Meanwhile, Jim Snow has as his wont been absent more than present, guiding a wagon train and procuring a weapons shipment for the always overbearing and self-centered Lord Berrybender. When an attack by the slavers results in the death of two members of the party, Jim Snow becomes The Sin Killer once again, exacting a dark and terrible but fitting vengeance upon the slavers. Snow's action also indirectly results in a complication that will affect his wife Tasmin and the rest of the company, forcing Tasmin to make a decision regarding her future and that of her offspring. FOLLY AND GLORY may well be the best of The Berrybender Narratives. McMurtry is perfect here, capturing the feeling of danger and casual brutality that was part of the everyday existence of the frontiersmen in the mid-19th century. FOLLY AND GLORY also neatly weaves its way through one of the major historical events of the period, while a number of real-life figures make brief but important cameo appearances. FOLLY AND GLORY is, ultimately, the capstone of what may well be McMurtry's penultimate work in a career that has been marked by creative summits. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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