Gunman's Rhapsody

Rating:
Summary: Spenser at the (just OK) Corral
Review: Critics loved it & all in all it's an ok read. Basically it's Spenser in the old West. Parker focuses on too few aspects of Wyatt Earp's life w/too much existential angst.All in all it's a good entertaing read. It's a sentimental favorite because it drove me to read the true western writers ( Braun, Keltner, Johnston, & L'Amour).
Not (IMOO) worth full price.

Rating:
Summary: A fine Wild West myth!
Review: GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY, as the flyleaf says, "is the book that Robert B. Parker has always longed to write."

Most Americans have a working knowledge of Wyatt Earp, Tombstone & the Gunfight at the OK Corral. So I had some hesitation about partaking in yet another rendition of the life & times of this Old West hero.

I liked this Wyatt Earp & his brothers. I liked the characters & their lives with all their flaws & their depths. I could smell the blood & feel the dust; their lives became real; their times became real & the thread of our American history glowed brighter because of this book.

Buy GUNMAN'S RHAPSODY without fear & read it! Because when I finished it I felt as if Spenser & Susan had finished the book with me.

Rating:
Summary: A Good, Quick Read
Review: I decided to read this book after having glanced at a couple of pages. I don't know Parker's other works and this is the first Western genre novel that I've read. In short, it's a good read and Parker does a good job of portraying the characters in a realistic manner rather than the overblown "larger than life" characters in other books. The simple style matches the much simpler time where the story is set. And Parker does a good job of matching the story to the actual history, at least as much as we really know about it.

I disagree with SWH (above) about not pursuing the Doc/Wyatt relationship. He (Wyatt) is pretty clear that the only thing that joins them is loyalty based on common experience. For this novel, that suffices.

About the only question I was left asking was why Bat Masterson appeared in it at all. His re-appearance mid-story doesn't add anything and is about the only uneven thing in the book.

Overall...a good day at the beach/park/on the plane read.

Rating:
Summary: A Familiar Tale Retold with Manly Panache
Review: I like western movies but have never been big on the novels. Can't say why. Who knows why we like some things but not others? Nevertheless, I've recently become interested in reading western fiction, probably because of the work of Larry McMurtry. (I was bowled over by his Lonesome Dove and liked some of the others in that series, which followed it.) And so I picked up Parker's Gunman's Rhapsody as soon as I saw it.

It was not only a western, it was about one of the quintessential western legends: the now mythic feud between the Earp brothers and the Clantons and McClaury's in 1880's Tombstone, Arizona. And so this was more than just a "shoot 'em up", to me, it was real history, based on actual historical records and the recollections of many of those who were there. (Josie Marcus, Wyatt's paramour, actually wrote . . . or dicated . . . her own record of these events toward the end of her life.)

Parker's writing in this novel is tight and sharp. The characters are limned in subtle but clean strokes, through taut description and even tauter dialogue. The Wyatt Earp of this novel is not the goody-two-shoes lawman he's sometimes portrayed as. Indeed, he's not above gunning a man down in cold blood though, as he tells his high-strung buddy, Doc Holliday, after one such event, the difference between Holliday and him is that Doc'll shoot a man over a spilled drink whereas Wyatt, even when stepping outside the law, demands good cause. So, if he's a killer, at least he doesn't kill lightly is what he seems to be saying. And that's enough for the Wyatt of this tale, a man of supreme self assurance, unmoved by the need for approval, appreciation or the good opinion of others that seems to drive lesser men.

Parker's tale pretty much captures the story as it has come down to us. If you've seen the movie Tombstone, you already know most of it, although here the "evil axis" of the cowboys (Curly Bill, Johnny Ringo, Ike Clanton, etc.) is not blown up into some kind of metaphysical thing, as the movie has it. And the basic series of events that unfold reflect less a mythic confrontation between good and evil than they do Wyatt's decision to pursue Josie Marcus and the subsequent anger and humiliation this causes Johnny Behan, Josie's discarded lover. In this novel, Behan is the real force behind the events, a weasel of a man who stirs up trouble from the shadows, while the cowboys seem to have been clumsily caught in the middle. Other differences with the film, Tombstone, include the handling of Doc Holliday who is rather thinly drawn here and does not rise to the dimensions Val Kilmer gave him in the movie. The end's a bit different too, more off-handed than the overblown dramatic scenes of Tombstone, the movie, and, because of this, somewhat less affecting.

In fact I wished there had been more dimension to the rather familiar cast of characters, even if they were not the Tombstone personalities so vividly brought to life on the big screen. But on balance I liked this tale and thought it offered a very-down-to-earth look at the events leading up to, and following, the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

On the other hand, I didn't much like the interpsersed news items which were mainly distracting, not informative . . . and I missed the mythic interplay between Wyatt and Doc, whether THAT ever really was the case or not. (Surely, given the different life trajectories of these two men, and their very different temperaments, there must have been something that cemented their friendship. But we don't get a real sense of that here.) Bat Masterson's appearance, too, seemed gratuitous and rather too fleeting.

But, in sum, this was a nicely told tale. I admired Parker's clean prose and his ability to say so much with dialogue. A good western, though not up to a great one like Lonesome Dove.

SWM

Rating:
Summary: Spencer Goes West
Review: I love Parker's writing, for the crispness of it as well as the simply drawn yet powerful characters he builds. This is why the Spencer books are so great. Here Parker tries his hand at another genre - the western historic fiction. And at first he really pulls it off. But over time, Wyatt Erp morphs more into an old west version of Spencer. He sounds and acts like our favorite detective. And this is the problem with the book. After a while I expected more of a divergence from his other writings, yet found it less and less.

This is not to say that the book is bad. It's actually quite good, and would be refreshing if it were by another author. If you are not a huge Parker fan, then you are in for a real treat. The prose is concise, characters tight lipped and strong, and when there is action, it is crisp and fast paced. But it would have been nice if there was more of it. Parker's books are more about the characters than extensive plot. But for this genre, and the story he is writing, the actual action is small and far between.

A very good read, I just was expecting a bit more.

Rating:
Summary: it only whets the appetite
Review: I'm writing in strong support of one of the recommendations below. While "Gunman's Rhapsody" is entertaining, the nonfiction account "And Die in the West" by Paula Mitchell Marks is far superior. I am very glad that the review below ("Spenser Saddles Up") suggested this alternate book.

"And Die in the West" compiles all of the various accounts from the time and tries to resolve them as objectively as possible. Though the stories disagree to some extent, the consensus is much less favorable to Wyatt Earp and his clan than almost any of the popular treatments of the subject, including "Gunman's Rhapsody", suggest.

As is often the case, the true story is a little disillusioning after years of believing the myth.

Rating:
Summary: Parker moves to the OK Corral
Review: Modern detective novelists seem to have a fascination with the westerns. Elmore Leonard did westerns for a while, Bill Pronzini too, and Loren D. Estleman even did an O.K. Corral novel some years ago, and given that this book is on the same subject, apparently there's some fascination. Parker's take on things isn't that different from Estleman's, for instance, but the way it plays out does come out in a unique fashion.

In Parker's take on things, the emphasis is on family. This is a well-known theme of the Earps: they supposedly always stuck together, no matter what, and were clear that they were going to, no matter what. They even backed one another against their "wives", when the women got upset with the one or the other of them. In this retelling of the story, the whole plot revolves around the brothers Earp (James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren, older to younger) and how they react to various things. One thing they react to is Wyatt falling in love with the woman currently seeing the sheriff, Johnnie Behan. The brothers basically fall in line behind him, though their women (especially Virgil's Allie) are very unhappy with Wyatt dumping his current "wife" Matty.

Wyatt's action triggers Behan's anger, and he begins to scheme. Rather than challenging Wyatt directly he sets various "cowboys" on the warpath, with the Earps as their targets. Things slide along quickly, developing towards the O.K. Corral, and further shootouts and killings after. The plot moves right along and you're soon at the end of the book.

If there's a flaw in the book, it's that there is little character development other than the Earp brothers, Josie (Wyatt's new girlfriend) and perhaps Behan. Curly Bill Brocious and Johnny Ringo, Doc Holliday, and the secondary supporting gunmen who followed Earp after the O.K. Corral get almost no space. Instead Earp is the main character, striding through this novel paying no attention to those things that aren't important, and focusing on those that are. It's an interesting character, well-drawn and worth reading about.

Rating:
Summary: Love Robert Parker but hate this book.
Review: Normally, I love Robert Parker books. However, Parker should stick to the gritty detective novels. The plotline is sketchy and at times hard to follow. It takes place in Tombstone, AZ and is the story or Wyatt Earp and the showdown at the OK Corral. Annoyingly, it does not even include the showdown, which is too bad because Parker is good at describing gunfight scenes.


Rating:
Summary: A Rich, Rewarding Historical Novel about Wyatt Earp
Review: This is an appealing novel for those who would normally not read westerns.

Robert Parker has taken the well-known shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona and turned it into a well-developed, rich tale of family, honor, love, career, and the taming of the West. While many other writers have treated this material before, none have provided so much background to put the event into its proper perspective. The Earps, Doc Holliday, the Clantons, Bat Masterson, and many other Western legends come to life as real people you would recognize if you met them in a saloon. You will also learn a lot about the Earp women, both the wives and those they love. The story continues on to tell about what happened after the shoot-out.

Mr. Parker writes about these characters as though he were a contemporary, but without the exaggeration of a dime novel. In fact, the spare prose of the Spenser series here becomes stronger without the quips and irony that pervade those stories. The writing style will remind you of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and that's intended to be a high compliment for his accomplishment here. The story also evokes many of the good qualities of The Virginian.

The story pivots around Wyatt Earp's fascination with a performer who draws his eye, Josie Marcus. Never expecting to see her again, he is startled to find her on the arm of aspiring lawman, Johnny Behan. Josie is a modern woman in many ways, drawn to the stage and Johnny for the excitement they seem to offer. She ends up being disappointed in both. For her, though, Wyatt is the real thing.

Their relationship is complicated by Josie having let Johnny move into a house her father has bought her in Tombstone, and Wyatt having lived with Mattie (Celia Ann Blaylock) for a number of years. The hurt feelings lead to a polarization in the politics in Tombstone and in Wyatt's relationship with his brother Virgil's wife, Allie.

The economic interests in the Tombstone area arrayed the ranchers against the rustlers, and the townsmen against those who wanted to raise a ruckus in town. The political interests split along North-South lines, reflecting the Civil War. Also, the cowboys tended to be southerners, and the Earps were northerners and townspeople.

The character of Wyatt Earp, as portrayed by Mr. Parker, will fascinate you. He is seen as a man of effortless, relaxed precision. He enjoys his card dealing as much as his target-shooting practice. Both a discomfort with alcohol and a preference for being in control have him constantly sipping cups of coffee to keep his vigilance sharp. He is above all a man of honor, which means sticking to his word and to his family. Many of the plot complications are a result of that honor, and you will enjoy thinking about the price that has to be paid.

Mr. Parker also does a remarkably good job of capturing the peril of being a law officer. You not only have to disarm the bad guys, some of them will come after you. If another law officer or citizen falsely accuses you, you can then have a posse chasing you. The Earps had plenty of experience with all of these problems.

My only complaint about the book relate to the Chronicle inserts that outline other events happening at the same time. There is too much of this in the book, and the significance of the events is mainly from the perspective of our time. So the effect of reading them is to take you away from the story in time and space. Unless you happen to enjoy the first ones you read, I suggest you skip over these for a more enjoyable read.

The moral choices involved in this book are interesting. How would you have decided between Mattie and Josie if you were Wyatt? If you chose Josie, how would you have handled the break-up? What promise would you have made to Josie about Johnny? If you were Josie, would you have released Wyatt from his promise?

Be a straight-shooter!

Rating:
Summary: A great portrayal of Wyatt Earp...
Review: Western literature has been sorely neglected lately. But Parker does a great job of bringing the old west to life in this re-telling of the saga of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral.

This is a refreshing portrayal of an individual devoted to his principles and backed up by his brothers and their guns. A real masterpiece of western fiction.

I think this would make a great movie, despite the fact that its been done in other versions many times.

Worth the money!