Helpful Score: 1
This is not the best of McMurtry's work. Having said that, it's still studded with his trademark dialogue and quirky characters, which puts it head and shoulders above most of the genre. There are still a lot of Western tropes here â an Indian attack, a cattle stampede, gamblers, gunslingers, and girls of easy virtue, all culminating (more or less) with the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone.
The plot â such as it is â meanders through the movement of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday as their somewhat aimless paths move closer to Tombstone, Arizona, and the 30-second shootout that impressed them on the American psyche. Along the way, they meet a potpourri of historical and fictional characters, including Buffalo Bill, Charlie Goodnight, and Quanah Parker, among others.
McMurtry also plays fast and loose with timelines in this maybe-fantasy / maybe-alternate-history / maybe-loopy-pastiche of scenes that are only vaguely connected and which may or may not have anything to do with the story arc. (Bill Cody, who actually lived until 1917, is shuffled off the mortal coil prior to Earp's 1879 move to Arizona; Charlie Goodnight's long-time business partner, Irishman John George Adair, becomes a quirky Englishman who manages to kill himself, his horse, and his greyhounds on his first wolf hunt.)
All in all, it's a collection of set pieces in which the characters come on stage or are captured in media res to exchange a few lines of pithy dialogue before the short chapter ends and new characters are shuffled forward on a new set for their number. It's a quick, entertaining read, but don't look for much history here.
The plot â such as it is â meanders through the movement of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday as their somewhat aimless paths move closer to Tombstone, Arizona, and the 30-second shootout that impressed them on the American psyche. Along the way, they meet a potpourri of historical and fictional characters, including Buffalo Bill, Charlie Goodnight, and Quanah Parker, among others.
McMurtry also plays fast and loose with timelines in this maybe-fantasy / maybe-alternate-history / maybe-loopy-pastiche of scenes that are only vaguely connected and which may or may not have anything to do with the story arc. (Bill Cody, who actually lived until 1917, is shuffled off the mortal coil prior to Earp's 1879 move to Arizona; Charlie Goodnight's long-time business partner, Irishman John George Adair, becomes a quirky Englishman who manages to kill himself, his horse, and his greyhounds on his first wolf hunt.)
All in all, it's a collection of set pieces in which the characters come on stage or are captured in media res to exchange a few lines of pithy dialogue before the short chapter ends and new characters are shuffled forward on a new set for their number. It's a quick, entertaining read, but don't look for much history here.
