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Boone's Lick : a novel by Larry…
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Boone's Lick : a novel (edition 2000)

by Larry McMurtry

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676833,820 (3.35)12
Fiction. Western. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Boone's Lick is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry's return to the kind of story that made him famous -- an enthralling tale of the nineteenth-century west. Like his bestsellers Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Comanche Moon, and Dead Man's Walk, Boone's Lick transports the reader to the era about which McMurtry writes better and more shrewdly than anyone else.

Told with McMurtry's unique blend of historical fact and sheer storytelling genius, the novel follows the Cecil family's arduous journey by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Shay narrates, describing the journey that begins when his Ma, Mary Margaret, decides to hunt down her elusive husband, Dick, to tell him she's leaving him. Without knowing precisely where he is, they set out across the plains in search of him, encountering grizzly bears, stormy weather, and hostile Indians as they go. With them are Shay's siblings, G.T., Neva, and baby Marcy; Shay's uncle, Seth; his Granpa Crackenthorpe; and Mary Margaret's beautiful half-sister, Rose. During their journey they pick up a barefooted priest named Father Villy, and a Snake Indian named Charlie Seven Days, and persuade them to join in their travels.

At the heart of the novel, and the adventure, is Mary Margaret, whom we first meet shooting a sheriff's horse out from underneath him in order to feed her family. Forceful, interesting, and determined, she is written with McMurtry's trademark deftness and sympathy for women, and is in every way a match for the worst the west can muster.

Boone's Lick abounds with the incidents, the excitements, and the dangers of life on the plains. Its huge cast of characters includes such historical figures as Wild Bill Hickok and the unfortunate Colonel Fetterman (whose arrogance and ineptitude led to one of the U.S. Army's worst and bloodiest defeats at the hands of the Cheyenne and Sioux) as well as the Cecil family (itself based on a real family of nineteenth-century traders and haulers).

The story of their trek in pursuit of Dick, and the discovery of his second and third families, is told with brilliance, humor, and overwhelming joie de vivre in a novel that is at once high adventure, a perfect western tale, and a moving love story -- it is, in short, vintage McMurtry, combining his brilliant character portraits, his unerring sense of the west, and his unrivaled eye for the telling detail.

Boone's Lick is one of McMurtry's richest works of fiction to date.

.
… (more)
Member:RobertNedderman
Title:Boone's Lick : a novel
Authors:Larry McMurtry
Info:New York : Simon & Schuster, c2000.
Collections:Your library
Rating:
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Boone's Lick by Larry McMurtry

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» See also 12 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
Though there seems to be no greater purpose to the story, if you're looking for a fun, easy yarn there's probably no better storyteller than Larry McMurtry, and no better setting than the American West. Boone's Lick touches on many Western tropes – bandits, a wagon trail breaking into new country, riled-up Indians – without ever transcending any of them, and the story ends abruptly. That this does not dissatisfy is largely down to McMurtry's abilities: the characterisation and vernacular are on point, as ever, and the prose is so effortless to read that you almost feel guilty, as a reader, for burning through hundreds of pages without once having to work for it.

Boone's Lick, unremarkable as it appears, is just plain fun, though in its brevity, its more overt comic tone and its first-person narrative, it reminds me more of Charles Portis' True Grit than McMurtry's own Lonesome Dove. It doesn't approach the calibre of either, and you won't remember this one for long afterwards, but you'll be happy to roll with every minute of it. ( )
2 vote MikeFutcher | Oct 5, 2020 |
Not as epic as Lonesome Dove, this novel follows one family from Missouri to Wyoming, into the Fetterman Masacre. POV character is Sherman and his observations of his mother, his uncle, his brother G.T. and baby sister Marcy enliven the account of long slow travel up river and across the plains.
  ritaer | Aug 3, 2016 |
Westerns just really are not my genre, so if you enjoy them, your reaction may be entirely different than mine. Ma suspects Pa has an Indian wife out in Wyoming and decides to leave Boone's Lick, Missouri in search of Pa. Before they leave, Uncle Seth and Wild Bill Hickok join the sheriff in a posse. The sheriff is injured and resigns. Another sheriff takes his place and beats up Aunt Rosie who is a prostitute. The entire family sets out for the West, encountering hardships and Indians along the way. In order to prevent spoilers, I'll stop with the plot summary. There's definitely some of the typical action one expects in Westerns. Since I don't really enjoy the genre, I didn't really enjoy the book that much. It was, however, tolerable and fairly well-written from the perspective of one of the older sons in the family. ( )
  thornton37814 | Aug 4, 2015 |
This book is funny and entertaining. ( )
  Poprockz | Jan 22, 2011 |
You either seem to really like McMurtry's stuff, or you really hate it. I liked this book.. a lot. A YA novel really, since the story is told from a 16 year old's perspective, but realistic, inventive and humorous. A nice novel of the tumultous years after the civil war, McMurtry pulls few punches when it comes to the morality of society during those times. ( )
  clif_hiker | Aug 6, 2010 |
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Larry McMurtryprimary authorall editionscalculated
Patton, WillNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Uncle Seth was firmly convinced that bad things mostly happen on cloudy days.
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ISBN 067153615X is for Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry
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Fiction. Western. Historical Fiction. HTML:

Boone's Lick is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry's return to the kind of story that made him famous -- an enthralling tale of the nineteenth-century west. Like his bestsellers Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo, Comanche Moon, and Dead Man's Walk, Boone's Lick transports the reader to the era about which McMurtry writes better and more shrewdly than anyone else.

Told with McMurtry's unique blend of historical fact and sheer storytelling genius, the novel follows the Cecil family's arduous journey by riverboat and wagon from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming. Fifteen-year-old Shay narrates, describing the journey that begins when his Ma, Mary Margaret, decides to hunt down her elusive husband, Dick, to tell him she's leaving him. Without knowing precisely where he is, they set out across the plains in search of him, encountering grizzly bears, stormy weather, and hostile Indians as they go. With them are Shay's siblings, G.T., Neva, and baby Marcy; Shay's uncle, Seth; his Granpa Crackenthorpe; and Mary Margaret's beautiful half-sister, Rose. During their journey they pick up a barefooted priest named Father Villy, and a Snake Indian named Charlie Seven Days, and persuade them to join in their travels.

At the heart of the novel, and the adventure, is Mary Margaret, whom we first meet shooting a sheriff's horse out from underneath him in order to feed her family. Forceful, interesting, and determined, she is written with McMurtry's trademark deftness and sympathy for women, and is in every way a match for the worst the west can muster.

Boone's Lick abounds with the incidents, the excitements, and the dangers of life on the plains. Its huge cast of characters includes such historical figures as Wild Bill Hickok and the unfortunate Colonel Fetterman (whose arrogance and ineptitude led to one of the U.S. Army's worst and bloodiest defeats at the hands of the Cheyenne and Sioux) as well as the Cecil family (itself based on a real family of nineteenth-century traders and haulers).

The story of their trek in pursuit of Dick, and the discovery of his second and third families, is told with brilliance, humor, and overwhelming joie de vivre in a novel that is at once high adventure, a perfect western tale, and a moving love story -- it is, in short, vintage McMurtry, combining his brilliant character portraits, his unerring sense of the west, and his unrivaled eye for the telling detail.

Boone's Lick is one of McMurtry's richest works of fiction to date.

.

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