[.ca] Gunman's Rhapsody (ISBN 1597770248)

From Amazon.com:
Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Tombstone, the O.K. Corral--the icons are so firmly embedded in American history that we might know nothing more about them than their names. But in this spare, moody riff on the events leading to the 1881 shootout at the O.K. Corral--the signature battle defining the violence of the Old West--Robert B. Parker shades the black-and-white starkness with shifting tones of gray. Parker moves beyond the Hollywood version of the shootout to explore the tangle of family loyalties, dirty politics, and passion that embroiled Wyatt Earp before and after his encounter with the Clanton gang. In Parker's version, the longstanding rivalry between the Earps and the cowboys may stem from cultural difference (the Clantons were ranchers who held Confederate sympathies during the Civil War; the Earps were townsfolk who had Union loyalties), and it may be exacerbated by alcohol, machismo, and fiery accusations from both sides. But the spark that leads to the final conflagration is simpler: Wyatt falls in love with Josie Marcus, Sheriff Johnny Behan's beautiful, self-assured companion. Parker's Wyatt Earp is, like his detective hero Spenser, by turns arrogant and humble, and Earp's firm-jawed struggles with honor, family, and love will feel familiar to fans of that long-running series. But the author has abandoned the series' relatively intricate plotting and its touches of goofy humor. The novel is a curious amalgamation of inexorably linear narrative and moments of static contemplation. It drifts like a tumbleweed through Tombstone, leaving two- and three-month gaps, pausing briefly to dip into moments of conflict and moments of peace. Gunman's Rhapsody is not a big, sprawling western. Hewing firmly to an understated minimalism, it seems at times to have sprung from a collaboration between Hemingway and a Quaker council. Who would have thought that such an unlikely combination could be so rewarding? --Kelly Flynn

Spenser at the (just OK) Corral:
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.

Spencer Goes West:
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.

A great portrayal of Wyatt Earp...:
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!

A Good, Quick Read:
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.

A Familiar Tale Retold with Manly Panache:
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