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Folly and Glory: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives)
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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As this final volume of The Berrybender Narratives opens, Tasmin and her family are under irksome, though comfortable, arrest in Mexican Santa Fe. Her father, the eccentric Lord Berrybender, is planning to head for Texas with his whole family and his retainers. Tasmin, who would once have followed her husband, Jim Snow, anywhere, is no longer even sure she likes him, or knows where to go to next.
In the meantime, Jim Snow, accompanied by Kit Carson, journeys to New Orleans, where he meets up with a muscular black giant named Juppy in whose company they make their way back to Santa Fe. But even they are unable to prevent the Mexicans from carrying the Berrybender family on a long and terrible journey across the desert to Vera Cruz.
Starving, dying of thirst, and in constant, bloody battle with slavers pursuing them, the Berrybenders finally make their way to civilization, where Jim Snow has to choose between Tasmin and the great American plains, on which he has lived all his life in freedom, and where, after all her adventures, Tasmin must finally decide where her future lies.
With a cast of characters that includes almost every major real-life figure of the West, Folly and Glory is a novel that represents the culmination of a great and unique four-volume saga of the early days of the West; it is one of Larry McMurtry's finest achievements.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS:
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780743262729
ISBN: 0743262727
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2005-08-02
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
SIMILAR ITEMS:
• By Sorrow's River: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives)
• The Wandering Hill: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives)
• Sin Killer: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives)
• Telegraph Days: A Novel
• Dead Man's Walk (Lonesome Dove)
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
Necessary, but somewhat expected conclusion -
As the concluding book in the Berrybender series, I found this volume to be pretty much as expected and projected in the other books. Once again, the reader gets drawn into the world being portrayed and once again, we learn about the people through their reactions to the events presented. Yet the magnificent story-telling that exists in this book gets overshadowed by the series of tragic circumstances that somehow preempt the energy of the other Berrybender books.
Instead of sharing in the pain (the folly) of the characters, and subsequently rejoicing with the glory, I felt disconnected from Tasmin and the others due to the incessant despair hammered home throughout the book. The hint of charm and pithy but comical inanities disappeared as the story progressed (with the exception of the minor character Juppy who retained the elements of joy and absurdity so often found in the Berrybender family members), leaving the reader empty and dwelling on the flaws and mistakes of people rather than finding their goodness
Yet, aside from the almost hopeless sadness that pervades this story, I hesitate to be too critical since I read the book in one day and could not seem to put it aside. McMurtry's smooth, intelligent prose was again engaging and sparkling, ultimately balancing with the overall depressing subject matter. And there is no question that this final book in the series ended the way it should. While this was not my favorite (By Sorrow's River gets my vote), it certainly was an appropriate conclusion to the series, and a powerful addition to literature of this type.
You will not be disappointed and I urge others to read the entire series. I almost guarantee that any reader will find someone with whom he or she can identify!
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McMurtry rocks -
Once again Larry McMurtry has managed to capture my heart. This series of books is always entertaining, always surprising.
A Wild Saga -
Folly and Glory is part-four of a four-part series chronically the adventures of the aristocratic, English Berrybender family exploring the American West in the 1830's on a steamship on the Missouri River. Lord Berrybender is accompanied by his gluttonous wife and six of his 14 legitimate children. The series is historical fiction in that it incorporates actual people such as Kit Carson and Jim Bridges, yet the tales are so fanciful that history is left in the dust.
Outrageous is the best general characterization of these stories. The adventures and their characters seem larger than life and more colorful than neon. Not for the faint of heart, unexpected, random, senseless and disturbing atrocities, injuries, and deaths litter these tales, with a side of lots of "rutting." The majority of the initial primary characters do not survive to see book four4 of the series.
Yet, the stories grabbed me. I went through the series like popcorn, wanting to see what amazing events would occur to the crazy Berrybenders and their growing entourage. The series is intense, rollercoastering through every facet of human emotion and many aspects of abnormal psychology. Nothing dull in these books. The frequent connections to actual historical persons and events keep the tales interesting and grounded, despite the continuum of bizarre incidents. Not for everyone, but I liked it.
A disappointingly cruel tale -
I want to start out by saying Larry McMurty is one of my favorite writers and that I enjoyed the descriptions of the Berrybender travels across the 1830s West. I don't think anyone sets a western scene as well as he does. But I was put off by the abject cruelty of this final book in that nearly all the characters were either outwardly cruel to others or were buffoons. The child killing scene was totally unnecessary and disturbing, and all the native Americas were shown to be fools, wanton murders, or both.
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Review of the Berrybender series, vols 1-4. Overall rating 4.8 stars -
This a quick minireview of the whole Berrybender series, now complete with the fourth volume -- it's really one long novel, and an omnibus edition can't be far behind. A *very* odd bunch of English aristos visit the American west in the 1830's and have adventures. A few of them even survive
This is McMurtry in antic farce mode, but with a base level of cruelty & violence that may squick some. And don't get too attached to your favorite characters! McMurtry is as good a novelist as any now writing, and knows the history of the American west very well, indeed. And doesn't let real history get in the way of a good story
The past is a foreign country, and McMurtry's treatment of 1830's American history is strange enough to be sfnal.... Anyway, I had a great time reading the Berrybenders. Second only to _Lonesome Dove/Streets of Laredo_ among his historicals, I think, though not much like those. But very, very good.
Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
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