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Sto caricando le informazioni... Gunman's Rhapsody (2001)di Robert B. Parker
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. I recently discovered the works of Robert B Parker, and I believe I'm hooked... Gunman's Rhapsody is a retelling of Wyatt Earp's time in Tombstone, and a good one at that. The author writes dialogue that sounds like real-life conversations, and his characters are interesting, flawed, though likable. This was my third western by this author, and I plan to read more from his plethora of published works. I loved Robert B. Parker's Cole & Hitch stories, particularly Appaloosa and Resolution, so in looking for a new Western fix I turned to Gunman's Rhapsody, Parker's take on the legend of Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Unfortunately, it's not that great. It's not that I was expecting Appaloosa and feel aggrieved that I got something different. Quite the contrary: Gunman's Rhapsody is very similar in style, pace and content to the later Cole & Hitch stories. It's just not that good. Parker's writing style is to pare everything back to the bone, and when this works there is nothing better, nothing more enjoyable to read than one of his books. When it doesn't work, it really doesn't. This book doesn't: the writing is sophomoric at times and there is a lack of killer dialogue (usually one of Parker's main selling points). The Wyatt Earp story is a good one (the Kurt Russell film Tombstone did it best) but, unfortunately, anything interesting in Gunman's Rhapsody comes from the legend itself and not Parker's telling of it. Here, there is a lot of build-up, but it lacks suspense, and there is a flurry of action at the end, but it happens too quickly to savour and leaves you feeling short-changed. The O.K. Corral fight itself lacks build-up (I didn't know it was happening until it was nearly over) or foreboding or any sense of theatre – which should be a criminal offence for a Western writer. And save for one piece of dialogue about a twenty-five-dollar watch, Wyatt's vengeance after the death of one of his brothers lacks any real burning rage. It is hard to keep track of the feuds – Curley Bill and Johnny Ringo, though crucial to the plot, are underdeveloped, as is the enigmatic Doc Holliday – and some of these feuds seem to bubble up out of nothing or nowhere. I think I would have been more lost if I didn't already know the legend. Some of Parker's stuff is elevated pulp, artful pulp, but this is just pulp, I'm afraid. That's fine, but when pulp doesn't come out right, it just leaves you dissatisfied. Gunman's Rhapsody is quick and easy to read, and that is typical Parker, but if you want a Western from him, read the excellent Appaloosa instead and let Hollywood tell Wyatt Earp's story. Gunman’s Rhapsody is Robert B. Parker’s fictional take on the saga of the Earp brother’s stay in Tombstone, Arizona in the early 1880’s. I have read one excellent nonfictional account of the story (Jeff Guinn’s The Last Gunfight), which supports Parker’s depiction of the principal facts, even down to the location of the streets in Tombstone. In fact, Parker’s account was written ten years earlier (2001) than Guinn’s, which should attest to the volume of earlier literature on the subject. Parker is at his best when creating the dialog of taciturn, macho men. And what better examples could he find in real life than Wyatt and Virgil Earp?. They may or may not have been as unloquacious as Parker limns them, but they were certainly as macho. In any event, in the hands of a master story teller, the Earp’s tale is gripping and rings true. (JAF) nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Fiction.
Western.
HTML: WYATT EARP IS SPENSER SPURS... Booklist "The gunman is Wyatt Earp. The rhapsody plays out in rare Parker stand-alone novel, his best yet and his first western. Told in prose as cool and spare as Parker has ever laid down..." ROBERT B. PARKER, The undisputed dean of American crime fiction, has long been credited with single-handedly resuscitating the private-eye genre. As the creator of the Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall series he has proven again and that he is "Boston's peerless man of mystery" (Entertainment Weekly). Now he gives his fans the book he always longed to write - a brilliant and evocative novel set against the hard scrabble frontier life of the West, featuring Wyatt Earp. It is the winter of 1879, and Dodge city has lost its snap. Thirty-one-year-old Wyatt Earp, assistant city marshal, loads his wife and all they own into a wagon, and goes with two of his brothers and their women to Tombstone, Arizona, land of the silver mines. There Earp becomes deputy sheriff, meeting up with the likes of Doc Holiday, Clay Allison and Bat Masterson as well as finding the love of his life, showgirl Josie Marcus. While navigating the constantly shifting alliances of a largely lawless territory, Earp finds himself embroiled in a simmering feud with Johnny Behan, which ultimately erupts in deadly gunfire on a dusty street corner. .Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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His brothers Morgan, Virgil, Warren and James are all part of the story as are his enemies, Ike Clanton, Tom & Frank McLaury, William Brocius and Billy Clanton. Doc Holliday is also part of the Erp story but to a lesser extent then the movie versions lead us to believe.
One neat and informative addition to the novel were the excerpts from newspapers of the year in which the action was taking place in Tombstone giving the reader an overview of what was happening in Europe and England and other parts of the world while the Earps were policing Arizona in the 1880's.
An enjoyable read with many insights to life in Tombstone of that era. ( )