Book Review: LEAVING CHEYENNE

I’ve recently reread Larry McMurtry’s Leaving Cheyenne–for the third or fourth time. As I closed the book, I stopped and wondered, “What is it about this book that I find so appealing?” The action is slow, the setting is not exotic, the characters don’t do anything exceptional. I was raised in Dallas, as were my parents, so that explains why I opened a book set in Texas in the first place. (Leaving Cheyenne is not about a city in Wyoming.) But the story takes place in cattle country, and I’m a city girl. I finally decided—it’s got to be the characters.

Leaving Cheyenne is the story of best friends Gideon Fry, Johnny McCloud, and Molly Taylor and their lifelong love triangle. Part One, told in Gid’s point of view, begins in about 1920 when he’s 18 or 19 years old. Gid’s widowed dad owns a ranch and raises cattle, and he tries to teach his son to be a serious, hardworking rancher too. For example, when Gid buys a saddle for Johnny in return for a favor, his dad says, “You’re giving a hundred-and-fifty-dollar saddle to a thirty-dollar-a-month cowboy. That wouldn’t make sense to a crazy man. And it sure don’t to me.”

Part Two is told in Molly’s viewpoint and takes place about twenty years later during World War II. Throughout the book, Gid and Johnny vie for Molly’s affections, but she won’t marry either one. Instead, she marries Eddie, a ne’er do well. But she has a son and Gid is the father. Later she has a second son, fathered by Johnny. Referring to Johnny, Molly narrates: I was the only woman Johnny has ever been able to count on, and I usually tried to give him what he needed—it wouldn’t have been very loving of me not to. Molly is widowed when her husband Eddie is killed in an oilfield accident.

In Part Three, Johnny narrates. Another twenty years have passed by then, and he and Gid are still friends, now in their early sixties. Gid is a successful rancher; Johnny is still his hired hand. Gid has become even more serious than he was as a young man (he has turned into his father), while Johnny is still easy-going and enjoys life. Both still love Molly, and she still loves both of them yet she refuses to marry either one, saying, Eddie was enough husband for me.

Throughout the book, the three friends take care of each other, their friendship strong. When Gid is ill, Molly nurses him back to health. Both men help Molly through the rough patches in her life. Altogether, the poignant story of the lifelong relationship between these three strong people spans more than forty years.

In spite of their human foibles, these fictional folks share a vast supply of a rare commodity—common sense. Yes, they make stupid mistakes. But their errors are understandable and spring from a kind of logic. In addition to Larry McMurtry’s beautiful writing, maybe that’s what makes the characters seem so real and appealing, and why I read Leaving Cheyenne one more time.

Notes:

You’ll need to know the definition of one word if you decide to read McMurtry’s books. Tank. In this context it’s not a war vehicle, nor is it a large receptacle for holding liquid (like a gas tank in your car). It’s a manmade pond, created to provide water for cattle.

There is at least one politically incorrect passage in this book. However, it reflects the attitudes of the time and place of the book’s setting.

Larry McMurtry is the author of more than three dozen books, including Lonesome Dove (Pulitzer Prize winner), Terms of Endearment, as well as the screenplay for the movie “Brokeback Mountain.” Leaving Cheyenne was written in 1962.

Book Review: Vengeance is Sacred

If you enjoy novels with actual historical events woven through their storylines, you’ll like VENGEANCE IS SACRED by Peter Healy. With its compelling plot and historical details, this book takes the reader to New York in the early 1900s and portrays the prejudice, intolerable working conditions, and gritty day-to-day existence many immigrants endured, with love, murder, revenge, and a sprinkling of paranormal mixed in.

Forced to flee Italy in 1909 after killing a mafia don’s son, Paolo Calefati leaves his family farm and heads for the United States. Before leaving his homeland, Paolo had taken his grandfather’s place as the “Deva,” a position that enabled the family farm to prosper and that included psychic abilities – connecting with nature, reading auras emanating from other people, and occasionally foretelling future events. In the United States, Paolo’s special abilities serve him well. But as his grandfather once warned, “We are Devas, not saints.” The Deva inside Paolo cannot always be summoned at will, and sometimes the message from the Deva isn’t clear.

Here’s where Peter’s fictional story coincides with actual historical events in New York City. Paolo meets and falls in love with a young woman who works in a sweatshop in the garment district. Through her, he becomes indirectly involved in the fledgling labor movement. Seeking better pay, safer working conditions, and reasonable work schedules, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union formed and went on strike against the Triangle Waist Factory. The abuse of the striking women at the hands of male workers and from the police assigned to control the crowds demonstrates the attitudes and prejudices of the times, especially towards women workers. During the course of the story, this involvement takes Paolo to the scene of the catastrophic March 25, 1911, fire at Triangle and the appalling death toll (146 victims) that occurred. I looked online for more information about this event, curious to see how closely the author adhered to the true story, and was pleased to see that what he wrote was not at all exaggerated. Peter Healy did his research. The reality of what happened was shocking enough without the need for exaggeration. Of course, Paolo’s involvement in the melee was fictional, but many heroic acts did occur during that horrific event in which so many young women perished.

Peter Healy is a gifted storyteller, and he drew me into Paolo’s story immediately. The omniscient point of view he used in telling his tale bothered me at first, as I’m not accustomed to knowing every character’s thoughts and feelings, but after I got used to it, it worked. His scenes showing the fire at Triangle Waist Factory were terrifying and heart-breaking; his action scenes, vivid with detail. And woven throughout the tale was the threat of retribution from the mafia don back in Italy, his reach extending to the United States. VENGEANCE IS SACRED brought me a new appreciation for just how bad working conditions were back in the early 1900s and educated me about the struggles of immigrants, especially women.

Readers who enjoy the mingling of fact and fiction and who are curious about immigrants’ lives in the early 1900s will appreciate Healy’s book. With murder, mystery, romance, revenge, and history, the story is truly epic in scope.

VENGEANCE IS SACRED is available in both paperback and ebook formats:

http://www.amazon.com/Vengeance-Sacred-Peter-Healy/dp/0983373809/

Book Review: The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King

During the past couple of months I’ve read several novels that featured older women as protagonists. Yes, “older” is relative (usually ten years older than I am!) but in this case I mean women who have lived a good portion of their lives already. Not chick-lit heroines. These women have experienced disappointment along with joy. They know love isn’t always happily ever after and that love and lust are not necessarily the same thing (and they’re okay with that, for the most part).

What fun it’s been to read books with characters who have depth and experience and yet who are still interesting, still cantankerous, still full of life. I won’t claim that these stories changed my life, but they sure did make me laugh and nod my head in understanding.

The book I read most recently was The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King. Published in 2005, King tells the story of six women who became friends while attending the Methodist College for Women in Brierfield, Alabama. The group named themselves the Same Sweet Girls as a result of hearing a talk to the student body by Rosanelle Tilley, the reigning Maid of Cotton. After speaking for about an hour, she closed her speech by saying, “Even though I’ve been all around the world during my reign as National Maid of Cotton…and even though I’ve met with kings and queens and heads of state, I want all of you to know that I’m still the same sweet girl I’ve always been.” When the six women burst out laughing, they were removed from the auditorium and put on six weeks dorm restriction. During that enforced confinement, they got to know each other, bonded, and have remained close friends ever since. As Astor explains,“We had our first SSG reunion a year after graduation. That was over twenty-five years ago, and now we get together twice a year, the beach in the summer and the mountains in the fall.” Every year thereafter, they’ve crowned one of their members queen of the SSG’s, based on who has been the sweetest during the previous twelve months.

The thing I enjoyed most about the book was the author’s portrayal of lifelong friendships between women. Over the years, the diverse members of the group—which includes the First Lady of Alabama, a gourd artist, a nurse, and a retired dancer—support each other during illness, bad marriages, divorce, spousal abuse, and other disappointments. Their friendships, jealousies, and petty quarrels were presented in a realistic (and often humorous) way, yet I felt empathy for the challenges each woman faced. King’s use of Southern expressions and attitudes added color to her writing, as did her realistic portrayal of women approaching age fifty.

Here’s the synopsis of the book from King’s website:

None of the Same Sweet Girls are really girls anymore and none of them have actually ever been sweet. But this spirited group of Southern women, who have been holding biannual reunions ever since they were together in college, are nothing short of compelling.

There’s Julia Stovall, the First Lady of Alabama, who despite her public veneer, is a down-to-earth gal who only wants to know who her husband is sneaking out with late at night. There’s Lanier Sanders, whose husband won custody of their children after he found out about her fling with a colleague. Then there’s Astor Deveaux, a former Broadway showgirl who simply can’t keep her flirtations in check. And Corrine Cooper, whose incredible story comes to light as the novel unfolds.

Here’s a link to Cassanddra King’s website: http://www.cassandrakingconroy.com/