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The Western Genre

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wendy
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The Western Genre

Post by wendy » Tue September 23rd, 2014, 1:11 pm

I'm currently reading Owen Wister's THE VIRGINIAN, said to be the first true Western in the genre. It was written in 1902 and sets up a lot of the tropes we still expect, but I'm wondering at what point these features become clichés?

Are there any well-written modern Westerns you'd recommend?
Wendy K. Perriman
Fire on Dark Water (Penguin, 2011)
http://www.wendyperriman.com
http://www.FireOnDarkWater.com

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MLE (Emily Cotton)
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Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
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Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
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Post by MLE (Emily Cotton) » Tue September 23rd, 2014, 7:32 pm

A trope becomes a cliche when the individual reader has come across it too often. I, for instance, consider almost everything Ann Boleyn cliche. But there are plenty of people out there who have never heard of the woman, and will be totally hooked on plotlines that make me roll my eyes.

I remember Zane Grey's books when I was a teenager. None of them seemed cliche to me then, although if I read them now, they might. (note to self: check kindle for Zane Grey reprints.)

But for a good story of crossing the continent, I'd recommend Gwen Bristow's Jubilee Trail.

There was another one that really stuck with me, but I can't remember the name. About an adolescent who got his younger siblings all the way to Oregon alone after their parents died. It was based on a true story; they ended up with some famous missionary couple in the Willamette Valley. Anybody know whic one that was?

Or from the native side, there's Ride the Wind, about a girl who was captured by the Apaches and settled into the tribe very nicely. Can't remember the author, but you can google her.

And as long as I'm on the Apaches, Blood Brother by Elliott Arnold. Chief Cochise, Geronimo, and the white man who joined the tribe. OOP, but worth finding.

Guthrie's The Big Sky was highly praised. It's okay, but generally a downer. I can read factual accounts for downers, fiction is 're-creation' for me-- I like a little hope in there somewhere.

These is My Words, by Nancy Turner. First person, woman-against-the-west trope, romance and probably more sexual revelations than any real western woman would write in a diary, but entertaining...

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Tue September 23rd, 2014, 8:07 pm

I enjoyed McMurtry's Lonesome Dove which is often recommended and on the top of a lot of favorite lists.

Some other historical westerns that I've read and enjoyed:
--The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles (settler/Indian conflicts in Texas)
--Railroad Schemes and Lily Nevada by Cecelia Holland (California, 1870s)
--Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (dual time novel)
--A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher (Oregon Trail)
--Lost Nation by Jeffry Lent (not technically a western, but set on the eastern frontier border between New Hampshire and Canada during a lawless time)
--Rachel LeMoyne by Eileen Charbonneau (Oregon Trail)



Margaret (who posts here from time-to-time) has a nice list of historical westerns at her historical novels info site:
http://www.historicalnovels.info/Old-West-Novels.html

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wendy
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Post by wendy » Wed September 24th, 2014, 1:15 pm

Some great suggestions, thanks. There's a lot of material out there to wade through!
I enjoyed LONESOME DOVE and THE BIG SKY. Anyone else tackled BLOOD MERIDIAN (Cormac McCarthy)?
Wendy K. Perriman
Fire on Dark Water (Penguin, 2011)
http://www.wendyperriman.com
http://www.FireOnDarkWater.com

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