Last Kind Words
Saloon by Larry McMurtry is the story of the
closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most
immortal figures: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in Long Grass, Texas. The
taciturn Wyatt seems lost between bottles, and the dentist-turned-gunslinger
Doc is more interesting as he is dying slowly--more slowly than the era
that made them famous. While not up to McMurtry’s best, Saloon is still a short, interesting read.
Lucky Us by Amy Bloom is according to the NYT, “a
short, vibrant book about all kinds of people creating all kinds of serial,
improvisatory lives.” For me, the
reviews were more interesting than the book. After being abandoned by their
parents, half-sisters Eva and Iris share decades in golden-era Hollywood and mid-20th-century
Long Island . They have lots of luck, much of it bad, but the potential of the plot doesn’t develop
for me—probably because of my lack of depth.
*The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin is “is a lush,
irresistible story of the public lives and private longings of grand historical
figures.” A totally predictable love triangle involving a clever, plainspoken heiress; a dashing but almost impoverished horseman Captain; and the beautiful, bored empress of Austria. Despite a well-worn plot, Goodwin’s 2nd
novel places real historical characters
is an engaging tale of manners and morals in Victorian England.
Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn received great reviews
and is described as a “hilariously smart send-up of a certain major
British literary award.” There are sharply drawn satirical portrayals of
various literary types who ultimately give their award to an innovative novel that is actually a cookbook. The
writing is inventive and clever, but
after a few chapters it became ‘a tad’ tiresome.
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