Product Description

I've come to think that in times of crisis human beings don't have it in them to be rational. The Yazee gang was riding down upon us, six abreast. We all ran outside and confirmed that fact. The sensible thing would have been to run and hide -- but did we? Not at all.

The narrator of Larry McMurtry's newest book is spunky Nellie Courtright, twenty-two years old and already wrapping every man in the West around her little finger. When she and her teenage brother Jackson are orphaned, she sweet-talks the local sheriff into hiring Jackson as a deputy, while she takes over the vacant job of town telegrapher. When, by pure blind luck, Jackson shoots down the entire Yazee gang, Nellie is quick to capitalize on his new notoriety by selling reviews to reporters. It seems wherever Nellie is, action is sure to happen, from a love affair with Buffalo Bill to a ringside seat at the O.K. Corral gunfight. Told with charm, humor, and an unparalleled zest for life, Nellie's story is the story of how the West was won.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1917151 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-24
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.10" h x 5.83" w x 7.57" l, .43 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
McMurtry's latest skips through western lore with a wry smile. Marie Antoinette "Nellie" Courtright and her brother, Jackson, bereft of family after their Virginia clan dies off one by one, arrive in Rita Blanca in 1876, in what would become the Oklahoma Panhandle, to remake themselves. Jackson is made a deputy sheriff and Nellie takes over the telegraph office. In short order, Jackson shoots down an entire gang of outlaws, and Nellie promptly writes it up to launch a lucrative literary career. Other adventures await: she becomes manager of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, boldly faces down Jesse James's attempt to rob her and witnesses the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. She becomes mayor of Rita Blanca, a mother of six and, later, friends with Lillian Gish and William B. Mayer. Beautiful and sexually insatiable, Nellie is a witty, sophisticated, accomplished, cunning, impudent and highly improbable woman—more than a match for any man she meets, which isn't saying much, since they're all idiots. She also is little more than a reworking of several previous McMurtry heroines, especially The Berrybender Narratives' Tasmin. This tale is contrived, episodic and lacks cohesion, and its constant comedy is self-conscious. But most readers won't be able to help cracking a smile over McMurtry's 38th book, as purposely over-the-top as an episode of South Park. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
McMurtry fondly, if not originally, evokes the post-Civil War West in this loosely organized story told by spunky Nellie Courtright. Brought to life by actress Annie Potts, Nellie tells how she and her brother seek their fortune on their own after the suicide of their father. With all the appeal of a tall tale, the story intersperses a quirky cast of fictional characters with such historical figures as Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and Billy the Kid. Potts flawlessly narrates as though recounting her personal experience, using an understated Western accent that balances McMurtry's characteristic humor and exaggeration. This is an enjoyable example of an audiobook improving on its print version. S.K. [Editor's Note: A soundreview is available at Audiopolis, www.audiofilemagazine.com] © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
In his latest novel, McMurtry returns to his familiar theme of the mythology versus the reality of the West. Here the closing decades of the western frontier are viewed through the eyes of Nellie Courtright, who is likely to endure as one of McMurtry's most memorable and endearing heroines. As a young, orphaned girl in her early twenties, Nellie finds work as a telegraph operator in the tiny town of Rita Blanca, situated in the "no man's land" that eventually became Oklahoma. She witnesses a gunfight in which her younger brother, by pure luck, wipes out a gang of notorious outlaws. When she decides to pen a dime novel recounting the event, it launches an odyssey during which she encounters many of the icons of frontier lore. She carries on a decades-long platonic relationship with Buffalo Bill. She has repeated encounters with a surly Wyatt Earp, and she witnesses the gunfight at the OK Corral. When the frontier closes, she carves out a new life as owner of a California newspaper. This rollicking epic is filled with excitement and humor, tinged with sadness and a longing for the past. In his striving to demythologize the West, McMurtry's vision of the reality is compelling. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved