Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Ox-Bow Incident

by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Wallace Stegner (Introduction)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 1,837 ratings · 195 reviews

Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark tran...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 27th 2004 by Modern Library (first published 1940)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Best Westerns

14th out of 323 books — 428 voters

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Literature of Social Change

60th out of 304 books — 243 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 22, 2013 David Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars

* weak on plot, strong on dialogue, philosophy, etc, December 14, 2004 *

I would imagine that this book was more powerful when it was first published back in 1940. But today, the plot seems very predictable, with bits and pieces falling into place too neatly all along the way. Nothing comes as any real surprise, including the ending.

The book is worth reading, though, for its philosophical dialogue and its interesting look into the minds of true-to-life characters with varying points of view on ju...more * weak on plot, strong on dialogue, philosophy, etc, December 14, 2004 *

I would imagine that this book was more powerful when it was first published back in 1940. But today, the plot seems very predictable, with bits and pieces falling into place too neatly all along the way. Nothing comes as any real surprise, including the ending.

The book is worth reading, though, for its philosophical dialogue and its interesting look into the minds of true-to-life characters with varying points of view on justice and the law.

As at least one other reviewer has mentioned, the book is hard to put down. And it's a refreshing read because its style is not unduly difficult.

One sign of good literature is when the characters appear so alive that you feel a strong urge to step into the book and shake them to keep them from making fatal mistakes. Young Gerald Tetley was such a character for me. There's no reason he couldn't have stood up to his stupid father. And, if he had, things might have turned out better for everyone.

Warning: THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK BUT PLAN TO MIGHT WANT TO SKIP THIS NEXT PART!!!

One especially weak point in the plot for me was the idea that the murder victim never really died. That was so obvious that I saw it coming right from the start.

Also, Kinkaid was shot for no discernable reason. The victims of the lynching bought the cattle legally, yet another group shot Kinkaid and coincidentally rushed off in the same direction. What was their motive? The author never offers any clue.

To make the story even more difficult to swallow, the lynching victims happen to come into possession of Kinkaid's gun which has been taken by the shooters. The story treads dangerously close to becoming a banal political statement here in the way that the movie Dead Man Walking was. When every element of the plot is so carefully arranged so as to create the most gruesome case against vigilantism possible, the sheer unbelievability that results makes it harder to take the story seriously. Dead Man Walking was a dismal failure in this respect, but this book was saved by the care and intelligence that went into creating the intricate thought processes of each character and their interactions with each other.

Also, the inclusion of the character Rose Mapen in the book along with that of her husband is not integral to the plot. I was bothered by this at first, but now I see that these characters help to lend the book the feel of a typical Western.

I find it very satisfying how the book hints at the gendre of Western without actually stooping to its bland, commercial level. (less)

like 1 like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Cassidy Noe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review of The Ox-Bow Incident

The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark was very different than I'd expected it to be. With the book set in the theme of a law and order situation, the whole book is in first person, narrated by Art Croft. Art and Gil are two country men that ride into a little town called Bridgers Wells. With the murder of Kinkaid, a ranch hand, the boys may have gotten themselves into trouble. With the wanting of acceptance, Art and Gil volunteered to be a part of a posse...more

like · see review

Nov 02, 2012 Tylor Genske rated it 4 of 5 stars

From begining to end this book kept me guessing on where it was going next! The story turns out to be about very early mob violence that had started in the wild west West of 1885. In the story the main characters are a group of "cowboys". These cowboys go on a long ride far from their home town together. On their ride away from home they are faced with the challenge of decieding between lynching three suspects of a crime or to spare them. Through the book the characters were very deeply describe...more

like 1 like · see review

Oct 28, 2012 Folboteur rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, philosophy, literature, western

In the heat of the 2012 Presidential battle, mired in debates with Libertarian friends, I sought a good read about justice, society, responsibility and humanity. My father recommended this to me when I was very young... too young to appreciate or desire this novel. But as a Nevada district attorney, I suppose he had some very deep connection to the story of Nevada Justice.

"The Oxbow Incident" is a meditation on the rule of law, the establishment of society, and all the personality types at play...more In the heat of the 2012 Presidential battle, mired in debates with Libertarian friends, I sought a good read about justice, society, responsibility and humanity. My father recommended this to me when I was very young... too young to appreciate or desire this novel. But as a Nevada district attorney, I suppose he had some very deep connection to the story of Nevada Justice.

"The Oxbow Incident" is a meditation on the rule of law, the establishment of society, and all the personality types at play in the quest for justice. The specific part of human society that this book picks at until raw, is our motivation to act; our motivation to participate in pack behavior; our lust for power, and the willingness of some individuals to use the pack to attain that power.

Circumstances suggest that a man has been murdered and 40 head of cattle rustled. Justice must be served, and not at the slow pace offered by the judicial system. The town-folk of Bridger's Wells Nevada form a posse/lynch mob to find the pre-determined-guilty parties, and exact a rapid frontier justice.

The various characters serve as mouthpieces for and against a rush to judgment or action. Davies and young Gerald Tetley offer book-end assessments of human motivations, and it is hard to say who is more accurate, or who pays more for the beliefs he holds, in the end.

Some of the locals are "axe-to-grind", power hungry men whose motivations cover the entire spectrum EXCEPT for achieving justice in the case. I could not help but see, in this 1940 Western novel, an eerie parallel to modern times. Members of the vigilante posse hell-bent on lynching anyone for the murder of Kincaid, morphed in my mind to become the GWBush Administration and its cronies pushing America to war in Iraq. Circumstantial evidence; pleas to save society; appeals to machismo. A twist, late in the novel, makes this analogy even more apt in my mind... Without spoiling the novel (I hope) no WMD's were found in the Oxbow valley, either.

Elvis Costello writes on his 1988 album "Spike", "One day you're going to have to face a deep dark truthful mirror... and it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say..."

This novel is a starkly powerful mirror held up to our psyches, reflecting our willingness to stand up and do what's right, to "go along, to get along," to participate in sins of omission or commission. A Western American novel, no doubt, but also a timeless assessment of human nature, and the problems of power, justice, tribalism and fear. No reader can walk away from this novel and claim, in good conscience, looking themselves in the mirror, that they do not know the options facing them when a moral and ethical dilemma invites, nay demands their involvement. (less)

like 1 like · see review

Sep 20, 2012 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

Most people think that allegory, as a narrative form, is basically dead. If you sift through the new novels at the book store, most of what you’ll find are sappy, melodramatic tragedies or love stories—works indebted more to a Victorian taste for symmetry and closure, and which lean towards a reluctant, cynical embrace of the status quo. Allegory, on the other hand, is becoming scarce—at least good allegory is. The reason, I presume, is that we are already a heavily theory-laden culture. And all...more Most people think that allegory, as a narrative form, is basically dead. If you sift through the new novels at the book store, most of what you’ll find are sappy, melodramatic tragedies or love stories—works indebted more to a Victorian taste for symmetry and closure, and which lean towards a reluctant, cynical embrace of the status quo. Allegory, on the other hand, is becoming scarce—at least good allegory is. The reason, I presume, is that we are already a heavily theory-laden culture. And allegory, because of its conceptual impetus, can easily become hollow and forced. Few writers have the powers that Golding had when he wrote Lord of the Flies. That story, in worse hands, would’ve been a silly hash. Fortunately Golding knew his western literature, and dug deep into it so that the allegorical shell never became an over-determining force in the reader’s consciousness. Instead, it sits there like the perfect after-taste, resonating through all the vivid events and characters. Nobody can read that novel without thinking throughout what does this mean? What does this symbolize? Should I believe what I think it symbolizes? Do I need to pass any judgment at all?

Allegory turns literature into a powerful philosophical tool, and it singles out the reader in a purer manner than ordinary narratives do. When you read a Philip Roth novel, you either agree with what his characters are saying and doing or you don’t; you either understand and sympathize with their worldview or you don’t. It’s a second-rate kind of writing to a degree but it is also the sort of literature that flourishes in today’s world, possibly because for any author with talent it’s a form that’s easier artistically to fill out. To think allegorically, like Kafka or Golding, takes a whole other sort of genius—especially since today you’re dealing with a far more skeptical culture.

Walter Clark’s The Ox-Bow Incident is a decent but flawed allegory. It certainly tries hard to overturn the staid and stale format of the traditional western story, with its stiff and predictable characters and plot lines. In this story, the question of justice and civilization are put up for us to question and to think about, but the way that Clark employs these ideas in this tale of vigilante justice is so evident and extensively flushed out that a large part of the mystery is wiped away by the end. That stellar aftertaste that allegory is supposed to leave you with never becomes piquant; at least it never did for me. The story was too narrow and predictable. Most of the central characters were turned into mouthpieces for elaborate ideas that didn’t always seem believable. And, numerous times, I found myself wanting to skip ahead because there was so much inertia tied to an inexorable plot line.

In the end, I felt that this story, as Clark preferred to tell it, would’ve made a much better short story or novella, but not an entire novel. As a short story he would’ve been forced to get to the core of his ideas quickly and succinctly, and perhaps that would’ve led to more narrative innovation.
(less)

like · see review

Aug 19, 2012 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites

This is first and foremost a beautifully written book.
It reminded me of "Deliverance" in the spare, almost poetic descriptions of place and action. At their hearts they are two simple, straightforward stories, but presented with such understated clarity and immediacy that you read them breathlessly, "in the moment".
The "incident" unfolds through the honest observations of Art Croft, and through slabs of dialogue that draw you in with their natural robustness and sincerity. As one finely drawn s...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 17, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 3 of 5 stars

Assuming you had some reason for doing so, you could dig up all kinds of critical commentary claiming that Walter Van Tilburg Clark's Western classic "The Ox-Bow Incident" transcends the genre. "Transcends the genre." What does that mean? That's one of those dumb things critics like to say when they accidentally like something they're not supposed to. "Wait a minute, this is really good. It can't be Western/scifi/horror/etc.; therefore, it (music swells) TRANSCENDS THE GENRE!!!!" Nonsense. "The...more

like 2 likes · see review

Sep 29, 2011 David Kubicek rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Ox-Bow Incident is not your standard western. This is an excellent examination of mob justice and its consequences. Clark was a really good writer. He develops the characters and settings much better than many of the westerns I've read. The descriptions of western life sound as if he's writing from experience, as if he were there, which is not the case.

Clark was born in 1909 in Maine. In 1917 his father accepted the position of President of the University of Nevada and moved the family west...more

like 1 like · see review

Jul 09, 2011 Lynne rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book did not have to be a western. It could have been, with slight modifications, set at anytime in anyplace. It was really a morality tale about mob mentality.

The book begins with a rider galloping into town and announcing that "Kincaid is dead. Shot through the head by rustlers." The townsmen decide, because the sheriff is currently elsewhere, to form a posse/lynch mob and take after the suspected culprits. I will not divulge here, wheter or not they are a mob or a posse, nor will I revea...more

like · see review

Jun 29, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Shelves: classics, crime, fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, mystery, novels, suspense, ultimate-reading-list, westerns

This is a powerful book not only on the psychology of lynch mobs, but what is the quality that is most important in upholding civilization. Many might have seen the classic film, but I think the novel more than holds its own. Told as the first person account of a cowboy, Art Croft, at the periphery of events, first helping an attempt to stop the lynch mob from forming, than being swept up into it, he is thoughtful and does have a conscience. But what Clark tells us that's not enough without the...more This is a powerful book not only on the psychology of lynch mobs, but what is the quality that is most important in upholding civilization. Many might have seen the classic film, but I think the novel more than holds its own. Told as the first person account of a cowboy, Art Croft, at the periphery of events, first helping an attempt to stop the lynch mob from forming, than being swept up into it, he is thoughtful and does have a conscience. But what Clark tells us that's not enough without the "guts" to back it up.

Set in 1885 in the small town of Bridger's Wells in an unnamed United States Territory near the Sierra Mountains; a place still a raw frontier. Clark sketches dozens of characters. There are twenty-eight in the lynching party--two are there to try to stop it--or at least try to comfort the victims. Spark, a black handyman and preacher who witnessed his own brother's lynching as a child, and Davies, who owns a store in town. Sparks especially because of his race is basically powerless, but Davies does try to stop the tragedy in the making--and what events do to him is part of the most heartbreaking part of the book. He consciously tries to play the "light" to Major Willard Tetley's "dark." Of all the characters in the book, the two that seem the most despicable are two at the opposite ends of the social spectrum, Monty Smith, the town "bum" and the rich and powerful Tetley, the "biggest man in the valley" with maybe one exception.

But it's not so simple by the end, where we find reasons to condemn some of the "good" people and have sympathy for some of the "bad." Most of the people in that lynch mob are depicted as decent men. What rides them is various kinds of fear. Art and his friend Gil are partly drawn in because given the tensions in the town due to widespread cattle rustling, they fear being suspected. For most in that crowd, as Art puts it, "most men are more afraid of being thought cowards than of anything else." Others are "playing up to the audience." Gerald Tetley--the son of the Major--sees it as a pack mentality. "We're doing it because we're...afraid not to be in the pack."

So it's a thoughtful book, with beautiful lyrical writing, that feels cinematic on the page in terms of description and characterful dialogue, one that deals with complex strands of race, ethnicity, gender and class. And one with more than one twist in store. Top notch in plot, characters, style and themes.(less)

like · see review

Oct 15, 2010 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars

The ox-bow incident is a great book that was definetly worth the time to read it. At every moment in the book, it keeps you interested in what is happening. It is an overall great adventure book.
The ox-bow incident is a book about a few men in 1885 who are after the murdere1r of Kinkaid as well as the stealing of his cattle. Kinkaid was a cattle rancher, who made his living out in the fields. Twenty-five men set out to find the murderers, but the question the have to face, is when they find t...more

like · see review

Apr 03, 2013 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, social-justice

This Western got off to a slow start but by about halfway through I couldn't put it down. It left me feeling heart-broken, and I mean that as a compliment to its literary power. The story is of a lynch mob who sets out to hang three men who allegedly rustled cattle and killed a rancher. Although you can see what's coming a mile away, Clark's keen observation of how it happens is where the intensity sets in, and what brings you to ask yourself the questions the characters are asking. What is just...more

like · see review

Oct 21, 2010 Kate Woods Walker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although this masculine tale sits taller in the saddle than most other westerns, I found it an overall disappointment. Perhaps I was expecting more than anything in that genre could deliver; nevertheless, the intense description of every character and cloud was at first impressive, but soon wore heavy on this impatient reader.

The moral lessons were plain and straightforward. However, the lessons are too easily seen as applying only to some past, far-away time--certainly not to us here in 2010, w...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 24, 2010 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-read-booklist

This is a little book that roars through your conscience and stomps ethic and moral codes to the hinterland. What is law ,what is justice are they one and the same? Is it ever right to take the law and judgment into your own hands? Clark leads you to an ending in which you must ask yourself this question. For a 200 and something page book it speaks volumes.

Imagine you are in a saloon in the old west ,vigilante justice is on the rise and someone rides into town with a wild story about murder and...more

like 1 like · see review

Sep 03, 2012 Frances rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is horrifying - and rightly deserves a position in the canon of American literature. It depicts the definite dark-side of the American West mythos. Tillburg Clark creates characters to bear out the darkness, rather than employing abstract forces themselves. All that a man is, an outsider, an insider, a bully, a martyr, play in his decisions in this book. Though evil happens, it doesn't happen for evil's sake; rather, it happens because of the intersections and overlappings of the chara...more

like · see review

Jun 11, 2012 Robert Palmer rated it 5 of 5 stars

The film adaptation of this book was released in 1943.I did not see the movie until 1950 or 51.All the guys I hung around with at that time loved western movies,John Wayne always got the bad guys at the end (most ofton killed) and so this western did not do it for any of us.It was not until the mid 60s that I read the book.When I finished reading it I knew it was a masterpiece.
A group of men and one women set out to catch and most likely lynch the three cattle rustlers who have also most likely...more The film adaptation of this book was released in 1943.I did not see the movie until 1950 or 51.All the guys I hung around with at that time loved western movies,John Wayne always got the bad guys at the end (most ofton killed) and so this western did not do it for any of us.It was not until the mid 60s that I read the book.When I finished reading it I knew it was a masterpiece.
A group of men and one women set out to catch and most likely lynch the three cattle rustlers who have also most likely killed Larry Kincade. The local judge Tyler is to weak and not respected by the men.sheriff Risley would be able to stop them but he is out of town on another matter.Davies,a storekeeper try's to stop them but is unable to do so.Major Tetley ,a confederate veteran assumes leadership of lynch mob and off they .Art Croft,a posse member narrates the story.He never really wants to be a part of a lynching,rather they should catch them and bring them in for a trial and in truth most of the men don't really want to be a part of what they are about to do,but feel that they must go along with the group .
Most readers will know by about page 30 that this enterprise will come to a bad end.
After reading this novel you may say,that was then,this could never happen today,not in this country! But consider the following.
In July of 2002 two men ages 62 & 49 had rented a truck to help their Aunt move.They were driving along Lake Park av. At 39th st when the driver lost control and drove into a group of people sitting and standing around the front porch of a building.As soon as the truck stopped they were pulled out and beaten to death.
In the spring of 2005 the oxbow incident was chosen for the one book,one Chicago to be read and discussed at library's all across the city. The Blackstone branch library at 49th and Lake Park is a mere 8 blocks from the crime scene and yes a mile from the home o President Obama.
Can you imagine that book discussion ?
This is a book that needs to be read by all of us.(less)

like · see review

Oct 28, 2010 MisterFweem rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In Walter Prescott Webb’s afterword to Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s “The Ox-Bow Incident,” Clark discusses the motivation behind his seminal debut novel:

The book was written in 1937 and ’38, when the whole world was getting increasingly worried about Hitler and the Nazis, and emotionally it stemmed from my part of this worrying. A number of the reviewers commented on the parallel when the bok came out in 1940, saw it as something approaching an allegory of the unscrupulous and brutal Nazi methods,...more

like · see review

Feb 24, 2012 Maralise rated it 4 of 5 stars

The best anti-horse-oprey western I've read--another rewrite of 'The Stranger' (I can't seem to escape them lately) in which the novel seeks to understand justice and how group thought, by its very nature, oversimplifies the individual experience--and the consequences of that oversimplification. The author hints at the psychological depth of modernism while not betraying the vivid realism that Western Lit. can't seem to get past (and about which I'm not complaining).

The author, in a letter date...more

like · see review

Mar 25, 2013 Crd rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Ox-Bow Incident is a good book for high school students. This book wasn't much of a challenge to read, but it definitely kept me wanting to see what was going to happen next. However, after reading a short review before I read the story, I was a bit disappointed. I chose the book because I thought there would be much more "wild-wild west action". What I mean is that I expected more gun fights, because a lot of that happened during that time. What I like most about the story was the big twist...more

like · see review

Sep 05, 2011 Derek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Mark Kemp

An allegorical take on man's moral failure in the face of mob mentality, Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Ox-Bow Incident is arguably the western that broke the mold of the western (and then stomped on its corpse for good measure). Set in the mid-1880s American west and primarily concerned with the "frontier justice" doled out to suspected cattle rustlers (see also: Michael Cimino's excellent and epic film, Heaven's Gate), Clark dramatizes cowardice and aggression through a cast of characters who,...more An allegorical take on man's moral failure in the face of mob mentality, Walter Van Tilburg Clark's The Ox-Bow Incident is arguably the western that broke the mold of the western (and then stomped on its corpse for good measure). Set in the mid-1880s American west and primarily concerned with the "frontier justice" doled out to suspected cattle rustlers (see also: Michael Cimino's excellent and epic film, Heaven's Gate), Clark dramatizes cowardice and aggression through a cast of characters who, at times, are veiled too thinly as stand-ins for Clark's disappointments with humanity.

The first third of the novel works at a snail's pace, where the townsfolk have gathered to decide/argue how best to follow the men suspected of rustling cattle and murdering a rancher--think A Few Angry Men but somehow with less urgency. Once they hit the trail, though, things begin to pick up nicely, and Clark's muscular description of setting lends the story an ominous, stomach-sickening tone. He undoes much of this good work when young Tetley spends pages verbalizing his thoughts about their foolishness in pursuing the rustlers, which puts too fine a point on a philosophy that Clark had already dramatized competently anyway. But the ending, where the men are finally in the position to stop the lynching (I'll provide no spoilers here), works flawlessly--Clark pulls no punches here, and we are forced to look on and watch their sins and moral bankruptcy reflect our own.

Much can be made, too, of Croft's (the narrator's) lack of agency in the story, but I think that works in the book's favor. His inaction becomes our inaction, and I think that Clark is asking the reader to accept the fact that he/she may very well suffer the same absence of conscience in the face of thoughtless group bloodlust. And, hey, this thing predates the Milgram experiments by almost two decades!

I've counted myself among the fans of Clark's work since encountering his perfect short story, "The Portable Phonograph," nearly ten years ago. The Ox-Bow Incident, even with its shortcomings, is the fulfillment of the promise that story showed. It's a book not easily forgotten, I'd argue, and I think that power comes from its fearless grappling with universal themes. And, of course, its goddamn hopelessness, its cynicism, and its condemnation of humanity's lack of humanness.(less)

like · see review

Mar 13, 2011 Phillip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although published in 1940, I suspect that readers will think this book is timely; it tears open the notions of civility and justice in a way that cannot be forgotten. Dozens of characters are woven together in an escalating tragedy that rips the entrails out of a decent town to reveal that we are all what we abhor - a weak and cowardly mob, susceptible to the passions of a few, undeterred by fact or reason, and seldom brave enough to rise to honest justice when it contradicts the will of the ma...more

like 1 like · see review

Sep 13, 2007 Qwo-Li rated it 1 of 5 stars

Ok, honestly, I can't remember one damn thing about this book except that Sister Marie Renee made us read this in Jr. High and I hated it and wouldn't read it. Then, the night before we had to be done with it, I had a major 12-year-old nervous breakdown because I knew I could never finish it in time and was afraid of incurring nun-wrath.

like 2 likes · see review

Dec 06, 2012 Johnny D rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There be spoilers ahead.

I picked this book up on a whim for 35 cents at a used bookstore.

By far, this is the best 35 cents that I have ever spent in my life. Not knowing anything about the book, I was expecting a sort of rough Western story about how a hero was able to face off against a lynch mob. This book delivers so much more than that. The exploration of mob psychology, authoritarianism, and the nature of injustice was enthralling. Reading this book is like witnessing a car hit a pedestrian...more There be spoilers ahead.

I picked this book up on a whim for 35 cents at a used bookstore.

By far, this is the best 35 cents that I have ever spent in my life. Not knowing anything about the book, I was expecting a sort of rough Western story about how a hero was able to face off against a lynch mob. This book delivers so much more than that. The exploration of mob psychology, authoritarianism, and the nature of injustice was enthralling. Reading this book is like witnessing a car hit a pedestrian in slow motion. I know, that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of the book, but hear me out.

I’ve never witnessed a car accident in slow motion, but I imagine it this way: I’m standing on a curb seeing a car headed toward a witless pedestrian (slowly, of course) and I’m thinking that maybe the car won’t strike him. The pedestrian’s head is down and he doesn’t see the car, so I’m worried. I look at the driver of the car, and I see from the way his eyes are focused that he does see the pedestrian. The passengers of the car are yelling. One of them is pointing angrily at the pedestrian, another is eerily smiling, while the other is pleading passionately, a pained expression etched on their face. I feel a sense of relief, he’ll stop in time – slam on those brakes. He’ll listen to reason. Indeed, he does start to decelerate and that’s when the pedestrian finally sees him. The pedestrian’s eyes widen, and he starts to leap. Maybe he’ll be able to evade the car if, for whatever reason, it can’t stop in time. But the car is no longer slowing down. In fact, it’s speeding up. The passenger who was pleading looks sad, but resigned while the others maintain their facial expressions. Now the clash is inevitable. I can’t watch this, but I can’t look away either. Maybe a miracle will occur, some kind of divine intervention. No, it happens, the man dies.

At one point in the book, one of the doomed men says of the lynch mob: “I thought there was a white man among you.” It’s a jarring quote, and I took it at face value at first. But, no, it is clear use of irony. Clark was well aware of racist lynching and he clearly had this in mind when he wrote the book. One of the most sympathetic characters in the book is a black man, Sparks, who has the least social standing in the entire community but is steadfast and brave in his stand against the lynching. Clarks book is a protest not just against injustice, but against the profound racial injustice he saw all around him.

Van Tilburg Clark has created a deeply intelligent book that serves as a startling reminder of our capability for evil. We make excuses for inaction in the face of injustice. After all, what can we do? Clark’s choice to have his protagonist act as a mostly passive members of the mob is a good one. I can’t imagine the book being as effective without this decision. Personally, I was forced to question my own decisions. When had I participated or stood by while someone was bullied? When have I chosen to be quiet in the face of injustice? When I have chosen the easy route of inaction?

This is an engrossing read that inspired a lot of self reflection.

“The book was written in 1937 and ‘38, when the whole world was getting increasingly worried about Hitler and the Nazis, and emotionally it stemmed from my part of this worrying. A number of the reviewers commented on the parallel when the book came out in 1940, saw it as something approaching an allegory of the unscrupulous and brutal Nazi methods, and as a warning against the dangers of temporizing and of hoping to oppose such a force with reason, argument, and the democratic approach. They did not see, however, or at least I don’t remember that any of them mentioned it (and that did scare me), although it was certainly obvious, the whole substance and surface of the story, that it was a kind of American Naziism that I was talking about. I had the parallel in mind, all right, but what I was most afraid of was not the German Nazis, or even the Bund, but that ever-present element in any society which can always be led to act the same way, to use authoritarian methods to oppose authoritarian methods.

What I wanted to say was, ‘It can happen here. It has happened here, in minor but sufficiently indicative ways, a great many times.’”

Walter Van Tilburg Clark, 1960.
(less)

like · see review

Aug 21, 2010 HBalikov rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you have read To Kill a Mockingbird, this book is just as great on a similar topic at a different place and time.

Western but not "a western" by what we expect now of that genre. It is a study of men and how they relate to each other and what the "pack mentality" can accomplish.

Relentless in its momentum, it takes us through 24 hours from the point where two young "cow punchers" come into town after a long isolated winter. They learn that a murder has taken place out on the range and that some...more

like · see review

Feb 23, 2012 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, westerns, literary-fiction

I really do not know how I want to rate The Ox-Bow Incident. I didn't hate this book, but I didn't like it either, yet it's better than ok. As others have mentioned, the writing, the setting, and the feel of this story are all very well done. It feels authentic, and I liked this study of the mob mentality as told from the point of view of one of the individuals in the mob.

While there is plenty to like about this book, it just read so slowly for me. I kept waiting for the action to pick up, and t...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 16, 2010 Stephen Gallup rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book has been on the edge of my awareness for years but I never knew what it was about. Finally picked it up.

The opening pages made me smile at the "cowpoke speak" with exchanges like the following, which takes place over the bar in an otherwise empty saloon:

"Well?" [That's the bartender speaking:]
"Don't rush me," Gil said.
"Take your time," Canby said.
"It don't look to me," Gil said, "like you was so rushed you couldn't wait!"
"It's not that. I hate to see a man who can't make up his mind....more

like 1 like · see review

Jan 28, 2012 Reid rated it 5 of 5 stars

A truly fine novel of morality that addresses a central question of human ethics: when are you culpable for the deeds in which you do not directly participate but that you either condone or allow to occur without protest? Though set in the American West of the late 19th century, the message of this book is as relevant today as the day it was written. When you leaders choose to act in ways that are criminal, or that are questionable in a moral or ethical sense, what is your responsibility? Just b...more

like · see review

May 11, 2012 Yasmin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I watched the movie before I read the book. There were some changes in the movie from the book and I suppose that made it easier to understand the story. In a way it must have been difficult for people in the 40s to believe people in the 19th century were that gritty. But as the movie was made in the author's lifetime he must have given it is go ahead. I am supposing too that the author agreed to the wonderful letter included in the movie, which in the book was referred to but the contents unkno...more

like · see review

Jul 21, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

I can see why this is considered a classic. It's clearly a western -- set in the west, it has cowpokes, rustlers, and vigilante justice. But it's also much more than that. The lynching that you know is going to happen if you've read even a minimal review of the book actually comes rather late in the story, and it's the lead-up to it that establishes the complexity of the situation and of the individuals trapped in it. Each brings his own individual personality to what happens, and each is affect...more

like · see review

Jul 07, 2011 J. Alfred rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You know those movies where one part of your consciousness is telling you 'dang, that was a heck of a piece of art' while the majority of the rest of you is thinking hard about whatever it was the movie was about? I'm thinking mainly of things like Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List: where you recognize the merit of the film while knowing that you don't want to see it again for, oh, a decade or so? Well, I'm prepared to put this book in that list, right there with A Good Man is Hard to Fin...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
the ox bow incident	2	6	Mar 15, 2013 12:55pm

combine
Other Editions (35)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

68 users

Western

57 users

Historical Fiction

26 users

Literature

14 users

Book Club

7 users

Literature > American

5 users

Academic > School

4 users

Classics > Classic Literature

4 users

Philosophy

3 users

Literature > 19th Century

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

The Big Sky
by A.B. Guthrie Jr.
The Learning Tree
by Gordon Parks
Little Big Man
by Thomas Berger
Shane
by Jack Schaefer
Butcher's Crossing
by John Edward Williams

About Walter Van Tilburg Clark

Walter Van Tilburg Clark was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. He ranks as one of Nevada's most distinguished literary figures of the 20th century and is known primarily for his novels, his one volume of stories, as well as his uncollected short stories. As a writer, he taught himself to use the familiar materials of the western saga to explore the human psyche and to raise d...more

More about Walter Van Tilburg Clark...

Books by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Ox-Bow Incident

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Ox-Bow Incident

“True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has developed with mankind ... If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?” — 4 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Ox-Bow Incident
avg rating	preview: The Ox-Bow Incident Goodreads rating: 3.67 (1837 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46212.The_Ox_Bow_Incident?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347752296l/46212.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46212.The_Ox_Bow_Incident?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark[/url]

The Ox-Bow Incident

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website