The Coming of the Kid: A Novel

by Oakley Hall

A lush who talks to horses, a dwarf with a traveling pharmacy, a world-weary grizzly named Duke, and hordes of uncanny riders make up the supporting cast of this satiric fable about the advent of the Kid, summoned to battle Evil in the Old West

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1985

About the author

Oakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.

Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Reviews

[Brock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and a nice end to my series of Westerns. I will look for more Oakley Hall. I read this novel in 1986 or 87 in grad school for a Wasteland Lit class. I think I got more out of it this time around. It is a wonderful Western Arthurian legend fill with all the wounded king and sterile land and no rain and the rain comes with the hero and his band of misfits who each have a special talent and the Kid is an innocent who stays above the cynicism and fallen nature of those around him. And the bleak descriptions of a despoiled landscape. I really liked the story. I also enjoyed the recurring elements from Warlock, with the Hacksaw Mountains and Bright City and the old General Peach. Good stuff.

[Parker T. Geissel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an astounding achievement. Oakley Hall has distilled the pure essence of the American western into a rollicking, riotous tumbleweed epic. It's one of those stories where every line is a treasure to read, each sentence crafted with a rough poetry perfectly balanced. He describes a landscape of elemental figures, the details pared down to only the most essential notions.

It's not the florid savagery of Cormac McCarthy or the folksy philosophical utility of Larry McMurtry, but somewhere in the middle, a more refined version of western mythology that pays tribute to the full range of America's storytelling legacy, from the early idealism of Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger to the vicious cynicism of The Wild Bunch.

The latter part of the book suffers somewhat, becoming bogged down with bringing all the characters together and arriving at a rather labored and unorthodox resolution, but the first half is so perfectly constructed it doesn't matter. I still re-read the individual chapters (Henry Plummer, J.D. Dockerty), each time just as good as the last.

I wonder why this book never found a large audience. Maybe it was too abstract for the western genre. Oakley Hall's most famous book is Warlock, which is a fine story, but more restrained, lacking the pure rustic eloquence he achieved with this one. I heartily recommend.

If you want a sample, search out his short story Horseman, which ended up becoming chapter 3 in this book.