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Liar's Moon
A new novel of the West deromanticizes the "winning" of the American frontier, using African American, Native American, and female voices to retell the story. Reprint.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 199
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 13, 2021
Although it took me a while to get used to Kimball’s writing style, I'm glad I stuck with it. (At first I was distracted by all those run-on sentences and fragmented story lines, along with constantly changing points of view and the need to switch back and forth between the present and the past tense.) But once I got used to it, I'm glad I hadn't given up because this was a great book filled with so many iconic images, stories, legends and characters that are associated with the old West.
Part of this novel's magic is the way Kimball has pieced it all together – the tall tales with the historically accurate, and the absolutely impossible with the genuinely believable. What makes it so much fun are the larger than life characters whose narratives unfold in what at first feels like a collection of loosely linked short stories. Told from multiple points of view, the plot - such as it is - eventually does come together in unexpected ways.
We’ve seen these characters in one form or another in many of the books, films and legends we’re familiar with – children who fall off the back of a covered wagon and end up living with coyotes, an ex-slave who becomes a cattle wrangler (the cattle drive was one of my favorite parts of this book) a young girl stolen away by Indians, a wandering preacher and so many other characters we’ve encountered in our imaginations. But even though there’s something familiar about them, Phillip Kimball has avoided turning them into stereotypes that do predictable things. That’s one of the reasons this book was so much fun to read.
It’s full of everything we associate with the Western as a genre including some far-fetched yarns and more than just a few cock and bull stories. As someone else has observed, once you start reading this book, you're in for quite a ride, so just hang on and stay in the saddle!!
Part of this novel's magic is the way Kimball has pieced it all together – the tall tales with the historically accurate, and the absolutely impossible with the genuinely believable. What makes it so much fun are the larger than life characters whose narratives unfold in what at first feels like a collection of loosely linked short stories. Told from multiple points of view, the plot - such as it is - eventually does come together in unexpected ways.
We’ve seen these characters in one form or another in many of the books, films and legends we’re familiar with – children who fall off the back of a covered wagon and end up living with coyotes, an ex-slave who becomes a cattle wrangler (the cattle drive was one of my favorite parts of this book) a young girl stolen away by Indians, a wandering preacher and so many other characters we’ve encountered in our imaginations. But even though there’s something familiar about them, Phillip Kimball has avoided turning them into stereotypes that do predictable things. That’s one of the reasons this book was so much fun to read.
It’s full of everything we associate with the Western as a genre including some far-fetched yarns and more than just a few cock and bull stories. As someone else has observed, once you start reading this book, you're in for quite a ride, so just hang on and stay in the saddle!!
July 28, 2009
When I read Liar’s Moon, by Philip Kimball, I was fully expecting just another cheesy portrayal of the West. But what I found was a lushly beautiful portrait of an unforgiving, developing world. This book, published in 1999, maintains the gritty and unabashed realism McCarthy made us love, but somehow manages to give us a little bit of that barely-believable mythology that surrounded many of the old western figures.
The story follows the narratives of several different characters as they all converge. There’s Brother, a wandering preacher in search of his lost brother; Autumn Tallgrass, a young white girl abducted by Indians when she was a little girl, raised as one of their own; Cannonball, a freed slave trying to make a name for himself driving herds and causing havoc (famous first words: ”It was the whiskey made me do it.” [pg. 50:]); among others. Each of the characters maintains a unique voice, written with so many little nuances that you can hear the character’s voice in your head as you read along.
That there are two kids raised by wolves thrown in the mix only makes the story that much more intriguing, especially since they’re the ones who tie the all those little stories together.
I definitely recommend checking out this novel–or as the author calls it: “Long Story”–even for those that aren’t big Western fans. It’s an amazing story of America’s sordid adolescence, peppered with more than enough great stories and characters to keep you reading it non-stop. Philip Kimball has a keen ear for style and tone, as well, which makes the read a pure pleasure.
For more on book, see: http://bravenewworks.com/?p=80
The story follows the narratives of several different characters as they all converge. There’s Brother, a wandering preacher in search of his lost brother; Autumn Tallgrass, a young white girl abducted by Indians when she was a little girl, raised as one of their own; Cannonball, a freed slave trying to make a name for himself driving herds and causing havoc (famous first words: ”It was the whiskey made me do it.” [pg. 50:]); among others. Each of the characters maintains a unique voice, written with so many little nuances that you can hear the character’s voice in your head as you read along.
That there are two kids raised by wolves thrown in the mix only makes the story that much more intriguing, especially since they’re the ones who tie the all those little stories together.
I definitely recommend checking out this novel–or as the author calls it: “Long Story”–even for those that aren’t big Western fans. It’s an amazing story of America’s sordid adolescence, peppered with more than enough great stories and characters to keep you reading it non-stop. Philip Kimball has a keen ear for style and tone, as well, which makes the read a pure pleasure.
For more on book, see: http://bravenewworks.com/?p=80
April 11, 2011
I am through and through a Westerner, child of the Sonora Desert and proud of a cowboy legacy from one grandfather. LONESOME DOVE is one of my favorite books. So I appreciated much about Kimball's sprawling saga of the unruly West, cowboys, children raised by coyotes, Indian Wars, homesteaders, cattlemen versus farmers etc.
I found the book's style hard to read and would have liked more white space on the pages. As I read his frequently-changing viewpoints (chapter by chapter) I often had to stop and think, "Now which man is this?" because some of them didn't feel differentiated enough for me as a reader. Still, the book is engaging for a reader who doesn't mind working hard to get at the heart of the book, which is an elegy for a forgotten past.
I found the book's style hard to read and would have liked more white space on the pages. As I read his frequently-changing viewpoints (chapter by chapter) I often had to stop and think, "Now which man is this?" because some of them didn't feel differentiated enough for me as a reader. Still, the book is engaging for a reader who doesn't mind working hard to get at the heart of the book, which is an elegy for a forgotten past.
June 29, 2015
A softer-edged Cormack McCarthy, Phillip Kimball's elegy to the harshness and the rich potential of the Old West comes close to brilliance, piercing the romance without destroying it. PS - I haven't quite finished the book when I wrote that and I originally gave it
four stars. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that I loved the last several chapters. They pulled the book together and left me full of deep emotion.
four stars. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that I loved the last several chapters. They pulled the book together and left me full of deep emotion.
October 27, 2022
Took some time to get into but well worth putting in the time to understand the story lines and their connections.
October 11, 2012
The constant use of fragmented sentences (which I presume was done to create an authentic sound) was distracting to me and prevented me from enjoying nearly all of the intertwining stories.
March 24, 2014
Overall not my cup of tea. Very good imaging through words just too unorganized for me
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews