The King of Taos

by Max Evans

The underground world of con men, winos, prostitutes, laborers, and artists has been an abundant source of material for great writers from Dickens to Bukowski. The underground world of Taos, New Mexico, is no different. In the late 1950s this mountain town was higher, brighter, poorer, and farther removed than London, Paris, or Los Angeles, but it was every bit as rich for the explorations of a young writer. Max Evans, the beloved New Mexican writer of such enduring classics of Western fiction as The Rounders and The Hi-Lo Country, returns to form with The King of Taos. Set in the late 1950s, the novel tells the stories of sharp-witted Zacharias Chacon, aspiring artist Shaw Spencer, and a circle of characters who drink, fight, love, argue, and--mostly--talk. Readers will enjoy this witty and moving evocation of unforgettable characters as they look for work, love, comfort, dignity, and bottomless oblivion.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 2020

Reviews

[Ernest Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful little book by a master of the western and one of the great New Mexico writers. The short chapters, like a series of fables with a setting and characters interconnectng them that come to a satisfying conclusion. On the way you meet a wino/odd job man/World War Two vet waiting for a check that the government owes him for getting wounded, an aspiring young artist, and many other compelling characters. Of course, the city of Taos is also a character. I've been there many times, and even thought it's changed radically since the late Fifties when novel takes place, it took me back there, and made me want to go back. To read the book is to experience Taos's special magic.

[Judith the Book Gobbler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started with a bang, people and names I knew when living in Taos. Slowly it devolved into a narrative of the lives of a group of wino' whose women and children we're preyed upon by the very men who could have provided for them. It may well be a view of Taos from the inside out.
Of course all manner of poverty attracts bleeding heart do gooders... Of which there is an abundance in Taos today.

[Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an OK read....decent characters.....drinking and artistry in New Mexico..

[Erik Nauman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish this book. It took a little while to decide if the misogyny was supposed to be satire or not, then decided if I couldn't tell then I had to put it down.