Smiling Charlie

by Max Brand

very good western

Genres: Westerns

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1971

About the author

Frederick Schiller Faust (see also Frederick Faust), aka Frank Austin, George Owen Baxter, Walter C. Butler, George Challis, Evin Evan, Evan Evans, Frederick Faust, John Frederick, Frederick Frost, David Manning, Peter Henry Morland, Lee Bolt, Peter Dawson, Martin Dexter, Dennis Lawson, M.B., Hugh Owen, Nicholas Silver

Max Brand, one of America's most popular and prolific novelists and author of such enduring works as Destry Rides Again and the Doctor Kildare stories, died on the Italian front in 1944.

Reviews

[Ramakrishnan M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite boring.
I read somewhere that Max Brand is a great Western Author and hence thought of checking him out. This was certainly a BIIIIG disappointment. Yes, the story does take place in the Wild West; however, a very minscule part of the storyline is around action, violence, guns - the stuff that make Westerns exciting.

Instead it goes off like a soap opera - there is a philanderer, a scheming father, a confused maiden falling into love with too many people, and a jack-ass narrator who admires the main character ("Smiling Charlie") but will not stop until he kills him (or gets killed himself).

Great stuff for a soap opera, quite pointless for a Western.

Thumbs down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brittany]

kool

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me a while to get past the racism and sexism (sign of the 1920s), but the story was compelling. Disappointing ending, though.