Been loving the Lonesome Dove series (Larry McMurty). I just need to get Comanche Moon.
Butchers Crossing - John Williams - is a good one.
Wasn’t sure about Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy.
Want to get hold of Warlock by Oakley Hall. Finding it weirdly difficult to get hold of - just bought a french translation off ebay by mistake. So need to either learn french or keep looking.
Any recommendations?
elmore leonard’s the complete western stories is pretty good. has the 3:10 to yuma in it
I feel like The Sisters Brothers is the only one I’ve read and thought it merely okay.
Blood Meridian is pretty challenging, I preferred the Border Trilogy.
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry. I guess it’s not strictly a Western, but set in 1890s Montana and has that kind of vibe. Remember it being also very funny.
Yeah I need to read those
Ambiguous.
I guess I’ve also read The Gunslinger if that counts. I really liked that one
sisters brothers was a film!
does NOT exist
BUTCHERS CROSSING WAS A FILM WITH NICOLAS CAGE!!
Yeah I remembered hearing it would be but was reading about it after mentioning it here.
I don’t read a lot of westerns but I read a lot of western adjacent books i.e. rural noir and post- apocalyptic stuff (which are essentially westerns with zombies). I’ve read many of Joe R Lansdale’s books, he writes in several genres but ‘The Thicket’ and ‘Paradise Sky’ are great westerns.
Good thread. We have all the McMurtrys but I’ve only read (and adored) Lonesome Dove. I also really want to read True Grit by Charles Portis
Oh yes. Can confirm True Grit is a banger.
Audiobook is very good.
I’ll give a nudge for Tom’s Crossing, even though it’s set in the 1980s. A lot of horses and guns involved. Brilliant book, definitely made me want to read some more western type books - still need to attempt Lonesome Dove the next time I’m ready for a big book.
I passed on True Grit when I was in the shop only because I’ve only recently done a rewatch of the film (the Coens one).
Not exactly a deep cut but I’m reading East of Eden atm. It’s certainly way better written and more nuanced than Of Mice & Men. Still easy to read while being pretty insightful though, enjoyable characters too so yeah, it’s great so far tbh. It is a chonky boy though, will easily last me a few months.
Not really what you asked for, but I read Beartooth by Callan Wink last year and enjoyed it. It’s set in the present day so doesn’t count as a western, but it very much has the vibe of one - people living off the land, outlaw types, hunting etc. lots of good wilderness writing. A ’modern day Western’ if you will.
If Of Mice and Men counts as a western then I have read that.
I’ve been rereading all of The Dark Tower this year, and they are very very Western, especially Wolves Of The Calla, which is the story of how some gunslingers help a poor agricultural village fend off persistent bandit attacks (before anyone goes ah, but Battle Beyond The Stars isn’t a Western is it, it’s full of horses and ranches and arroyos and dust clouds and all that stuff) (plus the village is literally named after John Sturges)