Westerns

[kev67]

Isn't it a bit odd that Westerns are so unfashionable these days? When I go into a bookshop I see Roman soldier books, naval warfare books from the age of sail, spy books, various crime and thriller books, but barely any westerns. I have read all the Lonesome Dove books, which were great, True Grit, which was great, and a book which I thought was a western, but turned out to be some cross genre western/horror/sci-fi book, which was not great. The only other Western I see in the bookshops is Blood Meridian, which maybe I will get around to reading. I think part the problem is that any decent western story got snapped up Hollywood, so nobody remembers the book, just the film.

[Sancho]

The Revenant falls into that category, although I liked the book better. I wonder if Westerns got subsumed by Hollywood because they are just so filmable. Or maybe Hollywood likes Westerns because Hollywood is out west and the sets are readily available up in the Mojave. Did you see the Coen Brothers Netflix movie, The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs? It’s a real knee slapper.

Anyway I remember watching a TV show a while back where one of characters is all ticked off at another character (a detective) because detective shows had bumped his Westerns out of their time slot. Where’s Marshal Matt Dillon when you need him, eh?

[traceyphillips]

My favourite is All The Pretty Horses. To be fair, Amazon have a decent range of western books but I completely agree that standard book shops are lacking in that area.

[kev67]

I have just ordered The Virginian. I understand that's a good one. According to Amazon it will take two weeks to arrive.