∎ Descargar Gratis Journey of the Dead Loren D Estleman 9780312859992 Books

Journey of the Dead Loren D Estleman 9780312859992 Books

Download As PDF : Journey of the Dead Loren D Estleman 9780312859992 Books

Journey of the Dead Loren D Estleman 9780312859992 Books

A wonderful magical realist take on the later life of Pat Garrett. Don't expect your standard western with the usual tropes rearranged.


Tags : Journey of the Dead [Loren D. Estleman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. An ancient Spanish alchemist searching for the secrets of the gods, and Pat Garrett, the man who killed Billy the Kid,Loren D. Estleman,Journey of the Dead,Forge,0312859996,Westerns - General,Biographical fiction.,Outlaws;Fiction.,Western stories.,(Pat Floyd),,1850-1908,American Western Fiction,Billy,Billy,,Fiction,Fiction Westerns,Garrett, Pat F,Garrett, Pat F.,Modern fiction,Outlaws,Westerns,the Kid

Journey of the Dead Loren D Estleman 9780312859992 Books Reviews

I am not one of those who are deep into the story of Billy the Kidd and Pat Garrett, his executioner. But even so, I can tell that this book offers a truly new and powerful vision of Garrett's life.

Estleman is really immersed in the Old West, its nature and essence, from its early days in the late nineteenth century, all saloons and brass cuspidors, to the early twentieth with its Eastern businessmen, snorting automobiles and rumors of manned flight. Within this, he traces the parallel arc of Garrett's life, intertwined with the lives of so many others of that time, with a true sense of time's passing, and deep compassion for "the long man" and his holding to his inner core through many hard times and betrayals.

Garrett always corrects those who mention Billy Bonney as an "enemy." No, the word is "friend." He is tormented all his life by dreams of The Kid, sometimes so real he must rise in a sweat and check the place he is staying to be sure it was a dream.

Those dreams are what tie him into a truly original aspect of this book the extended metaphor drawn from the once-famous practice of Alchemy. The narrator is an enigmatic Spanish- or Mexican- American figure, who has lived, he claims, through three centuries and traces his ancestry back to famed alembicists of the past. The Garrett saga is set out in three serial parts named Lead, Iron, and Gold, corresponding to three ascending levels of "nobility" in alchemical lore. ("Lead" is a great heading for the early period dominated by the bullet!) Yet paradoxically, at the end the alchemist deserts his craft to indicate that it is all a myth, that "gold" - that is, the absolute truth about Garrett's ending - is likely forever unknowable, just as the transmutation of base metal into gold is impossible.

Along the way, we are treated to wonderfully close descriptions of places, character, and events. Estleman has a fine hand for words and makes us share the sights, sounds and smells of the West, never sliding over into pretentiousness. Here's Garrett's wife making their home out of a long abandoned adobe ranch house, which "...had become a shelter for every variety of Southwestern wildlife; with a broom she drove out the porcupines and badgers, tied her hair up in a kerchief and climbed into the rafters to poke the little brown bats free of their inverted perches, then swept out the cobwebs and dried dung and scoured the floors and whitewashed the walls. She hung Indian rugs, blacked the stove and embroidered new sheets for the master bedroom and the guest room where John Chisum stayed when he came to visit on his way back from decorating the cottonwoods in old Mexico with rustlers from north of the border." (However, virtue is not always rewarded for a spell later in Garrett's life he spends more time with a sex-hungry ex-pro than with his hard-working but sexually unresponsive wife.)

If I had to summarize the overall tone of the story, I think I might say "melancholy" or "elegaic." There's no getting away from the fact that Pat Garrett's life was more troubled than happy. But the excellence of the writing ensures the reader's pleasure nevertheless towards the very end Garrett and a treacherous companion pass a decayed boomtown "inhabited now by prospectors motivated more by habit than hope, prostitutes too old and fat to move on, and the odd armadillo..."

Read it and enjoy. Ignore the few odd misspellings, though it is surprising that a writer so steeped in the Old West could list another as "Zane Gray" - even I know it's "Grey" and have read a few.
This is probably the most unusual book on The Old West that I've ever come across.To say that I enjoyed it immensely would be an understatement.Although the stories about Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid have been told and retold by so many that at this stage it is almost impossible to sort the truth from the legend. In this book,the author introduces come very imaginative fiction to create a whole new approach to the story. You may not resolve much of the things that have been written; but that is beside the point, and not the reason for me thinking so much of this book. The author gets one right inside the inner thoughts and personalities of all the characters he covers.I found the book filled with historical facts, but it reads like a work of fiction.There are scenes after scenes that are so well described,that can only be described as masterfully imagined and written.I find it hard to think of any other western that has so many ,well written lines as this.The scene created with Garrett's meeting with President Teddy Roosevelt in the railway car will be unforgettable to me. The introduction of the alchemist is a brilliant idea and makes the whole story totally different fom anything else I've ever come across in a western.Then there is the continually reoccurring encounters Pat has with Billy Bonney in his dreams.

In this unusually crafted saga,Estleman takes us along with Pat Garrett and follow him from his earliest days until his death in 1909,basically all throughout the period generally known as the Old West.At times, the historical information is detailed like a history book,but totally without the drudgery we are used to.At other times the book gets fanciful and you can let your imagination carry you along with the thoughts and visions Eatleman is a master at creating.

Estleman ha also done an excellent job of tying in events in The Old West with other historical events in the country.Range wars,cattle ranches and drives,saloon and frontier life and and all its hardships,joys and dreams.He folds into it, politics,both locally and federally;and even carries us through the development and impact of various types of ranching and livestock,the introduction of irrigation ,the introduction of electricity and even the automobile. All this is accomplished in only 250 pages and is so well written,it is impossible to put down once started.

If there was ever a book that looks like it would be a great movie;this has got to be it.

I often like to quote a few of my favorite lines from a book;but this one has so many,I am completely at loss to choose a few from so many. All I can suggest is that you read it and find them yourself;the book is loaded with them.

This is the first of Estleman's books I've read;but won't be the last.
What's a great Western and why do they work?
You know it when you see it, read it, hear it.
Go for this and I think you won't be disappointed if you love the form.
A wonderful magical realist take on the later life of Pat Garrett. Don't expect your standard western with the usual tropes rearranged.