The Big Sky

I particularly love fiction when the allegory and the story march hand-in-hand to a natural conclusion. I don’t need to be spoon-fed, I just relish when the character and the polemic arrive at similar points, after similar journeys. Sounds simple… but, not so much. The Big Sky is a beautifully writte......more

This is the first novel in A, B. Guthrie, Jr.'s trilogy about the settlement of the American West. It spans the years from 1830 to 1843, or roughly from the time that fur trappers and traders, along with the American Indians, had the Far West pretty much to themselves, until the time when settlement......more

I'm all for troubled heroes, but I don't like troubling ones. And Boone Caudill, the main character in this epic tale of the American West, is about as troubling as a hero can get. In fact, it's hard to see him as a hero at all, given his crazed entitlement, his narcissism, and his penchant for murd......more

A Wayfaring Stranger Kentucky. 1830s to early 1840s. Boone, age 17, saw his drunken father coming at him again. He had had enough beatings over the years. He picked up a piece of firewood and wacked him hard across the head with it. His father lay unconscious on the ground. Boone was not sure if he w......more

Loneliness And Freedom In The Old West The genre of the American Western has had a long history through dime and pulp novels and magazines, radio, television, and film, and novels and stories. Although much of the genre deals in stereotypes, many Westerns are thoughtful and imaginative, including A.B......more