"She had quickly acquired the American habit of addressing all problems as violently as possible"

 

I grabbed this at the library! Yes, my first visit to the hallowed halls of a library since covid response shut everything down. It was a lovely reunion. I must have navigated to the fiction or western section or something. I have never read McMurtry - most famous because his book Lonesome Dove became a popular mini series (I think in the 80s). Anyway I had this impression that it was a soapy kind of crowd pleaser thing - which it may be because I still haven't read it have I?

This is apparently the first book of a series of books about a family called the Berrybenders. This book was awash with characters and caricatures. There might not have been a fantastic plot - it's more like a series of interesting descriptions and predicaments while the family winds their way down the Missouri on a steamboat. It's not predictable. The main love interest that arises is between the oldest daughter Tasmin (great name!) and a frontiersman who everyone reveres who pops out of the wildabrush in his birthday suit. This novel is definitely not Victorian, but neither were the Indians or English gentry and their entourage. 

I kind of enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series. McMurtry knows his history and is kind of a reluctant writer of westerns but his dialogues really flow. He's a famed Texican. Here's a sample

             "It just slipped out sir, I swear it." Tasmin said, timorously- her brains rattled like peas from the                violence of his shaking and her teeth cracked against one another."

     "I'll do better-I promise no curse will escape my lips," she said, desperate to undo the damage her careless outburst had caused. But it was too late. Those flinty eyes looked into hers for a moment and then the Sin Killer turned and left. Before her incompetent brother could properly beach the pirogue, the gray plains had swallowed him up."

            "I say, who is that gentleman you were wrestling with Tassie, in the year of our Lord 1832?" Bess asked, in her most grating tone. Tasmin at once slapped her sharply-- she had quickly acquired the American habit of addressing all problems as violently as possible.

You can see why this kind of wit and insight is amusing!