Fast moving, clean western novels
March 30, 2015 9:54 AM Subscribe
What are your recommendations for clean, fast moving, western novels?
I'm quite conservative and don't enjoy reading novels with sex or much swearing (hell, damn and ass are my limit).
I've read much of Louis L'amour and love his books because they move fast (and they're clean). I like the love stories and action even though they're formulaic. Yes, I know his books aren't considered high art but I love them still for quick reads.
Not a big fan of Zane Gray, can't say why.
I have read many Elmer Kelton--a great writer--but I finally quit because his novels are usually negative with loved one always dying, etc. Not uplifting enough.
I'm an impatient reader. If it starts slow, I get bored and quit.
Your suggestions are appreciated.
I'm quite conservative and don't enjoy reading novels with sex or much swearing (hell, damn and ass are my limit).
I've read much of Louis L'amour and love his books because they move fast (and they're clean). I like the love stories and action even though they're formulaic. Yes, I know his books aren't considered high art but I love them still for quick reads.
Not a big fan of Zane Gray, can't say why.
I have read many Elmer Kelton--a great writer--but I finally quit because his novels are usually negative with loved one always dying, etc. Not uplifting enough.
I'm an impatient reader. If it starts slow, I get bored and quit.
Your suggestions are appreciated.
True Grit by Charles Portis?
posted by nickggully at 10:26 AM on March 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by nickggully at 10:26 AM on March 30, 2015 [3 favorites]
Also, Robert B. Parker is best known for his detective novels, which I enjoy very much. Take this recommendation with a grain of salt because I haven't actually read the books in question, but he also has written several Westerns, so those might be pleasing.
posted by Gelatin at 11:02 AM on March 30, 2015
posted by Gelatin at 11:02 AM on March 30, 2015
Have you read any Tony Hillerman? He might fit your bill.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2015
posted by lester's sock puppet at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2015
James Reasoner's Death's Head Crossing was pretty good. Ed Gorman also writes westerns. I'm only familiar with his detective/crime fiction, but he's a good writer, so his westerns are probably worth checking out.
posted by dortmunder at 12:04 PM on March 30, 2015
posted by dortmunder at 12:04 PM on March 30, 2015
It occurs to me you might also like Patrick McManus's Bo Tully mysteries. These are set in the present, but it's rural Idaho, and they're pretty lighthearted (for murder mysteries), and the characters are very much cowboy/western archetypes.
posted by dortmunder at 12:08 PM on March 30, 2015
posted by dortmunder at 12:08 PM on March 30, 2015
I'm not sure if you are open to stories of the modern west, or if you only want the old west.
If the modern west will do, you might look at the Andi Oliver series by Martha Grimes.
Biting the Moon (New York: Holt, 1999)
Dakota (New York: Viking Adult, 2008)
Also contemporary, Jamie Lee Burke, best known for mysteries set in Louisiana, has some books set farther west and some set farther north. This protagonist of this series is Billy Bob Holland.
In the Moon of Red Ponies
June, 2004 Billy Bob Holland novel
Bitterroot
(Billy Bob Holland) Simon & Schuster 2001
Heartwood
(Billy Bob Holland) Doubleday, 1999
Cimarron Rose
(Billy Bob Holland) Hyperion Press - 1997
posted by SemiSalt at 9:43 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
If the modern west will do, you might look at the Andi Oliver series by Martha Grimes.
Biting the Moon (New York: Holt, 1999)
Dakota (New York: Viking Adult, 2008)
Also contemporary, Jamie Lee Burke, best known for mysteries set in Louisiana, has some books set farther west and some set farther north. This protagonist of this series is Billy Bob Holland.
In the Moon of Red Ponies
June, 2004 Billy Bob Holland novel
Bitterroot
(Billy Bob Holland) Simon & Schuster 2001
Heartwood
(Billy Bob Holland) Doubleday, 1999
Cimarron Rose
(Billy Bob Holland) Hyperion Press - 1997
posted by SemiSalt at 9:43 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]
You might want to try the collected western tales of Norbert Davis. The kindle version is particularly inexpensive.
posted by wittgenstein at 3:48 PM on March 31, 2015
posted by wittgenstein at 3:48 PM on March 31, 2015
I've only read one of Ivan Doig's novels—The Whistling Season—but I liked it quite a bit. It's about homesteader life in the west (circa 1900), though depending on how cowboy-heavy you like your westerns there might not be enough conflict. (It's about two charming strangers who come barreling into the life of a family and a community and leave it just as quickly. Very funny and sweet.)
Doig's other novels are apparently in a similar vein, some probably more prototypically western than others—if you find this quote from The Whistling Season's narrator (speaking from 30-40 years after the events of the novel) sympathetic, or even just interesting, you'll probably enjoy him:
Doig's other novels are apparently in a similar vein, some probably more prototypically western than others—if you find this quote from The Whistling Season's narrator (speaking from 30-40 years after the events of the novel) sympathetic, or even just interesting, you'll probably enjoy him:
[Closing one-room schoolhouses will] "slowly kill those rural neighborhoods ... No schoolhouse to send their children to. No schoolhouse for a Saturday night dance. No schoolhouse for election day; for the Grange meeting; for the 4-H club; for the quilting bee; for the pinochle tournament; for the reading group; for any of the gatherings that are the bloodstream of community."posted by Polycarp at 12:35 AM on April 1, 2015
Robert Lewis Taylor: The Travels of Jamie McPheeters and A Roaring in the Wind
Walter Van Tilburg Clark: The Ox-Bow Incident
Elmore Leonard: lots. Try these: Hombre, Valdez is Coming, Gunsights. Most of Leonard's westerns will fit, I think, your language/sex considerations.
Luke Short: most anything -- a fine writer who never got the following that Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour did
All the above are set in a particular West that only lasted fifty years or so. If you go back a bit earlier, you get mountain man books: Guthrie's The Big Sky, Manfred's Lord Grizzly (first of a series)
My absolute favorite western (don't know if it moves quickly enough for you) is Tay John by Howard O'Hagan
But, oh my, this only scratches the surface.
posted by CCBC at 3:27 AM on April 17, 2015
Walter Van Tilburg Clark: The Ox-Bow Incident
Elmore Leonard: lots. Try these: Hombre, Valdez is Coming, Gunsights. Most of Leonard's westerns will fit, I think, your language/sex considerations.
Luke Short: most anything -- a fine writer who never got the following that Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour did
All the above are set in a particular West that only lasted fifty years or so. If you go back a bit earlier, you get mountain man books: Guthrie's The Big Sky, Manfred's Lord Grizzly (first of a series)
My absolute favorite western (don't know if it moves quickly enough for you) is Tay John by Howard O'Hagan
But, oh my, this only scratches the surface.
posted by CCBC at 3:27 AM on April 17, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Gelatin at 10:21 AM on March 30, 2015