[.uk] Gunman's Rhapsody (ISBN 1597770248)

Amazon.com Review:
Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Tombstone, the O.K. Corral--the icons are so firmly embedded in American history that we might know nothing more about them than their names. But in this spare, moody riff on the events leading to the 1881 shootout at the O.K. Corral--the signature battle defining the violence of the Old West--Robert B. Parker shades the black-and-white starkness with shifting tones of gray. Parker moves beyond the Hollywood version of the shootout to explore the tangle of family loyalties, dirty politics, and passion that embroiled Wyatt Earp before and after his encounter with the Clanton gang. In Parker's version, the longstanding rivalry between the Earps and the cowboys may stem from cultural difference (the Clantons were ranchers who held Confederate sympathies during the Civil War; the Earps were townsfolk who had Union loyalties), and it may be exacerbated by alcohol, machismo, and fiery accusations from both sides. But the spark that leads to the final conflagration is simpler: Wyatt falls in love with Josie Marcus, Sheriff Johnny Behan's beautiful, self-assured companion. Parker's Wyatt Earp is, like his detective hero Spenser, by turns arrogant and humble, and Earp's firm-jawed struggles with honor, family, and love will feel familiar to fans of that long-running series. But the author has abandoned the series' relatively intricate plotting and its touches of goofy humor. The novel is a curious amalgamation of inexorably linear narrative and moments of static contemplation. It drifts like a tumbleweed through Tombstone, leaving two- and three-month gaps, pausing briefly to dip into moments of conflict and moments of peace. Gunman's Rhapsody is not a big, sprawling western. Hewing firmly to an understated minimalism, it seems at times to have sprung from a collaboration between Hemingway and a Quaker council. Who would have thought that such an unlikely combination could be so rewarding? --Kelly Flynn

Only the writer's literary reputation (it will make money, so what the hell?) could sell such a book to a knowledgeable editor.:
I am not surprised to find 123 of this book available used, the lowest price $0.01. The mode of those available sell at this price, but one is new for a couple of bucks and one is on sale for $17 +. This is the most laughable Earp book I have ever attempted to read, filled with historical inaccuracies and ridiculous assumptions. Somewhat as though a commedian decided to write I CLAUDIUS without thoroughly researching his subject for a decade or so. I am qualified to make this evaluation. Look up my Earp work on Amazon. It was made possible since I was an intimate of Wyatt Earp's immediate family for almost half a century. I found the memoirs of both Wyatt and his widow, and got them published, having to rewrite hers to make them publishable as I MARRIED WYATT EARP (1976), and privately published Wyatt's memoir (commonly called the Flood Ms.) in a leather-bound and linen-cased limited edition of 99 for $300.00 a copy (in 1981) and have written a creative nonfiction book titled: WYATT EARP'S TOMBSTONE VENDETTA (1994). Also a few articles, perhaps 36 on this subject which appeared in scholarly journals and National magazines. My conclusion is that paying one cent for this book and then having to pay postage, is a questionable bargain if you expect a reasonable parallel to history in a historical novel. As the late premier historian Shelby Foote wrote, in sustance, of Larry McMurtry's ANYTHING FOR BILLY, if you are writing of a known person named Henry McCarty your picture should at least roughly parallel history. (McMurtry didn't, which was why Foote was commenting.) Parker's doesn't which is why I am writing this. I do like his writing style and can understand why he is a great success as a writer. Read some other books in the Earp, Holliday and Tombstone field first, if you want this one as a curiousity, so you will realize what a farcical affair it is. A reasonable summation of all the well-known Earp source material can be found in Casey Tefertiller's WYATT EARP: THE LIFE BEHIND THE LEGEND.

So awful only a name writer could get this published:
Positives: short chapters, quick read, and, for what it's worth, more historically accurate than Hollywood. Negatives: the characters are paper thin, the only way you can tell them apart is by their names, there is no suspense, no humor, the title that tells us nothing about the story is a clue to stay away from this. I don't know of a good Earp novel, but if you want a good Earp story, check out John Ford's My Darling Clementine.

An example of the best historical fiction, it could have happened this way:
In this story, the creator of the tough private detective Spenser and his sidekick Hawk develops a tale of the old west that is an example of historical fiction. Parker uses the backdrop of Tombstone, Arizona involving the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and the members of the Clanton gang. This is an example of historical fiction at its' finest, the people and events are largely true; the fictional aspects are their conversations and expressed motivations. Wyatt Earp is the primary character in this tale and Parker has him display many of the characteristics of Hawk in the Spenser series. His dialog is short and to the point, there is never a word wasted. The relationships between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson is similar to that between Spenser and Hawk, they will fight to the death for their friends. Even the relationships between Wyatt Earp and the men he will soon face in a gunfight have many of the aspects of the relationships between the Parker characters. When Wyatt Earp is speaking to Curly Bill, they both know that someday they will battle with guns, yet they are still civil to each other and express regret that it could not be different. I consider this to be one of the best novels Parker has ever written, the accurate historical references kept me enthralled throughout the book.

Good western:
I think this was a very good book and should not be compared to the movies. It is hard to write a new book on this subject since the two movies came out about them. It was an entertaining book and worth the money.

Didn't Like it.:
Parker misses big time. He has ripped off the Costner film version of the Earp saga. The only character I felt he fleshed out more firmly was Morgan Earp. What's up with the lousy ending..... take a pass on this one unless you are a Parker completist