The Last Kind Words Saloon

ByLarry McMurtry

Release Date: 2014-05-07
Genre: Literary Fiction

Score: 3.5

3.5

From 216 Ratings

Description

New York Times Bestseller
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Seattle Times

The Last Kind Words Saloon marks the triumphant return of Larry McMurtry to the nineteenth-century West of his classic Lonesome Dove.

In this "comically subversive work of fiction" (Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books), Larry McMurtry chronicles the closing of the American frontier through the travails of two of its most immortal figures, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Tracing their legendary friendship from the settlement of Long Grass, Texas, to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Denver, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, The Last Kind Words Saloon finds Wyatt and Doc living out the last days of a cowboy lifestyle that is already passing into history. In his stark and peerless prose McMurtry writes of the myths and men that live on even as the storied West that forged them disappears. Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, The Last Kind Words Saloon celebrates the genius of one of our most original American writers.

Reviews

Lazy writing
1
By Lilly Dipper
This is lazy, cliche’d writing by an author who is normally much better than this.
The Last Kind Word saloon
1
By Billbenge
This is a money grab and unworthy of this author
Disappointed
1
By Gb 1955
I have read and enjoyed so much of McMurtry's work and then this. It might have made an amusing magazine article, but something worthy of Larry McMurtry? Not so much. Very disappointed.
Last kind word salloon
1
By R_s_zim
Sucked... Save your money
Not much here
1
By Bus rider 12345
Larry MCMurtry has written some great books. This is not one of them. The dialogue is good but there is not story here. Sad really.
Sorry Larry
2
By ktoods
You still have your style; your words are music to the eyes.

This book was very disjointed & did not connect well however.
Ripoff at the OK Coral
2
By Other sci-fi guy
After reading most of Larry McMurtry's books, I expected a lot more for $12.
This is no Lonesome Dove. It's more like a very short fictionalized version of the Wikipedia listing on Wyatt Earp. McMurtry still has the touch, and the book was very entertaining for the few hours it took to read.
Horrible
1
By Rm84fm
In a word... Horrible. Seemly random unrelated, uninteresting, and senseless ramblings without purpose or reason. Can I get a refund?
The tragedy befallen a great talent.
2
By RiccoV
I've read a great many of McMurtry's novels. Generally loved them. But at least found lots to appreciate. This "novella", though at the price of a novel ( 170 pages in large font), is worthy of an occasional chuckle. It really is a pathetic effort to get something into print... To meet the mortgage? If it had been $2-$3 I'd applauded the effort, but despite my endless enjoyment of the Lonesome Dove books, I'm feeling betrayed and cheated by what I'd thought of as a great talent. Now a money loving opportunist like most of the "upper 1%".
Lonesome Dove Redux
4
By Danbgs
Entertaining but slight re-telling of the familiar Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday legend. Some of it reminded me of Lonesome Dove, which is generally a good thing since I consider that the author's best work. In this version Doc is the like able one and Wyatt the mean one, although not all mean, which is a twist on the usual tale. The story departs from the facts on a number of points, but that doesn't really matter. It is an exploration on one of McMurtry's familiar themes, the difference between truth and legend, and this story while not strictly true, feels true to the characters as written.