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smemmott's review against another edition
3.0
A quick, absorbing read, with a believable setting and initially intriguing characters but I couldn't get over some of the plot turns.
jessica_mcdermitt's review against another edition
5.0
Can you break all the unspoken rules and still tell a great story?
Apparently so.
This book was absolutely heartbreaking. All these women being pulled away from their families--hysterics would have ruined the effect. The quiet, despairing reactions hurt so much. Mary Bee Cuddy was a truly strong protagonist, able to do everything a man could and more, sometimes, but still wracked with insecurities and fears.
Then, plot twist!
I never saw it coming. You'll have to read the book to find out what it is.
This is a moving, wrenching, beautifully told story and I loved it. There was only one thing I hated, and that's the sex scenes. Like, really? Were they absolutely necessary? No. Ew. Stop.
Other than that, amazing book!
Apparently so.
This book was absolutely heartbreaking. All these women being pulled away from their families--hysterics would have ruined the effect. The quiet, despairing reactions hurt so much. Mary Bee Cuddy was a truly strong protagonist, able to do everything a man could and more, sometimes, but still wracked with insecurities and fears.
Then, plot twist!
I never saw it coming. You'll have to read the book to find out what it is.
This is a moving, wrenching, beautifully told story and I loved it. There was only one thing I hated, and that's the sex scenes. Like, really? Were they absolutely necessary? No. Ew. Stop.
Other than that, amazing book!
kitty_kat21's review against another edition
3.0
Originally posted here
If I had to choose one word to describe this novel, that word would be depressing. A good depressing though. The Homesman is very atmospheric, very dreary and I enjoyed it immensely.
The story is essentially about the brave men and women who stake 'claims' in the 1850 uninhabited wilderness of the plains of America. These people try to live off the land as farmers whilst living in sod houses they built themselves out of... well dirt blocks. Often they are quite a distance from the nearest neighbour, consequently spending vast amounts of time alone.
The spotlight in this novel focuses on the unfortunate women of this scenario. The women are often doing backbreaking manual labour whilst typically having a baby a year, because you know... men have needs and that's what God created women for. Perhaps unsurprisingly, every year a handful of women are going a bit loopy loo. From reasons ranging from isolation, children dying of disease, and homesteads being attacked by tenacious wolves. It's pretty bleak, yet fascinating.
Enter Mary Bee Cuddy. An amazing, devout, no nonsense, and get on with it type of woman. Cuddy has her own successful claim that she rose from the ground from nothing. Cuddy lives a comfortable life and has some nice things. There's just one problem, she is unmarried. GASP. Presumably because she's a touch over 30 and 'plain as an old tin pail and has a mouth like a viper'. The horror. Basically, the men are intimated as heck by her independence and successful property.
Mary Bee, from the goodness of her heart offers to escort four wives and mothers who have supposedly lost their minds to Iowa to be sent back to their respective families. She soon realises that it's not going to be an easy task and panicking recruits by bribery a man of questionable character, Briggs to accompany her. As expected the journey is not a simple one...
The Homesman is so riveting, I loved every minute reading this novel. The only gripe I have is that the ending is kind of a non-ending and it left me with a feeling of apathy. A kind of wow this is depressing, people lived through this kind of feeling. But overall, I am glad I read it and would highly recommend.
spiderfelt's review against another edition
4.0
Written in the style of the classic Western, but not a plot I could have predicted. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's style.
jen_e_fer's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't know much about "Frontier" times. This book does a good job to describe what people went through at this time,especially women. There were some twists,one twist that I don't think was necessary and was out of Mary B's character....actually still confuses me but oh well.
phinas's review against another edition
5.0
EXCELLENT!!!!! Well written, accurately depicted, and even the vernacular is spot on! Well researched. The writing style is wonderful and it is a book you literally cannot put down. The characters have depth and personality. Easily the best book I've read so far this year.
celestelee's review against another edition
4.0
I had to read a few reviews before I could write one because I was at a lost to describe the shock of the turn this book took without giving away too much. One review captured the essence by stating that the author took a sudden left turn during the telling of it. Boy did he! As I tend to do, I stumbled across this one while searching for something else. I love me some Tommy Lee Jones so when I found that he starred in the movie rendition, I wanted to read it before viewing it. Now I'm not sure how I feel about watching after discovering said left turn. Westerns are not typically my chosen genre but I have read some of Larry McMurty's (my favorite being Telegraph Days )and this was on par with McMurty's books. I will certainly read this author again.
fabbioscarito's review against another edition
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Homesman offers an uncompromising depiction of prairie life and dementia, but also of people generally. I found Swarthout's depictions of people, particularly Briggs, to be very enjoyable, if the development was a bit sudden in certain places. It was also v well paced
mrsburg528's review against another edition
4.0
The Homesman was the selection for Book Club this month. I found it easy to read and well written. It moved at a good pace and at no point did I feel bored with the story. I probably wouldn't have read this book if it had not been for Book Club.
I was intrigued by the story line and the concept of the Homesman. I found the stories of the 4 women to be tragic, but I appreciated the way Glendon Swarthout presented them to the reader. I found myself curious what had made the other 3 women crazy and I was thankful to have been filled in as the reader made their way through the introductory chapters.
The character of Briggs was an interesting person who I found myself to appreciate as the story continued along. I felt for him when they left him with the noose around his neck hung up on his horse. What an awful way to stay the night. I appreciated the person he became at the end of the story and the way in which part of his character changed into someone who had compassion and at least a little bit of empathy, if not still some of his sour, no good behavior still. I kind of left the book wondering if maybe George Briggs had gone a bit crazy as well with the way the book ended.
I did find it disappointing when Mary Bee Cuddy hung herself, and I can honestly say I didn't see that coming AT ALL! I was taken aback and felt let down by Swarthout. While I understand that the book is fairly realistic and the odds of a woman surviving that trip back to Iowa with 4 women who had lost their minds and a brute of a man were extremely unlikely, I also felt like Mary Bee Cuddy should have been the exception to the rule. I desperately wanted to see her accomplish what she set to do and to be the heroine that the women in her care and George Briggs needed. I had to put the book down after that revelation and pick it up the next day after I had time to digest what had happened.
I was glad all the women in their care made it back to Iowa and I was hopeful they would actually make it back to their homes, even though I had concerns that the Svendsen woman would murder her host family. She had some of the more dangerous tendencies.
I would probably recommend this book to other people, while at the same time, making sure I thought the death of Mary Bee would be something they would be able to handle.
I am considering reading more of Glendon Swarthout's books in the future.
I was intrigued by the story line and the concept of the Homesman. I found the stories of the 4 women to be tragic, but I appreciated the way Glendon Swarthout presented them to the reader. I found myself curious what had made the other 3 women crazy and I was thankful to have been filled in as the reader made their way through the introductory chapters.
The character of Briggs was an interesting person who I found myself to appreciate as the story continued along. I felt for him when they left him with the noose around his neck hung up on his horse. What an awful way to stay the night. I appreciated the person he became at the end of the story and the way in which part of his character changed into someone who had compassion and at least a little bit of empathy, if not still some of his sour, no good behavior still. I kind of left the book wondering if maybe George Briggs had gone a bit crazy as well with the way the book ended.
I did find it disappointing when Mary Bee Cuddy hung herself, and I can honestly say I didn't see that coming AT ALL! I was taken aback and felt let down by Swarthout. While I understand that the book is fairly realistic and the odds of a woman surviving that trip back to Iowa with 4 women who had lost their minds and a brute of a man were extremely unlikely, I also felt like Mary Bee Cuddy should have been the exception to the rule. I desperately wanted to see her accomplish what she set to do and to be the heroine that the women in her care and George Briggs needed. I had to put the book down after that revelation and pick it up the next day after I had time to digest what had happened.
I was glad all the women in their care made it back to Iowa and I was hopeful they would actually make it back to their homes, even though I had concerns that the Svendsen woman would murder her host family. She had some of the more dangerous tendencies.
I would probably recommend this book to other people, while at the same time, making sure I thought the death of Mary Bee would be something they would be able to handle.
I am considering reading more of Glendon Swarthout's books in the future.
exurbanis's review against another edition
5.0
Sleeper hit of my reading year. Who would have expected my #1 book to be a western?
Winner of the Spur Award (long novel) from the Western Writers of America and the Western Heritage Association’s Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, making it indisputably the best western novel of 1988.
After 4 women, including her good friend Theoline Belknap, go insane in the Oklahoma Territory in the 1850s, Mary Bee Cuddy volunteers to take them back to family and/or asylums in Iowa. Realizing she can’t do it alone, she recruits claim jumper George Briggs whom she rescues from a lynching.
They face Indians, prejudice from outgoing wagon trains, and a vicious ice storm. Briggs knows how to handle the mules & the wagon repairs better than she does. Eventually as they near Iowa, Cuddy proposes to Briggs who refuses her, then comes to him in the night, naked. By the morning, she has hanged herself. Briggs continues on because there is $300 in it for him but once he reaches his destination, he finds that the bank on which the $50 notes are drawn is bankrupt.
Winner of the Spur Award (long novel) from the Western Writers of America and the Western Heritage Association’s Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, making it indisputably the best western novel of 1988.
After 4 women, including her good friend Theoline Belknap, go insane in the Oklahoma Territory in the 1850s, Mary Bee Cuddy volunteers to take them back to family and/or asylums in Iowa. Realizing she can’t do it alone, she recruits claim jumper George Briggs whom she rescues from a lynching.
They face Indians, prejudice from outgoing wagon trains, and a vicious ice storm. Briggs knows how to handle the mules & the wagon repairs better than she does. Eventually as they near Iowa, Cuddy proposes to Briggs who refuses her, then comes to him in the night, naked. By the morning, she has hanged herself. Briggs continues on because there is $300 in it for him but once he reaches his destination, he finds that the bank on which the $50 notes are drawn is bankrupt.