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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
4 Stars for Narration by George Guidall, 3 Stars for Story
Mini-Review:
Usually, I care a lot about how the narrator inflects and vocally acts for the other characters in the story. There are always exceptions. I really enjoy the way Guidall portrays Walt and Henry. That is solid and fits really well with how I imagine them to be.
An old photo of an Asian woman and a white man turns out to be a shot of Walt and his friend. While the relationships are rather clear cut, nothing else is quite that simple in Walt's life. It is no surprise that the photo was found among the ruins of a murdered woman.
Great setup to dip into Walt's past and reflect on the horrors of war. Virgil makes an appearance as the silent and dangerous Indian Giant. A man of little words and great strategy in chess. The book is a tangle of relationships, cold blooded murder and Walt's awkward (hilarious) dating life. I really like the way each book builds upon the story and gives it more depth. It's great to read a series where all the details matter and do impact the story in some fashion that makes sense.
Mini-Review:
Usually, I care a lot about how the narrator inflects and vocally acts for the other characters in the story. There are always exceptions. I really enjoy the way Guidall portrays Walt and Henry. That is solid and fits really well with how I imagine them to be.
An old photo of an Asian woman and a white man turns out to be a shot of Walt and his friend. While the relationships are rather clear cut, nothing else is quite that simple in Walt's life. It is no surprise that the photo was found among the ruins of a murdered woman.
Great setup to dip into Walt's past and reflect on the horrors of war. Virgil makes an appearance as the silent and dangerous Indian Giant. A man of little words and great strategy in chess. The book is a tangle of relationships, cold blooded murder and Walt's awkward (hilarious) dating life. I really like the way each book builds upon the story and gives it more depth. It's great to read a series where all the details matter and do impact the story in some fashion that makes sense.
For storyline I would have given this 4 stars but for technique I have bumped it up to 5. I think the author did a fine job jumping back and forth between time periods, something I don't usually enjoy in stories. While trying to solve a murder of a Vietnamese girl found along side the road in his county in Wyoming, Longmire has continual flashbacks of his time serving in the Vietnam War.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I've mentioned in previous reviews that the show is true to the books in the same way that Midsomer Murders was true to Caroline Graham's books: the show captures the essence of the characters but takes liberties with plots, which keeps both formats fresh for viewers. I have also noted that the third book in the series, Kindness Goes Unpunished, is the book that will throw off readers who want the show and book-series to be exactly the same. Those deviations between the book-series and show continue to grow with this book.
We get two cases for the price of one in this book. We see Walt in action as a young man in the Vietnam War while he's working on a case that relates to a modern-day murder back in Absaroka County, Wyoming. This passing back and forth through time allows readers insight into Walt's life that the show has yet to capture, showing us the life experiences that shaped Walt Longmire into the man the man that we know. And the show, no matter how awesome it is, can't give us the thought processes that go on in Walt's head the way that this book does - it's impossible. I wish the show could, because I love Walt in the books a lot more than I love Walt on the show.
We get two cases for the price of one in this book. We see Walt in action as a young man in the Vietnam War while he's working on a case that relates to a modern-day murder back in Absaroka County, Wyoming. This passing back and forth through time allows readers insight into Walt's life that the show has yet to capture, showing us the life experiences that shaped Walt Longmire into the man the man that we know. And the show, no matter how awesome it is, can't give us the thought processes that go on in Walt's head the way that this book does - it's impossible. I wish the show could, because I love Walt in the books a lot more than I love Walt on the show.
The Walt Longmire series is proving extremely satisfying, and the fourth book, Another Man’s Moccasins, is no exception.
What keeps me coming back?
The characters: mature throwbacks to Western cowboy mythology with values of independence, loyalty and trust–but without the abundant sexism and racism. Sheriff Walt Longmire is a former Marine, ex-football player and is as faithful as they come, and his brother-in-arms, Henry Running Bear, is normally centered, thoughtful and self-contained. In this book, Walt relives some of their interactions in Vietnam, giving interesting insight into their personalities now and a sense of how they’ve matured.
“I thought about all the wayward memories that had been harassing me lately, the recrimination, doubt, injured pride, guilt, and all the bitterness of the moral debate over a long-dead war. I sat there with the same feeling I’d had in the tunnel when the big Indian had tried to choke me. I was choking now on a returning past that left me uneasy, restless, and unmoored.”
Then there’s the writing, an enjoyable combination of clear prose and vivid imagery:
“The other [photo] was of the same woman seated at a bus station, the kind you see dotting the high plains, usually attached to a Dairy Queen or small cafe. She was seated on a bench with two young children, a boy and a girl. She wore the same smile, but her hair was pulled back in a ponytail in this photo, so her face was not hidden. She looked straight at the camera as she tickled the two children, who looked up with eyes closed and mouths open in laughing ecstasy.“
Vietnam flashbacks are not a reliable strategy for drawing me into a story. I came of age in a period where Hollywood was enthusiastically revisiting the war, finally acknowledging the hardships of the people who fought there. It began with Apocalypse Now and followed by a string of hits (Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Born on the Fourth of July, Full Metal Jacket, The Casualties of War, Jacob’s Ladder, Good Morning Vietnam), so it’s not easy to play to my sympathies–they’ve already been manipulated to the max by Hollywood. Yet the eerie possible connection of Walt’s past experiences there to the current case works well. By the end, I realized Johnson had some very clever parallels between the two story lines. I was also impressed the way Walt revisiting his memories had him questioning his racial biases, as well as giving him unexpected empathy with a suspect.
Why not five stars? Walt was a bit slow to pick up on several things that could have been dealt with by basic investigation; general over-protectiveness about his daughter, which made sense but isn’t really a palatable storyline; and the complicated situation with Vic, who occasionally feels larger than life. Still, those issues pale in comparison to the rest of the read. Truly, it is an enjoyable story that was worth a second read.
Posted forevermore at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/another-mans-moccasins-by-craig-johnson-or-shoes-worth-walking-in/
What keeps me coming back?
The characters: mature throwbacks to Western cowboy mythology with values of independence, loyalty and trust–but without the abundant sexism and racism. Sheriff Walt Longmire is a former Marine, ex-football player and is as faithful as they come, and his brother-in-arms, Henry Running Bear, is normally centered, thoughtful and self-contained. In this book, Walt relives some of their interactions in Vietnam, giving interesting insight into their personalities now and a sense of how they’ve matured.
“I thought about all the wayward memories that had been harassing me lately, the recrimination, doubt, injured pride, guilt, and all the bitterness of the moral debate over a long-dead war. I sat there with the same feeling I’d had in the tunnel when the big Indian had tried to choke me. I was choking now on a returning past that left me uneasy, restless, and unmoored.”
Then there’s the writing, an enjoyable combination of clear prose and vivid imagery:
“The other [photo] was of the same woman seated at a bus station, the kind you see dotting the high plains, usually attached to a Dairy Queen or small cafe. She was seated on a bench with two young children, a boy and a girl. She wore the same smile, but her hair was pulled back in a ponytail in this photo, so her face was not hidden. She looked straight at the camera as she tickled the two children, who looked up with eyes closed and mouths open in laughing ecstasy.“
Vietnam flashbacks are not a reliable strategy for drawing me into a story. I came of age in a period where Hollywood was enthusiastically revisiting the war, finally acknowledging the hardships of the people who fought there. It began with Apocalypse Now and followed by a string of hits (Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Born on the Fourth of July, Full Metal Jacket, The Casualties of War, Jacob’s Ladder, Good Morning Vietnam), so it’s not easy to play to my sympathies–they’ve already been manipulated to the max by Hollywood. Yet the eerie possible connection of Walt’s past experiences there to the current case works well. By the end, I realized Johnson had some very clever parallels between the two story lines. I was also impressed the way Walt revisiting his memories had him questioning his racial biases, as well as giving him unexpected empathy with a suspect.
Why not five stars? Walt was a bit slow to pick up on several things that could have been dealt with by basic investigation; general over-protectiveness about his daughter, which made sense but isn’t really a palatable storyline; and the complicated situation with Vic, who occasionally feels larger than life. Still, those issues pale in comparison to the rest of the read. Truly, it is an enjoyable story that was worth a second read.
Posted forevermore at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/another-mans-moccasins-by-craig-johnson-or-shoes-worth-walking-in/
Second Longmire I've read, and I'll try another, but this one got overloaded with plot. As a result, the narrative -- two narratives, actually -- turned into rather a mishmosh, as if Craig Johnson was trying to cram too much into one moccasin. Disappointing.
Series continues to be enjoyable - this story line deals quite a bit with Walt (and Henry's) experiences in Vietnam.
"I sometimes wonder if you are trying to come to terms with two mysteries almost four decades apart." Ayup.
Reading Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire novels is like getting together with old friends for an afternoon of good conversation, laughter, and fine storytelling.
Reading Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire novels is like getting together with old friends for an afternoon of good conversation, laughter, and fine storytelling.