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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
Either the author had no real idea how to end his book or else he has a sequel in mind. This book leaves nearly everything unresolved. It is a very frustrating finish to an otherwise very mediocre oater. Guinn would do well to study McMurtry or A.B. Guthrie to really understand how to write a good western. The characters in "Glorious" were one-dimensional, the writing ordinary, and the story, which several times showed promise, ends up falling flat. I finished the book but I can't recommend it, even to fans of westerns. I'm glad I only bought the eBook.
Total disclosure: I am not a fan of Old West stuff. I jumped at the chance to interview Jeff Guinn because I loved "Manson" so much. But I read "Glorious" so I could at least say I read it and not insult him.
Boy, am I ever glad I read it. I love it! Cash McLendon is now one of my favorite protagonists -- an heroic but flawed fellow. The women in the book are some of the strongest you'll ever meet -- especially Chinese immigrant Sydney "Doc" Chau. What a gutsy broad she is!!
I can honestly say that, although the ending was totally satisfying, I didn't want it to be over. I could have read about these people and the little town of Glorious for a whole lot longer. Luckily for me, at least Cash McLendon will be back.
You can hear my interview with Jeff Guinn here:
http://annehollidaysbookblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/glorius-jeff-guinn.html
Boy, am I ever glad I read it. I love it! Cash McLendon is now one of my favorite protagonists -- an heroic but flawed fellow. The women in the book are some of the strongest you'll ever meet -- especially Chinese immigrant Sydney "Doc" Chau. What a gutsy broad she is!!
I can honestly say that, although the ending was totally satisfying, I didn't want it to be over. I could have read about these people and the little town of Glorious for a whole lot longer. Luckily for me, at least Cash McLendon will be back.
You can hear my interview with Jeff Guinn here:
http://annehollidaysbookblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/glorius-jeff-guinn.html
Not a bad western novel, but the ending fell short.
I’ve been a fan of Jeff Guinn’s non-fiction work ever since I read [b:Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde|4858915|Go Down Together The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde|Jeff Guinn|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348629462l/4858915._SY75_.jpg|4924203], his informative and exceedingly readable account of the Barrow Gang. When I saw he had written a couple of western fiction tales I wanted to try them so now I have.
If this first one is a true indicator of the rest of the series, I can emphatically say, I will be reading every book in the series, and any other fiction he decides to produce in the future. Jeff Guinn is a knowledgeable guy, a researcher extraordinaire with the nonfiction credits to prove it. It certainly shows up in his fiction as well. While the town of Glorious, Arizona is fictional it bears all the markings of a wannabe silver mining bonanza town. They haven’t struck silver yet, but the handful of town founders have put everything in their hopes and dreams.
The plot features Cash McLendon, a man on the run who makes the journey from St. Louis to Glorious, AZ Territory in 1872, chasing after a girl, a lost love. We’re not sure what he is running from in the opening pages, but we do get a nice flashback sequence later on that thoroughly grounds him in our hearts and minds. When he arrives in Glorious, he meets an oddball bunch of characters, and it is clear he doesn’t belong there. A true fish out of water, Cash has never held a gun or ridden a horse, but he does have that sense of stick-to-itiveness that is characteristic of the people of the West. As the novel unfolds, Cash, as well as us readers, come to love these townspeople and all their foibles. So, when the danger comes in the form of a prosperous power-hungry rancher intent on becoming lord of the territory and all its potential silver deposits, we genuinely fear for the townspeople’s futures.
I really enjoyed this one. Unlike many of today’s readers, I read a lot of westerns and have experienced the entire range of the genre, from literary masterpieces like [b:Lonesome Dove|256008|Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove #1)|Larry McMurtry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559668037l/256008._SY75_.jpg|3281465] to the adult westerns like Longarm and Edge, to the latest potboiler yarn by the current house name authors. This one falls somewhere in between. It has some action but leans more toward the slow build-up of suspense rather than full-on 6-shooter action. The real draw is the charm of the town of Glorious and its realistic, if sometimes quirky, characters. Real life characters make an appearance too, most notably Ike Clanton who plays a major role. Cash McLendon is a wonderful character, a man who learns to know what it is that he really wants from life, working toward it, making mistakes along the way, and still finding ways to take the nobler path even when it conflicts with his own goals.
The end of the novel leaves Cash and everybody else in a precarious situation so I need to procure book two pronto. Greatly looking forward to reading it and the rest of the series.
If this first one is a true indicator of the rest of the series, I can emphatically say, I will be reading every book in the series, and any other fiction he decides to produce in the future. Jeff Guinn is a knowledgeable guy, a researcher extraordinaire with the nonfiction credits to prove it. It certainly shows up in his fiction as well. While the town of Glorious, Arizona is fictional it bears all the markings of a wannabe silver mining bonanza town. They haven’t struck silver yet, but the handful of town founders have put everything in their hopes and dreams.
The plot features Cash McLendon, a man on the run who makes the journey from St. Louis to Glorious, AZ Territory in 1872, chasing after a girl, a lost love. We’re not sure what he is running from in the opening pages, but we do get a nice flashback sequence later on that thoroughly grounds him in our hearts and minds. When he arrives in Glorious, he meets an oddball bunch of characters, and it is clear he doesn’t belong there. A true fish out of water, Cash has never held a gun or ridden a horse, but he does have that sense of stick-to-itiveness that is characteristic of the people of the West. As the novel unfolds, Cash, as well as us readers, come to love these townspeople and all their foibles. So, when the danger comes in the form of a prosperous power-hungry rancher intent on becoming lord of the territory and all its potential silver deposits, we genuinely fear for the townspeople’s futures.
I really enjoyed this one. Unlike many of today’s readers, I read a lot of westerns and have experienced the entire range of the genre, from literary masterpieces like [b:Lonesome Dove|256008|Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove #1)|Larry McMurtry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559668037l/256008._SY75_.jpg|3281465] to the adult westerns like Longarm and Edge, to the latest potboiler yarn by the current house name authors. This one falls somewhere in between. It has some action but leans more toward the slow build-up of suspense rather than full-on 6-shooter action. The real draw is the charm of the town of Glorious and its realistic, if sometimes quirky, characters. Real life characters make an appearance too, most notably Ike Clanton who plays a major role. Cash McLendon is a wonderful character, a man who learns to know what it is that he really wants from life, working toward it, making mistakes along the way, and still finding ways to take the nobler path even when it conflicts with his own goals.
The end of the novel leaves Cash and everybody else in a precarious situation so I need to procure book two pronto. Greatly looking forward to reading it and the rest of the series.
The first 200 pages were a complete bore. The ending was rushed and crammed into six pages and generated so many unanswered questions. Overall, the book is slow and for the most part, unexciting.
Read my review here : http://utahmomslife.blogspot.com/2014/09/glorious-book-review.html
I have mentioned many times before how much of a fan of Westerns that I am. Thus the reason that I was excited to get a copy of this book back when it was released. However when I started reading it, I was not feeling it as much as I had hopes for. So I stopped reading the book and forgot about it until recently. Thus I picked the book up again to start reading it. I only read a few more chapters before I put the book down but this time for good. There was nothing exciting about it or the people in it. The story seemed to move along slowly and the old world of Arizona was not given much details. Which I was most looking forward to.
I have read Jeff Guinn’s non-fiction and found them quite well done and rewarding. Here Guinn tries his hand at telling a true tale of the American West without the trappings of the dime novel exaggerations and gun smoke.
The protagonist, Cash McLendon, grew up with an alcoholic father in St. Louis who didn’t really provide for him. McLendon survives by earning the trust of his employer by being a spy on employees and other business entities and quickly becomes his eyes and ears across city. His employer is a rich but viscous man whose main goal is to take over other people’s businesses through questionable business means, or by intimidation and violence if necessary.
McLendon is not a bad person himself but he falls right into step with his employer and patron because he is intent on surviving and his ability to make friends, listen, and cajole people to do what his boss wants, or get information that can allow his boss to squash them, is how he’s made his way in the world.
McClendon eventually falls in love with Gabrielle, whose father owns a dry goods store. Garbrielle also does good deeds across the community, including teaching people how to read. Over time, McLendon’s boss tries to muscle Gabrielle and her father out of business, and basically forces McLendon to marry his psychotic daughter. In the meantime, Gabrielle and her father flee West to a hardscrabble mining camp called Glorious.
Unfortunately for McLendon, one night when his in-laws are out of town a serious issue comes up with one of his patron’s factories, and while he was told under no circumstances to leave his wife alone, he goes off any way to deal with the issue.
Not to give too much away but some bad things happen and McLendon flees and eventually, because he knows his patron’s deadly enforcer is right on his heels, he decides to head to the town of Glorious to find his lost love Gabrielle. He soon finds himself in a very similar circumstance as before and must eventually take sides.
The set up and unfolding of this novel is extremely well done and the characters and conflict that develops in Glorious are well thought out. The townspeople really come to life, to the key town founders to the gritty miners out to strike it rich. This is a superbly done Western that is quite realistic. It also sets up for the reader to follow Cash McLendon in future novels.
Highly recommended.
The protagonist, Cash McLendon, grew up with an alcoholic father in St. Louis who didn’t really provide for him. McLendon survives by earning the trust of his employer by being a spy on employees and other business entities and quickly becomes his eyes and ears across city. His employer is a rich but viscous man whose main goal is to take over other people’s businesses through questionable business means, or by intimidation and violence if necessary.
McLendon is not a bad person himself but he falls right into step with his employer and patron because he is intent on surviving and his ability to make friends, listen, and cajole people to do what his boss wants, or get information that can allow his boss to squash them, is how he’s made his way in the world.
McClendon eventually falls in love with Gabrielle, whose father owns a dry goods store. Garbrielle also does good deeds across the community, including teaching people how to read. Over time, McLendon’s boss tries to muscle Gabrielle and her father out of business, and basically forces McLendon to marry his psychotic daughter. In the meantime, Gabrielle and her father flee West to a hardscrabble mining camp called Glorious.
Unfortunately for McLendon, one night when his in-laws are out of town a serious issue comes up with one of his patron’s factories, and while he was told under no circumstances to leave his wife alone, he goes off any way to deal with the issue.
Not to give too much away but some bad things happen and McLendon flees and eventually, because he knows his patron’s deadly enforcer is right on his heels, he decides to head to the town of Glorious to find his lost love Gabrielle. He soon finds himself in a very similar circumstance as before and must eventually take sides.
The set up and unfolding of this novel is extremely well done and the characters and conflict that develops in Glorious are well thought out. The townspeople really come to life, to the key town founders to the gritty miners out to strike it rich. This is a superbly done Western that is quite realistic. It also sets up for the reader to follow Cash McLendon in future novels.
Highly recommended.
I enjoyed this but it was 100 pages too long and the pace was slow at times. A man fleeing his past in St Louis seeks his one true love whom he has spurned. He follows her to Arizona Territory in the 1870's. Cash McLendon is a guy who has burned his bridges and been a corporate spy so to speak. He married the boss's daughter rather than go with his true love whose business was coveted by his boss. So after his wife dies ( his father-in-law thinks he murdered her) he follows his true love to Glorious, AZ while a goon from this old boss is on his trail. He finds he likes Glorious, a silver mining town with not much to offer. However his former love wants nothing to do with him as she has found another. He decides to stay and see what happens. We have alleged Indians, mining, lots of manipulation, and greedy autocrats. What more could a Western want? The ending though was over the top and a bit too unbelievable but still it was a good yarn and I hope to see more books by Guinn about this character.
This is a sort of New Western, with elements of the industrial age in the East while the miners grub for shine in the West. Clever characters faced with an evil, wealthy CEO (as it were) definitely lend 21st century appeal. Ended abruptly & on a cliffhanger. I'm definitely curious about the further adventures of Cash McClendon & friends.
Note: the nonchalant town brothel included a developmentally disabled girl. This is probably all-too-true to life, but still horrific to me.
Note: the nonchalant town brothel included a developmentally disabled girl. This is probably all-too-true to life, but still horrific to me.