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A review by hernamewaslily
Appaloosa by Robert B. Parker
2.0
I love American history, cowboys, Americana, etc. and this year I have made a point to delve into more western novels. So far the westerns that I have read have all been great, or at least entertaining. This one however… not so much.
‘Appaloosa’ by crime writer Robert B. Parkers follows cop duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch as they attempt to tame the lawless town of Appaloosa by arresting Randall Bragg , a criminal rancher with a large posse of henchman, who had previously murdered the town’s city marshal and holds the town captive with his ruthlessness. Interwoven within the main narrative arc, is the relationship between Virgil and a recently widowed woman called Allie French, and the love triangle the ensues when Allie comes onto Cole.
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. Not so much because of the plot itself, which whilst was cliched, I don’t expect westerns to be mind-blowingly original in this regard, but because it was a poorly constructed and poorly written novel.
The pacing was all over the place with things either happening too quickly - sometimes the story would skip ahead in time by weeks and months - or would drag on so slowly with pointless conversations between characters that didn’t help progress the plot or even expose anything of note about the characters.
The thing that irritated me the most about the book, was its point-of-view that seemed to argue both for law and order and against it. This could have been handled with nuance and finesse by a better, more literary minded author - Parker writes popular fiction that is supposed to appeal (and sell) to anybody and everybody.
Unfortunately, this seeps into the entirety of the novel, resulting in a middle-of-road, bland, Ideological framework whereby the ‘good guys’ don’t really do anything and the ‘bad guys’ also don’t really do anything. Moreover, there was little little character development, cringe worthy dialogue, a horrible horse metaphor, and an incredibly unearned ending. An overall disappointing read.
‘Appaloosa’ by crime writer Robert B. Parkers follows cop duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch as they attempt to tame the lawless town of Appaloosa by arresting Randall Bragg , a criminal rancher with a large posse of henchman, who had previously murdered the town’s city marshal and holds the town captive with his ruthlessness. Interwoven within the main narrative arc, is the relationship between Virgil and a recently widowed woman called Allie French, and the love triangle the ensues when Allie comes onto Cole.
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn’t get into it. Not so much because of the plot itself, which whilst was cliched, I don’t expect westerns to be mind-blowingly original in this regard, but because it was a poorly constructed and poorly written novel.
The pacing was all over the place with things either happening too quickly - sometimes the story would skip ahead in time by weeks and months - or would drag on so slowly with pointless conversations between characters that didn’t help progress the plot or even expose anything of note about the characters.
The thing that irritated me the most about the book, was its point-of-view that seemed to argue both for law and order and against it. This could have been handled with nuance and finesse by a better, more literary minded author - Parker writes popular fiction that is supposed to appeal (and sell) to anybody and everybody.
Unfortunately, this seeps into the entirety of the novel, resulting in a middle-of-road, bland, Ideological framework whereby the ‘good guys’ don’t really do anything and the ‘bad guys’ also don’t really do anything. Moreover, there was little little character development, cringe worthy dialogue, a horrible horse metaphor, and an incredibly unearned ending. An overall disappointing read.