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A review by cbaker8887
Glorious: A Novel of the American West by Jeff Guinn
5.0
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.