Sometimes I think Larry McMurtry is one of the best American Western writers of all times. His Lonesome Dove and the books of that series provided excitement, character interest and development, and insight to the life of the American Cowboy. When he wrote of small town Texas in the Lost Picture show and the books about Eastern Texas, I felt like I was reading a socio-historical treatise on the 20th century Texas oil experience.
However, a fair number of his stories of the American West are little more than a commercialization of the some of the characters of the American West. Buffalo Bill, Billy the Kid, and Bill Hickock appear in his novels as acquaintances of the narrator of the book, who is decidedly one dimensional, longwinded and, sadly, not interesting,
Telegraph Days is one of the latter. It follows the life of a woman who traveled into the American West with her family while she was still in her teens. She lives her life succeeding in everything she does, meeting the famous and besting them at their own game. This is not a bad premise for a novel, but unfortunately, the character is uninteresting and I found myself not caring about her at all. For me, a book is not interesting if I don’t care about the character.
Larry McMurtry has written a book lacking seasoning or sauce that relies on worn tales of hardtack and beans instead of plot conflicts, their resolution and interesting characters. I didn’t care for this book, but I will continue to read McMurtry’s books, always hoping for one of his better books instead of the first person narrative the makes up his lesser books.
Rating: 7