It’s self-evident that Reese Newton is a big fan of Cormac McCarthy (as am I). He writes a three segment novel somewhat similar to Cormac’s, The Border Trilogy: (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain). The big difference? No darkness. There were many opportunities in this novel for Mr. Reese to get very dark, but I believe he kept the novel harmonious out of respect for McCarthy, and for that, I applaud Reese Newton. I’ve read too many novels that attempt to ape an influential author...and guess what? It doesn’t work. However I thought that Reese struggled with the direction of the novel and didn’t seem to know how to close out each segment. They just ended... like this sentence. By the way, I’m a big fan of the ellipsis (maybe you noticed). I do see potential for Reese as a budding writer, but he must inject more excitement in his novels. Inventing ‘poop’ to keep coyotes from one’s property doesn’t excite me, nor does a horse breaking his leg by stepping in a ‘dillo’s hole. I don’t want the author to emulate Cormac, but I need some of the chapters to end in ‘a white knuckle’ or ‘close shave’ ending. I know it’s easy for me to point out these problems, because I’m not writing the novel...but that’s why it’s easy to see spot flaws. This was an entertaining novel, just not a memorable one. And by the way, how many times can a young cowboy say, “Sir” before the reader gets nauseated? What’s wrong with “go f*** yourself.” Don’t get mad at the reviewer, I’m trying to give the author some positive direction.
The first slice of this novel is set in East Texas (circa 1915-1921) where we meet 18 year old Sedge Rountree (what happened to the ‘d’?). Sedge, wanting a more meaningful life other than working on his parent’s ranch, just decides to walk away one night. He encounters some moonshiners who rough him up. He later falls asleep on a woman’s property only to be woken up with a shotgun in his face. Once she finds that he is a harmless boy looking for a cowboy life, she feeds him and washes him and his clothes (this routine will be repeated ad nauseam). He hits the road again until he is almost run over by young girl driving her father’s car. After she drops him off in town, he is arrested as a possible chicken thief. Of course he gets off after the girl vouches for him. Later on his trip to West Texas, he is challenged to a shoot-off with a old woman...he loses, but once again he is fed and cleaned up. Later he gets a job on the Farley Ranch and meets a girl at the hardware store. Are you excited yet? Anyway, a ranch hand named Ray, who wants to be foreman, gets into a fight with Sedge and gets fired. Sedge decides to follow Ray to finalize the dispute. Ray beats him up, but Sedge is rescued by a Mexican couple and of course he is fed and cleaned up. Sound familiar? Later Sedge catches up to Ray and beats him up. End of part one. Reece, tell me you didn’t want to introduce some grief in this first section. It’s okay...Cormac is smiling.
Part two (1957) features Sedge’s nephew, Travis. John Rountree suddenly dies and Travis (17 years old) needs to support his mom. He goes to the Boudreaux Ranch to apply for the job his dad previously had. Surprisingly, he is hired. He does well at the ranch and meets a girl named Sherry. It’s love at first sight. Meanwhile, the ranch’s foreman, who goes by the name of Sample, gets fired for sleeping on the job. Will he come back to try to steal some cattle? Travis finds a sack of poop in the barn. It’s big cat and bear poop mixed with sawdust and glue. Travis refines it with human hair and piss. Whoa, it works. Put in milk cartons as a liquid and spread around the ranch’s perimeter, it stops uninvited creatures from attacking the cows and chickens. Mr. Boudreaux ask Travis if he will be foreman and live on the ranch. Travis agrees as long as he can still promote his ‘poop’ business. Once again the segment ends without any certitude. I think that each phase of this novel should have had a viable ending. Instead each part ended like a 1950s rock and roll song that invariably faded away into silence.
Now for the third part (2004 in West Texas). Okay, here is where I stop my synopsis of this novel. It involves Travis’s son, Ezell. Is this the part of the novel where we finally meet with some of Cormac McCarthy’s darkness? YES! Reece Newton literally saves his novel with this last segment. Finally one of the Rountree boys gets into Mexico and receives some serious harshness and evil. I have been waiting for this for 287 pages. What evil? Well, you will have to find out what happens yourself by buying a copy of this novel. I liked this story since I have an affinity for books about the wild west. I know I was critical, but how else is a writer going to improve? I thought Reece’s prose was acceptable and his local flavor of the era’s language seemed genuine (he is from Texas). Writing a novel is probably one of the hardest things to do. With that said, Mr. Newton...you did a yeoman’s job, and I give you big-time kudos for pulling the novel out of what I thought was in a death spiral.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
Comment: Western novels have always interested me for reasons unknown to me. I have a copy of Zane Grey’s, Riders of the Purple Sage on my desk for over a year. I will read that novel this year for sure. I have read and reviewed books about Kit Carson (Blood and Thunder ), Davy Crockett (Born on a Mountaintop), Cochise (The Wrath of Cochise), Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s classic novel, The Ox-Bow Incident, and two of the three Cormac McCarthy novels mentioned in the first paragraph of my review.
As far as movies are concerned, I have two favorites that when they are on T.V., I’m hooked for the 9th time. But the general public seems to think the best two westerns are John Ford directed pictures starring John Wayne (how can you not like him?), Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956). I did enjoy these movies, but they are not my favorites. So what are my favorites?
Well, my number one film is High Noon (1952). Believe it or not, I saw this movie when it first came out at the Court Theater in Somerville, NJ. I was eight years old. I had to go with my mother, so we could collect two free dinner plates. Wow, that brings back memories. It starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly as newlyweds leaving a New Mexico town when the Marshall (Cooper) finds out that the Frank Miller gang has been released from prison and are coming to town for revenge. To the chagrin of the Marshall, his wife (Grace Kelly) wants him to leave. As a man, he can’t do that. Let the suspense begin! By the way, the movie included Somerville, NJ's own, Lee Van Cleef as a member of the Frank Miller gang.
My second favorite movie is a spaghetti western. It stars Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Actually, I liked all of Eastwood’s Italian movies. A close third is another Eastwood movie, Unforgiven (1992), which features a disfigured whore and her cohorts posting a reward for the death of her attacker.
High Noon, the movie:
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