By Sorrows River

By Sorrow's River – by Larry McMurtry

Book three of four of the Berrybender Narratives. The ongoing tale of this misplaced aristocratic English family making a journey through the old west of the United States around the 1830s.  So far, this book has been my favorite of the first three.

The formula is pretty much the same -love, lust, adventure, Indians, disease, trappers, wild animals, - and a hot air balloon.   So that last one is a new inclusion here.  I won’t go into details of how that famous newfound contraption finds its way into this story, but I will say that this book seemed a bit more focused than the first two. It didn’t seem to be sprawled with so many characters going in so many different directions. You could almost read this one without having to flip to the front of the book where it contains the cast of characters. Maybe it’s because, after three novels, I’m finally starting to become familiar with everyone in this large ensemble.

The main portion of this story revolves around young Tasmin and her womanly desires.  She’s still married to Jim (the ‘Sin Killer’) yet their relationship remains very odd. They’re definitely a mismatched pair. She finds herself falling in love with traveling companion Pomp Charbeneau.  Does Pomp have mutual feelings? We’re never sure.  It seems he does to some extent. Then again, Tasmin seems to be quite the catch as most of the men tend to oogle her much of the time. With Pomp, though, his actions never seem to gel with what Tasmin wants. Forget the fact that she’s now a married woman, she just can’t seem to figure men out. Of course, we know that in real life men can’t figure out women either, but in a tale about the old west in the nineteenth century, male characters never dwell much on their feelings.

Lots of craziness and catastrophe ensures as we now expect it to. I won’t go into detail about who gets killed by whom, nor who gets married, pregnant, etc. but I will tell you that the journey in this book is to make it Santa Fe. As the book closes, they’re at least somewhat close to their destination. I’m guessing this is where the fourth (and final) book will pick up.  

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed these books, yet reading Amazon reviews tell me that many have not. This is understandable. This is the same author that gave us the legendary Lonesome Dove tetralogy, and other then being a western, the similarities are rare. Fortunately, the books in this series are very similar, so if you’re unsure about whether or not to read the series, you really only need to read the first one as a litmus test.  If you enjoy that one, you should enjoy the rest. If you find that it’s not to your liking, you can move on to something else.