The Wandering Hill (The Berrybender Narratives) - Hardcover

McMurtry, Larry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743233034 ISBN 13: 9780743233033

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2003

Synopsis

Continuing up the Missouri River with her wealthy English clan, Tasmin Berrybender, on the verge of motherhood and living with elusive Native American Jim Snow, witnesses her father's deterioration in the wake of her family's rise in power.

About this title

Review:

The Wandering Hill, the second volume in Larry McMurtry's The Berrybender Narratives, retains the humour of the first instalment, Sin Killer, while establishing a more meditative mood. Picking up where Sin Killer left off, The Wandering Hill finds noble English family the Berrybenders waiting out the oncoming winter at a high plains trading post, delaying their hunting expedition through the frontier-era American west. Tight confines force the spirited, bickering Berrybenders to contend with one another, as well as an assortment of colourful attendants and raw trappers. Conflict has arisen between fiery and very pregnant heroine Tasmin and her stoical, evangelical mountain man husband Jim Snow, aka Sin Killer. Selfish, randy patriarch Lord Berrybender, having lost a leg, seven toes, and three fingers thus far on their journey (though not his "favorite appendage"), is slowly losing his sanity. Malicious youngest child Mary begins an odd pseudo-sexual friendship with naturalist Piet Van Wely, while "foppish" heir Bobbety's no less ambiguous relationship with priest Father Geoffrin inspires his father to accidentally stick his son in the eye with a fork. In between many such self-inflicted disasters, three children are born, fierce native tribes attack, a man is sewn into a buffalo carcass, and many lives are lost, often in the presence of a strange, mobile hill whose legendary appearance signals impending doom. McMurtry, meanwhile, continues the momentum he built with Sin Killer, offering graceful storytelling, wonderfully dimensional realism and deadpan wit. The wintry Wandering Hill, however, diverges from Sin Killer's madcap activity to further consider the inner lives of many of its splendid characters. McMurtry will have his fans clamouring for an answer, though delighting in his wandering path toward a resolution. --Ross Doll, Amazon.com

Review:

"New York Times Book Review"

Exquisite descriptions....Simply irresistible storytelling, rich and satisfying.

"New York Times Book Review"Exquisite descriptions....Simply irresistible storytelling, rich and satisfying.

"New York Times Book Review" Exquisite descriptions....Simply irresistible storytelling, rich and satisfying.

New York Times Book Review Exquisite descriptions....Simply irresistible storytelling, rich and satisfying.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743233034
• ISBN 13: 9780743233033
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 302