Brave Cowboy
by Edward Abbey
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Book Summary Information
Author: Edward AbbeyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1992-04-01
ISBN: 0380714590
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Brave Cowboy
Book Review: Where Phantoms Brood and Mourn.
Summary: 5 Stars
I am so pleased to see that this very fine book is still in print. First written in 1956 by Edward Abbey, it has become something of a cult classic, like the film that was based on it has also. The book contains some memorable prose and opens thus. "There is a valley in the West where phantoms come to brood and mourn, pale phantoms dying of nostalgia and bitterness". And so it goes on. The book is a mournful elegy for the old West and a simpler way of life.
It is a contemporary Western story about John W "Jack" Burns a roaming ranch hand. In the story Burns is a cowboy who rejects modern technology and is unable to embrace modern society. He would not like todays computer age! He hates fences that restrict freedom of movement. Burns has no social security card, no driving licence and refuses to register for the draft. In short something of a rebel. When a close friend is jailed, he thinks nothing of deliberately getting himself arrested and trying to spring his friend. There is a very entertaining scene where he fights a one armed man in a bar to achieve this. In jail his friend refuses his help so Jack escapes anyway and takes to his splendid horse "Whisky". Together they head towards the mountains and Old Mexico beyond. They are pursued by the law making full use of modern technology in the form of vehicles and helicopters. Jack has an appointment with destiny and a climactic ending. Abbey describes a scene where Jack and Whisky climb up a tortuous mountain route. "Behind him rose the dark mountain. Far above, remote in time and space, the glittering stars wheeled to the beat of a cosmic drum".
I cannot be the only person that loves this book as I notice that a first edition now fetches up to 10,000 dollars. Kirk Douglas liked it so much that after reading it he persuaded Universal to film it with him as the star. He often cited it as his personal favourite amongst his many films. It is a beautifully written story that will appeal to all those with a free spirit at heart. I believe there is a Brave Cowboy in all of us somewhere, struggling to break free.
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