Shavetail

by Thomas Cobb

Book Overview

IN THE LITERARY TRADITION OF CORMAC MCCARTHY'S AND LARRY MCMURTRY'S HISTORICAL WESTERNS, SHAVETAIL TRACES THE BRUTAL COMING-OF-AGE OF A BOY SOLDIER STATIONED AT A REMOTE U.S. ARMY OUTPOST AND A YOUNG WOMAN'S TERRIFYING PASSAGE ACROSS THE AMERICAN FRONTIER.

Set in 1871 in the unforgiving wasteland of the Arizona Territory, Shavetail is the story of Private Ned Thorne, a seventeen-year-old boy from Connecticut who has lied about his age...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416561196
• ISBN13: 9781416561194
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 369 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Five stars as a western, and five stars as a literary novel

This was last year's Spur Award Winner for best western novel, and indeed, it is a deserving winner. It is also a very fine literary novel and, as the dustjacket burbs and notes indicate, this will appeal to mainstream readers as well as to fans of Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry. A naturalistic novel, the plot builds around the possible abduction of a woman by Apaches. Like Helen of Troy, she becomes a mythic symbol, a cause for war, a McGuffin which may be real or may be wrongly imagined. Although quite a few westerns were built on similar premises, Thomas Cobb's fine novel is not predictable. Reading it, you feel like anything might happen. Try to guess and be surprised. There is no good-guy/bad-guy dualism; instead there are human universals and a sense of naturalism. The snake in the opening paragraph, "suspended in a state neither asleep nor awake," seems to be a literary metaphor for death-in-life, as later their are suggestions of an awakening of mindfulness. Different readers will see different levels of meaning, but it is still fine if you see nothing beyond the surface story in here. It is no spoiler here to say the book has an ending that all should enjoy, conventional western readers as well as mainstream readers of literary novels. The author did his historical research and he names his sources in an afterword to the novel. The story is well paced and although there are many nuances, they are not Cormac McCarthy difficult-to-discern. The hardcover edition is handsome and easy to read. Given the success of Thomas Cobb's CRAZY HEART, of the movie made from the book, it will not be long until Hollywood powers see the potentially great movie in SHAVETAIL. I look forward to that day. Those who enjoyed this novel should also enjoy John Williams's BUTCHER'S CROSSING (published back in 1960 but recently rediscovered and soon to be a movie), Robert Olmstead's FAR BRIGHT STAR (2009), and Frank O'Rourke's A MULE FOR THE MARQUESA (1964) which was made into a fine 1966 Lee Marvin film renamed THE PROFESSIONALS.

5 Stars

This is the best novel I have read in a long time. I'll be looking for more from Thomas Cobb.

A convincing western

OK, first things first. Ignore the review that claims there is something mystical/Cormac McCarthy about this book. Admit it, McCarthy can be daunting and hard work to read. Think Lonesome Dove, not Blood Meridian. Cobb's characters come to life immediately. He tells their stories in alternating chapters. He also inserts the diary of another central character, a kidnapped settler, that I feared would grow cloying, but didn't. How he resolves her situation initially seemed abrupt, but the more I thought about it, I realized it was the correct resolution. Cobb obviously has done his research. The book reeks of authenticity (and reeks is the right word when you consider his descriptions of life in an Arizona Army outpost in 1871). Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, Shavetail is a lot of fun to read. This is the best Western I've read since Lonesome Dove and up there with my all-time favorite, Welcome to Hard Times. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy.

Riding in His Saddle

Shavetail took me from my New England home in 2008 and brought me to Thomas Cobbs Arizona effortlessly. I felt what Ned, the main character felt, learned what he learned and cried when he cried. Other characters are so well conceived and developed I thought I was part of their world for the time I read the book, and long thereafter. Research and attention to detail made the journey an educational experience without the feeling I was being taught. The insight that is now part of my consciousness is due to one of the characters simple view of the world around him during his time that now occupies my own. Not only did I enjoy a darn good yarn, I also put the book down with a better understanding of the differences in how we percieve the world around us.

A Novel that is a keeper

Shavetail is different. It is interesting and teaches the reader but it has excellent and well-drawn characters who tell you the tale through different eyes. Having been in the Army fifty years ago as an enlisted man I recognize the characters although from a different time period. This is not candy for the eyes but is a great and serious story. Buy it and enjoy it. Tell your friends about it.