Finished Tu 11/19/19
Contemporary Book Club Selection, November- 2019
Lonesome Dove/ Blood Meridian/ Deadwood; Classic Western with contemporary readers in mind. "Brokeback Mountain"- short story by Annie Proulx.
"That line hints at the novel’s main thematic material: the mythology of the Wild West and the intersection of violence and masculinity".
Took Larison ten years to write. Has a book about fly fishing in Oregon. He's from Oregon.
Will be a movie; ten part series by the husband and wife directors of 'the new' PLANET OF THE APES.
Robin Weigert, actress who plays Calamity Jane on DEADWOOD.
Title from 'Tennessee' a song by Gillian Welch on the album, 'THE HARROW & THE HARVEST'
Started out as an examination of masculinity. "All the men I know are doing the best impression of being a man that they know": quote from the author. Not writing from a girl's point of view. She's just a person. People whose identities 'do not fit into boxes'. Charley Parkhurst a woman who 'passed' as men. Got tongue cancer and his true identity was revealed.
"How would a man do this"? When Jess takes up tobacco and liquor.
One of the hardest scenes to write. Jess is taken to a whorehouse and the woman makes her pay to keep her secret.
Noah is inspired by John Brown, abolitionist.
Jess is from eastern Oregon. Places Utah, Wyoming. Political boundaries were in flux at the time. Territorial politics are a part of the story- the governor.
The change from The Wild West to The Corporate West. This happened in the 1880's.
Butch Cassidy waged a war against corporate America. Noah is not quite the hero. Someone else in the gang was really running the show- Annette.
http://www.harvardreview.org/book-review/whiskey-when-were-dry/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Parkhurst
First woman to vote in a presidential election in the US; November, 1868.
“Pearlsville was the biggest city I ever saw. It was where the gold and timber and beef that drained from them mountains met the straight current of the Union Pacific. The railroad had spawned wealthy businessmen with employment to offer, which done brought workingmen with their families, falling to this after their dreams of homesteading had worn thin.”
As for the unusual title, it reflects not only its literal meaning—whiskey is a big player in this cold, cruel world—but also its metaphorical one. Jesse describes it thusly:
“A potent whiskey come over me then, all at once. It poured from their eyes when those eyes flinched from me. In that whiskey was proof I too was made of grit and gravel and could not be blown from this earth by simple winds. I racked the Winchester, and for once found what I was after all those times I tipped a bottle.”
Jesse is a sharpshooter. Her brother's Wild Bunch is as much a religious cult as it is a gang.
Jesse goes full-on Amazon when she needs to, and there are elements of "Mad Max on the American frontier." Violence is casual, catastrophic and personal. Identity and gender are fluid. The action and the emotion swings from tight focus to sprawling panorama.
I think what moved me most about this book was it's deep empathy for its characters, including people who are usually silent in the genre: badass women, LGBT gunslingers, people of color. Even the familiar character types (charismatic preacher, rich girl, rowdy cowboy) are deepened as they make surprising choices and turn in new directions.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/features/john-larison/
Interviews with the author:
https://www.johnlarison.com/
“A man can be invisible when he wants to be".
“Men is all the time hiding behind words”; “Being a boss is always knowing your true size”
https://www.johnlarison.com/home
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