Okay. So I’m looking for an unconventional and well-written Western.
My problem is that either the same five books or authors keep getting recommended, OR the recommendations are essentially for WINOs—Westerns In Name Only. I’m fine with Westerns that take place after 1900 or centered on nonwhite, non-hetero, non-male characters, but any description that begins, “In an alternate reality…a different planet…in a post-apocalyptic America…” is one I automatically put down.
(And hey. Please don’t recommend Blood Meridian. I love McCarthy, but cannot break into this book. And sorry to McMurtry stans, but Lonesome Dove just left me cold. And again, sorry to fans, but I hated The Sisters Brothers.)
Here are some that I’ve thought were genuinely amazing. I’d love more like these:
- True Grit
Sometimes over the top dialogue, but it was so smart and punchy, and the characters were distinct and complex.
- Butcher’s Crossing
So incredibly brutal about the absolute useless waste of hunting the buffalo into near-extinction—and a gut punch of an ending.
- The Homesman and also The Shootist.
Both unexpected and richly complex looks at the traditional mythic roles of the West.
- No Country for Old Men
The incredibly compressed, poetic language and the starkness and inevitability of the plot is unequaled.
- The Power of the Dog
The compressed, focused drive for revenge here was utterly absorbing.
- Brokeback Mountain.
The two shirts. The two shirts. God.
Anyway, thank you!!
So…any suggestions like these?
by SarcasticFungus2468
2 Comments
Angle of Repose – Wallace Stegner
What do you mean by unconventional westerns? Would something like The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock be interesting? Two people deciding to go on a robbing spree through the west in the 1920s with a darkly humorous tone?
If you’re fine with straight laced regular literary westerns then I strongly recommend looking into Elmore Leonard’s westerns. They were the basis of many classic western movies. Sharp dialogue, great characters, fantastic action scenes and they’re 100% set in the actual old west and not post-apocalyptic or weird west.
And if you like his westerns, you can try his crime fiction too, which are still basically westerns but in more modern settings.