“You see this camel? Yeah? You see it? Well, bam! Now it’s a sexy camel. My face works wonders, baby. You got any other animals for me? Maybe a donkey or something? I’ll turn that fucker into Seabiscuit. Trust me.”
—Omar Borkan Al Gala
“You see this camel? Yeah? You see it? Well, bam! Now it’s a sexy camel. My face works wonders, baby. You got any other animals for me? Maybe a donkey or something? I’ll turn that fucker into Seabiscuit. Trust me.”
—Omar Borkan Al Gala
What a brilliant book. No, he doesn’t string words together as well as Cormac McCarthy does, but he’s better at both dialogue and plot progression. I mean, it got the Pulitzer for a reason. The novel is about a thousand pages, but yet—you never feel as if you’re reading a “long” book. The characters are charming, especially Gus. The action is spectacular, especially the chase with Blue Duck. My only gripe with the novel is that the female characters and the native americans aren’t as developed as I’d like them to be. We really aren’t exposed to any strong females until the third act. However, admittedly, he does redeem Lorie’s story arc a bit when she finally strikes out away from the boys. Also, McMurtry too often characterizes the native american characters as violent, terrifying badasses (which, while cool in its own way, only perpetuates stereotypes). But, as a quest narrative, THIS BOOK WILL KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY. LIKE, BY THE END OF THE NOVEL, YOU’LL WANT TO GO TO THE CATTLE STORE AND BUY A SHIT TON OF CATTLE. AND THEN GO ON AN ADVENTURE.
Spending four minutes in the bathroom at a coffee shop is reason enough to alert the baristas that a “homeless person is taking a shower in your bathroom.” Yup, I def just got mistaken for a homeless person. Taking a shower. ROCK ON.
At the time I’m writing this, my dad died 4 months ago. We were close. Also, I took like TWO whole semesters of (junior) college level psychology (onemayhavebeenonline). So I’m BASICALLY an expert on all human emotion and all coping mechanisms and blahblahblah I’m brilliant and right. ANYWAY,…