Do You like book The Brave Cowboy: An Old Tale In A New Time (1992)?
I love the way this book describes man's contrasting natures and sets the scene for this truth around 1950's Albuquerque. The protagonist is a cowboy and the first chapter describes his peaceful existence between the volcanoes and the mountain. From the onset we see he is stuck with old-fashioned ideals like his horse and we like his honesty. He rides his horse across the highways to his friend's house who has been imprisoned for not registering for the draft. This is where the story develops into a thoughtful discussion of man's intellectual and heartfelt sides. Both the cowboy and the imprisoned are "cuates", twins. The cowboy is brave and goes into jail to break his intellectual cuate out. We like the cowboy but the intellectual is all mind, no heart, and has no redeeming value except following his selfish conscience. The story develops with many of these contrasts, these cuates. After the cowboy breaks out, we see the sheriff as a cuate.A parallel story has short passages. This story is about a semi-truck driver who wrestles his mechanical horse through an industrial existence.Beautifully woven into Brave Cowboy is a description of the dominating landscape against which these inner dramas play. There are passages I read repeatedly with enjoyment. It is one of those books that make you want to read every other thing this author has written and it makes me wonder, incredulously really, why this didn't win literary awards. It was made into a movie and another of Abbey's work, Monkey Wrench, is credited with starting Earth First! but why do awards?
—Terry
Abbey is lyrical and utilizes his language skills in this pursuit story. He falls short on characterization, though. It was hard to sympathize with the protagonist and the ending felt very contrived. Excellent tension in the final (long) chase scene, but only a backcountry wilderness guide from New Mexico would care about all the words wasted on describing how Banks went North through this canyon and then around the ledge to the east and then back through the dry arroyo and looking into this other canyon. Excessive description just left me confused. Many of the lesser characters seemed ham-handed and simplified: the sadistic jail keeper, the innocent radio operator, the maniacal Air Force general. The chapters about Hinton felt arbitrarily thrown in after the rest of the book was written because Abbey realized needed an ending. I much prefer Black Sun to this one.
—ethan
I saw the B&W film "Lonely Are the Brave" more than a decade before I heard the name Edward Abbey. Kirk Douglas wrote that this was his favorite film, ever. If one needs a comparison name it's Cowboys meet the Modern World. The film started not only Douglas but Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian), Walter Mattheu, George Kennedy, Gena Rowlands, Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker) as the truck driver with an ending the only Ed could write and one Ed Abbey as a police man/deputy, oh and the Sandia Mountains and the city of Albuquerque (renamed Duke City). Some cowboys rebel, other cowboys, like the sheriff, reluctantly blended in.This story is not for every one, especially city folk.Both the film and the book have characters who spent time in Abbey's other books. Unlike many writings and sequels, the characters evolved (e.g., the General appears as a Colonel in an earlier story). Does John W. Burns reappear? The Hayduke fans certainly think so. I don't want to spoil it by revealing all the character names.Read the book and see the movie.
—Eugene Miya