Western Novels: Why You Want to Read Them

by

Kat Warren

 [In Memory of Dad: Leon M. (Bill) Warren]

You probably think Westerns are old hat if not common fodder but I say:  au contraire, podner. These mighty tasty novels listed below will keep you in the saddle long after the sun sets, the campfire goes dark, and those dogies have gone down to sleep.

A little background may explain my devotion to this literature (why, yes, I did say literature). My parents were readers which meant I was reading well before kindergarten. I read whatever was to hand in the house which in the first instance was Mother Goose and the like. Then I latched onto my older brother’s Hardy Boys after which I developed a taste for Tom Corbett Space Cadet and Cherry Ames Nurse. Not too much later I was slurping down whatever other books were available despite their *ahem* adult nature. These usually were mass market paperbacks with colorful, sometimes lurid, covers. Mother was a Franks devotee—Frank Yerby and Frank G. Slaughter, that is.  

For several years, my favorite books usually had a horse on the cover and were pulled from Dad’s shelves. These were penned by Max Brand, Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Bret Harte, Robert Service, Jack London. They were, yes, Westerns. Quel horror, no? Well, no. Some folk do look down their august noses at Westerns and, certainly, there are some poorly written titles and more than a few formulaic offerings—as is the case in any other collection of fiction. Yet the notion that Westerns are worthless as literature is held only by low-down, ignorant sidewinders, the like of which you’d not want to entertain over the above-cited campfire. The old-fashioned Western writers made my youth a happy one so I’m indebted to them for some mighty fine reading.

That’s the good news; here’s the better news. In the last 30 years or so, a number of contemporary writers have picked up the iron and put their brand on the genre with brilliant results. We’ll start with their contributions:

The New Westerns
Deadwood by Pete Dexter.
I can’t be certain, but I suspect this is the foundational text for HBO’s ravishingly fine Deadwood series. Whether it is or not, the book is superb and more. Dexter is magnificent.

God’s Country by Percival Everett
This exquisite novel tells the Western story from the viewpoint of a black cowboy; it’s funny as hell and smarter than that. So help me, dog.

Wounded by Percival Everett
A horse trainer, John Hunt, who is black, and his aged uncle tread modern times in Wyoming. A murder sets their world on simmer and the boil comes soon with a white girlfriend, mistreated horses,  homophobia, Indian unrest and more.  By the way, how did John’s wife die six years ago?

The Broken Trail by Alan Geffrion
A kind of feminist Western gorgeously rendered and, yes, I have to say, finest kind.

True Grit by Charles Portis
There are many reasons this novel is such good reading not the least of which the story is riveting. Then there’s the language. Dear god, it doesn’t get better than this!

Winter Range by Clair Davis
Everyone knows winter on the Montana range is hell but this book gives both winter and hell new dimensions as a local ranch sentences the few horses left down into freezing starvation.  On that other hand, the book is brilliantly lit by a love story that rings true (they’re even married).  

Desperadoes by Ron Hansen
Western noir, telling it like it is. The bad guys are bad, very bad indeed but it’s not a one-note story.  Better than anything Clint Eastwood ever thought of.

Monte Walsh by Jack Schaefer
Okay, this guy is a bit of a throwback (protagonist and his writer).  Schaefer also wrote Shane which may echo (Shane, come back Shane) in your memory. If it doesn’t, then you have happy homework.  But in this novel, we’re given an old-fashioned Western with all the trimmings and more.  

All the Larry McMurty books, too!

The Old Westerns
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Stories by Bret Harte  
If you haven’t read Harte, now is the time. So is any old time. Set in the environs of the California Gold Rush, these stories have more to say than that.

Call of the Wild & White Fang by Jack London
Dogs in Alaska; some humans, too. It doesn’t get better than this for adventure and storytelling.

Best Tales of Yukon by Robert Service
After you read this, you won’t wonder why anyone would think Alaska is part of the Western trope.

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
For some it’s an anti-Mormon screed, for many others it’s an early Western classic with good reason.  

Hondo by Louis L’Amour
Mighty fine reading. Some turn up their delicate literary noses at L’Amour but, truth to tell, that doesn’t do when he is such a good storyteller.

Destry Rides Again by Max Brand  
This guy’s real name is Frederick Faust, and he wrote many of his Western novels whilst comfortably ensconced in Florence, Italy. He is a master of the genre.


Kat Warren is a corporate librarian in Northern California who lives with a fuchsia hybridist, their two elderly cats and too many books to count. Her preferred exercise workout is turning the pages of a good tome whilst guzzling champagne. She loves Bach (particularly the unaccompanied cello suites), beaches, books and a good bacchanal now and again. Kat can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it