| Title | : | Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid (Volume 32) (The Oklahoma Western Biographies) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0806166258 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780806166254 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 448 |
| Publication | : | Published July 9, 2020 |
Billy the Kid—born Henry McCarty in 1859, and also known as William H. Bonney—emerges from these pages in all his complexity, at once a gentleman and gregarious companion, and a thief and violent murderer. Tapping new depths of research, Etulain traces Billy’s short life from his mysterious origins in the East through his wanderings in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. As we move from his peripatetic early years through the wild West to his fatal involvement in the Lincoln County Wars, we see the impressionable boy give way to the conflicted young man and, finally, to the opportunistic and often amoral outlaw who was out for himself, for revenge, and for whatever he could steal along the way.
Against this deftly drawn portrait, Etulain considers the stories and myths spawned by Billy’s life and death. Beginning with the dime novels featuring Billy the Kid, even during his lifetime, and ranging across the myriad newspaper accounts, novels, and movies that alternately celebrated his outlaw life and condemned his exploits, Etulain offers a uniquely informed view of the changing interpretations that have shaped and reshaped the reputation of this enduring icon of the Old West. In his portrayal, Billy the Kid lives on, not as a cut-throat desperado or a young charmer but as both—hero and villain, myth and man, fully realized in this twenty-first-century interpretation.
Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid (Volume 32) (The Oklahoma Western Biographies) Reviews
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Littered with spelling errors and inconsistent punctuation, and highly repetitive through the first several chapters, the book breaks little to no new ground in the history of Billy the Kid. But the rating really comes from the irony of three sentences in the book where the author/editor is entirely without the slightest hint of self-awareness.
“In drafting the history, Keleher had not realized the importance of capturing readers’ interest ...” The same can be said for the author/editor, as this book often is a slog.
And “thus far her self-published books contain too many errors in organization, presentation, diction, syntax, and facts to gain stronger marks from readers, specialists, and reviewers. She repeats information too often, is too self-congratulatory, and fills empty spaces of interpretation where evidence is lacking for her explicit conclusions.”
If there weren’t multiple spelling errors in the book - including the facing page where “hers” appears instead of “her” - inconsistent comma usage leading to unreadable sentences and incorrect spelling of the names of primary characters, the above might make sense. Instead, we are left pondering stones and glass houses. -
First half was good. After page 188 lost interest in the book mostly covering people’s writing about Billy the kid found few things interesting but mostly just skimmed through the rest.
