NewMexiKen decided a forced march was a good way to stimulate a little more reading (that wasn’t on a computer screen). So yesterday I stacked five recent acquisitions to my library on the coffee table and dug in, telling myself I would get through all five (and enjoy them, dammit!) in the next five days.
The first, which I began and completed last evening is Larry McMurtry’s Oh What a Slaughter, a brief, nonfiction survey of several western U.S. massacres. While interesting in parts, with well-crafted sentences, this book has little to recommend it. It’s as if McMurtry took some cursory notes on 3X5 cards, somewhat organized the cards, and transcribed the notes. The result is disorganized, almost stream of consciousness and really not detailed enough to merit value as a history of the horrific incidents he includes.
NewMexiKen is a big fan of McMurtry’s fiction and nonfiction. This book does not measure up. (See also here for another review.)
Later last evening I got a headstart on day two, Joan Didion’s Where I Was From. More later.
McMurtry has always been one of my favorite authors. This book did not do it for me.