Masterson [Large Print]

by Richard S. Wheeler

Book Overview

From Publishers Weekly Again depicting characters with frailties as well as heroic qualities, the prolific Wheeler's 25th novel (after Aftershocks) is a sprightly romp of revisionist western history.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585470791
• ISBN13: 9781585470792
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Center Point
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Old Valentines Are Best

"Masterson" is a sweet valentine of a book, not at all a conventional Western, though it starts out with that tone. "Well, hell, I guess it all started this way," says Masterson who is the speaker right to the end.The old man, plagued by diabetes and a love of alcohol, is about to be greatly inconvenienced by Prohibition. He is getting close to the end, but he hasn't finished what the psychologist Erik Erikson called the seventh stage of life, coming to terms with the past. It's 1919 and he's working as a sports columnist (especially boxing, on which he was an expert) for the New York Morning Telegraph, where the Hollywood columnist is Hedda Hopper. Partly because of her interest, Bat decides to tour his past, literally, taking along Emma, who has become his life-companion through persistence and a sense of humor. No need for a stagecoach -- the railroad will do.Dodge is shocked by his appearance, a demon from the past they are trying to deny. Another place is in love with the shootist they believe him to be. In Hollywood William Hart initiates Bat and Emma into the world of the silent Western, quickly casting them in an improvised movie that is little more than a child's game of "Let's play guns -- you be the bad guy and I'll..." In a dozen towns Bat goes to the scene of traumatic confrontations and finds them removed, boarded up, sunk into decrepitude. What kind of sense can he make of all this? Last century's news. Comforted by alcohol, Emma, and fairly dependable good meals, he is able to persist but not to sum it all up.The couple zigzags thorugh the West visiting the personalities left from long ago -- though it wasn't that long, was it? You remember Hedda Hopper, don't you? At that time she was a bigger and more powerful force than Masterson, with only her typewriter to render the ratatatat. Baby Doe is an ascetic broke old woman. Wyatt Earp is a resentful paranoid old man, he and his wife fighting hard to keep up a front. Some are only headstones, and probably not the original ones at that. One newspaper man comes only to attack Masterson as a two-bit crook and killer; another comes with research to reveal that there are no known deaths except the first one, which was clearly self-defense, and though Bat made his living in the shadowy demi-monde of gambling and stage shows, he was never a keeper of whorehouses or a seller of drugs.What's more important is Masterson's slow realization that A) he actually cares about being seen honestly and B) his best defender and ally has always been the woman he took for granted, Emma. And so, in Denver, a town he never liked, he does the right thing, and comes home ready for Erikson's eighth and final stage: Wisdom.

Fact or Fiction?

I really enjoyed this novel.I have read a lot of stuff on the Old West ;both fact[?] and fiction. As for fiction I like Longarm and Trailsman.However part of the fascination is trying to sort out which is which.The author takes a novel approach in trying to do this and produces a very readible and convincing book.The list of books at the end is appreciated;thanks.

Masterson searches for his myth

It's a rare treat to walk through an actual person's mind in such a convincing book as "Masterson". I only knew of Bat Masterson as the foppish crime-solver from the TV series, and this Masterson is a much more human and plausible man. This is a Western hero I could believe in. It's a grand, sad journey he and his lady take in this book. His life, "past" and "present", and the historic settings through which he travels were obviously well researched. Are there any missteps here? Only Bat could tell us. I think it happened just as Wheeler says.

A job well done

I loved this book. Few books, references, or TV shows ever really captured Bat this well.Many stories about Bat and Jim (his brother) and of course the Earps have passed down through my family over the years. Masterson's always have been gamblers and always will be (boxing, cards, you name it). This is brought out well in the book. Bat made many dollars "bucking the tiger."Bat got to see Trains, Autos, and Planes all become a reality during his lifetime.Much of the early - early years of Bat are not documented anywhere and therefore difficult for authors to really pen about those years.The author does an excellent job of adding facts wherever possible.Bat was a snappy dresser and a fine gent!Thanks for the great job Mr. Wheeler.