30 September 2007
David Anthony Durham – Gabriel’s Story
Posted by Dirk under: books .
I might like this Durham book the most out of the three I read. I have a soft spot for good westerns though, and that is what this is. It reminds a bit of Lonesome Dove (one of my favorite books ever) in the way it doesn’t sugar coat ‘the West’.
Basic story is about a young boy/man named Gabriel who moves to Kansas with his family after growing up in Baltimore. He is appalled at life in Kansas. Farming and living in a one room sod hut is not where he thought his life was going. When the opportunity arises to escape this life he takes it. He ends up traveling with a charismatic fellow named Marshall, his companion Caleb and the rest of his crew. They are some nasty fellows and Gabriel’s eyes are soon opened to what a horrible place the world can be. He witnesses some terrible atrocities but he also encounters some transcendental beauty.
I dug the book.
One Comment so far...
David Durham Says:
15 October 2007 at 7:07 pm.
Hey Dirk,
I missed that you read and reviewed Gabriel’s Story and Walk Through Darkness also! Thank you. Glad you liked them. It’s particularly satisfying to hear you might like Gabriel’s Story best. I have a soft-spot for it as my first novel published. Writing it (it was actually the third novel I wrote – first two unpublished) was such a learning experience, and marked a lot of transitions that are fundamental to who I am as a writer (as opposed to who I was as an aspiring writer). Novels like Pride of Carthage and Acacia are certainly a few notches more commercially profitable, but that’s not all this writing stuff about…
Thanks for giving them your time,
David.