Boone's Lick

Written by Larry McMurtry

Narrated by Will Patton

Larry McMurtry returns to the Old West in a fast-moving, comic tale about a woman determined to conquer anything that stands in the way of an ultimate confrontation with her wayward husband.

In his first historical novel in ten years, Larry McMurtry introduces Mary Margaret, a nineteenth-century version of the formidable, unforgettable Aurora Greenway of Terms of Endearment. Mary Margaret is married to Dickie, who hauls supplies to the forts along the Oregon Trail and, as Mary Margaret rightly suspects, enjoys the pleasures of other women across most of the frontier. Fed up and harboring a secret love of her own, she collects the kids; her brother-in-law, Seth; her sister, Rosie; and her cranky father and makes her way westward to settle things once and for all.

The story of their trek across the country is packed with the elements McMurtry fans love: encounters with historical figures such as Wild Bill Hickock and U.S. Army colonel Fetterman (whose incompetence resulted in one of the bloodiest massacres in the history of the American West), larger-than-life fictional characters who join the family on their journey, and confrontations with nature at its wildest. With characters based on actual traders of the Old Santa Fe Trail, Boone's Lick is vintage McMurtry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Nov 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780743563291

Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry is the author of more than thirty novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. He has also written memoirs and essays, and received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on Brokeback Mountain.

Reviews for Boone's Lick

[Alan Cobham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting story.Much joy and misery among a frontier family.

[Jerry Brown · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just a damn fine read from a master storyteller and character creator. Not much I like doing more than reading a McMurtry book.

[thornton37814 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Westerns just really are not my genre, so if you enjoy them, your reaction may be entirely different than mine. Ma suspects Pa has an Indian wife out in Wyoming and decides to leave Boone's Lick, Missouri in search of Pa. Before they leave, Uncle Seth and Wild Bill Hickok join the sheriff in a posse. The sheriff is injured and resigns. Another sheriff takes his place and beats up Aunt Rosie who is a prostitute. The entire family sets out for the West, encountering hardships and Indians along the way. In order to prevent spoilers, I'll stop with the plot summary. There's definitely some of the typical action one expects in Westerns. Since I don't really enjoy the genre, I didn't really enjoy the book that much. It was, however, tolerable and fairly well-written from the perspective of one of the older sons in the family.

[poprockz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is funny and entertaining.

[clif_hiker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You either seem to really like McMurtry's stuff, or you really hate it. I liked this book.. a lot. A YA novel really, since the story is told from a 16 year old's perspective, but realistic, inventive and humorous. A nice novel of the tumultous years after the civil war, McMurtry pulls few punches when it comes to the morality of society during those times.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fictional account of a Missouri family, led by the long suffering matriarch, who sets off in search of the wandering patriarch. Entertaining western, though quite brief, as has become the modus operandi of many financially successful authors.