Buffalo Girls

Written by Larry McMurtry

Narrated by Betty Buckley

A strange old woman caked in Montana mud pens a letter to her darling daughter back East—the writer's name is Martha Jane, but her friends call her Calamity...

I am the Wild West, no show about it. I was one of the people who kept it wild.

Larry McMurtry returns to the territory of his Pulitzer Prize–winning masterwork, Lonesome Dove, to sing the song of Calamity Jane's last ride. In a letter to her daughter back East, Martha Jane is not shy about her own importance. Martha Jane—better known as Calamity—is just one of the handful of aging legends who travel to London as part of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Buffalo Girls. As he describes the insatiable curiosity of Calamity's Indian friend No Ears, Annie Oakley's shooting match with Lord Windhouveren, and other highlights of the tour, McMurtry turns the story of a band of hardy, irrepressible survivors into an unforgettable portrait of love, fellowship, dreams, and heartbreak.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Dec 1, 1990
• ISBN: 9780743542180

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 Buffalo Girls

[lynleys-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the first Larry McMurtry novel I've read, though the films based on some of his books are among my most favorite. I haven't seen the TV film version of this, and didn't know it existed, and I didn't know anything much about Calamity Jane, either. About halfway through the novel I looked her up and realised the cast of characters was based (to a certain extent) on real historical figures, or at least upon the myths surrounding them.I really enjoyed this book, and appreciated some of the things McMurtry does well that other novelists often don't. For example, I was impressed at how he introduced the characters in such a way that they were easy to remember. He did this by repeating both their names and who they were and sometimes how they got their names, before expecting us to have memorised who was who. Calamity's letters to her daughter were one way of doing this. Another thing McMurtry did consistently was mentioning the name of the viewpoint character in the very first sentence of a new chapter. Since the viewpoints kept changing with the chapters, this was important to do, but I've read some books lately where this courtesy hasn't been extended to the reader, leaving me wonder when I begin each chapter who the hell I'm meant to be reading about.The wild-west setting is wonderful -- I'm a big fan of Little House On The Prairie, though most stories about cowboys and Indians are too white hat/black hat for my likings. A good, character based story set in the West is perfect, and I realised how much I liked the setting when the troupe went to London. I couldn't wait for them to get back.This is a surprisingly humorous book, though these were hard lives. The middle-aged characters are actually nearing the ends of their lives, and some of them die endearingly innocent. The character of No Ears is particularly appealing.I'd give this book five stars only I am not a fan of the ending. There seems too little evidence that Calamity was intersex, so to hammer it home so definitely seems an unnecessary disservice to the real historical figure. On the other hand, the choice to reveal that Janey wasn't real seemed to fit, despite the questions around the existence of Calamity's daughter.

[John A Ryan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’m a McMultry Westerns fan. I’ve been one since watching the Lonesome Dove series. I’ve watched it twice, read the book and listened to it on Audiobook. I have not been disappointed. I have listened to Larry’s short stories and novels, both of the old West and more modern times.
Buffalo Girls, in my opinion, is the best of his work. I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook from beginning to end. Every part, the story, the insight into the heroine, Calamity Jane and her cast of friends, the narration. It’s a great American Story with all of the ups and downs of life.

[paulagalvan-323293 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is kind of a sad tale of the ending of an era. Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickock, and Bill Cody are just a few of the people that lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s and made their mark on the great prairies and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Times were hard. This view into how they lived and survived is probably close to what the old west was really like. The book is supposed to be fiction, but there's a lot of history in it. I found it very entertaining and educational.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had to work at this at the beginning but eventually it grabbed my interest. The main character is Calamity Jane whose real name was Martha Jane Canary and a woman who actually did live in the west and was known as a frontierswoman, scout, Indian fighter, sometimes prostitute but most of the tales about her are difficult to prove. Through her we meet many characters including Dora DuFran (the real Calamity actually worked for DuFran) who runs a whorehouse, No Ears an Indian friend who had his cut off when he was young, & Bartle Bone & Jim Ragg last of the Mountain Men.William Cody talks Calamity and her friends in traveling to England with his Wild West Show for Queen Victoria's Jubilee. I found McMurtry's descriptions of London of the late 19th Century very interesting as I did of the method of moving his entire show including animals across the Atlantic.Vivid descriptions of life in Montana and the Dakotas at the end of the Wild West era.

[anterastilis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review I wrote for class:This is the story of Calamity Jane, an icon of the Old West whose legend grew far beyond her humble and tragic reality. Calamity and her friends are old-timers – the mountain men Bone and Ragg, showman Buffalo Bill Cody, amiable prospector Potato Creek Johnny, famous madam Dora DuFran, rancher Blue Abbot, brilliant but self-absorbed riflewoman Annie Oakley; and Sitting Bull and No Ears, two of the last remaining Indian Elders. Watching herself decline into alcoholism and obsolescence, Calamity and the others become caricatures of themselves in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. They try to maintain their lifestyle in a more genteel, civilized West and reflect upon their past lives as the survivors of a fast, mean, and passionate world that has all but disappeared. Through reflection, re-creating their world in the Wild West Show, and Calamity Jane’s letters, the reader is given a glimpse of their lawless and fiery world.What I really thought:For starters, I had that awful "Buffalo Gals won't you come out tonight!" song in my head the entire time I was reading this. I loathe that song.I chose this book because I like Larry McMurtry. I realize that this is more of a "Novel about the West" than it is a "Western", but I still thought it would fit my professors' "Western" guidelines. Other, lesser, sillier reasons I chose it were because I think "Calamity Jane" is a cool name and I wanted to read a novel that had a strong female lead.As much as I enjoyed it, it grew rather depressing. Calamity is usually helpless drunk, the supporting cast of characters are all aging in a world that they don't belong in, Dora's love story is tragic, and Wild Bill's putting them into a show - making caricatures of themselves - was rather surreal and sad. Becoming a legend within your lifetime is one thing, but to play yourself in a show because your world is that far removed from the modern world - it's just disturbing.The way it is written - mostly from third-person Calamity perspective, with some letters thrown in - is very good. At first I was turned off by the letters: Calamity is writing to her daughter, Janey, who lives far away and is getting a good, proper upbringing. It was kind of distracting, but luckily the letters became fewer and shorter as the story went on.This book doesn't have the same feel as Lonesome Dove - probably due to the timeframe (after the old west).McMurtry is amazingly skilled at two things in particular: description without waxing poetic, and conversation. The conversations between Bone and Ragg and the quiet contemplation of No Ears are some of the greatest strengths of this book. Calamity and Dora have a strong relationship - but it pales in comparison. I grew to adore No Ears.As with all McMurtry books, there's a solid resolution for just about everything. He's not much for loose ends. Unfortunately for the aging Old West Old-timers...that's usually death. You've got to expect that, though. It is rather depressing (and I feel weird saying this) that so many of them met their maker in quiet, normal ways - not in a hail of gunfire or a heroic feat, the way that Old West heroes always seem to go.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

McMurtry pens a fictional account of Calamity Jane reviewing the events of her long and interesting life.

[coyle220 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Larry McMurtry uses a different method for this story about Calamity Jane, written in a series of letters to her daughter. It shows a more intimate, and maybe vulnerable side of the character, as she talks about her adventures with Wild Bill and Old West outlaws. This makes the book more appealing to women, who might usually avoid the Western genre.