Far Bright Star

I saw this book at the local Costco and I knew I would have to read it for I am always in search of an outstanding western type novel. From the reviews and high praises I really believed this would be a great book. I liked the title and cover art and thinking perhaps another writer was as good as the one and only Larry Mc. Murtry. When it comes to westerns I have found no other book that equals Lonesome Dove. It has all the requirements I look for in a book and is heavy enough to where it will not be devoured in in a couple of days. Far Bright Star is not that many pages and I was eager to experience this supposedly great book. To my disappointment, I discovered that based on people's appreciation for this book I had way to high of an expectation and in the end that became the biggest letdown. Do not get me wrong: there are some parts that, like a fellow reviewer very brightly pointed out, of brilliance but like another good reviewer also pointed out, it ends being a little on the boring side. The plot is basically this straight line riding through the harsh inclement weather and it has its share of violence but the tale itself is not as hypnotic as Lonesome Dove ended up being. I wanted to like each page more than the one before and that did not came to pass. The thing is that when you read a masterpiece of the genre it is very unlikely another will equal it or exceed it in quality of writing, story line and overall entertainment value. I keep watching the Lonesome Dove Series on TV and I have given the book as a present to several people to their overwhelming reading pleasure. Short book, basically, some interesting characters but not in the same league as the best of the best and anyone who writes this type of genre would be hard pressed to ever write a book as majestic, here I go again, as Lonesome Dove. Wanted to like it, couldn't stop thinking about it and when I realized that my local library only had it in electronic format I finally gave in and purchased a copy through Amazon (my favorite store when I think about it) and I was hoping for a much better book, but darn it, it was not to be. 3.5 for Far Bright Star.

I've read my fair share of western literature, and am constantly on the prowl for a new novel that could come close to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. Cormac McCarthy'esque prose underpins Olmstead's writing in Far Bright Star, yet, unlike with McCarthy, you're left wishing you had felt more.While a good, serious piece of Western literature ought to be gritty and real, I think Olmstead has taken this task so seriously that he has left his characters void of any redemption, and failed to present to us an evil that we can truly fear. Olmstead's short novel drags us through moments of extreme violence without offering anythign more. While the "Far bright Star" motif does serve to suggest the protaganist's distance from humanity, there is nothing about him or any part of his journey that justifies "brightness" or redemption.While violence as art plays an important role in much contemporary Western fiction, Cormac McCarthy manages to couple it with enough existential discussion that we are left for days thinking about how we fit in to what we have just read. No sooner had I read this, did I begin to forget about it's protaganist, its villains or its plot.If you enjoy McCarthy, you won't be hugely dissapointed with Olmstead, but you'll find yourself wishing for a little more substance

Robert Olmstead's book uses language to weave a spell which made me feel the heat of the Mexican desert. Napoleon Childs, a grizzled career soldier, is part of the U.S. force that chased Pancho Villa through the countryside in 1916 after his raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Although the unit never catches anything beyond rumors of Villa, they do find savagery and brutality. This includes in themselves. Honor was supposedly at stake, that of the U.S. and the force, but Napoleon finds only the death and destruction that he has grown tired of. Rather than depressing, the book's hypnotic prose creates great suspense. This was my first exposure to the work of Robert Olmstead; now I want to read more of his books.

This may be a short book but it's one full of emotion and one that makes you question life and the things that happen. The story picks up with the protagonist, Napoleon, and the men he takes on a mission. Things go awry and follow from there. I won't say much more of the plot as I do not want to add any spoilers in my review. Suffice to say that this book takes us not only through the mission and outcome of the mission but wjat happens afterward and the battle he personally goes through with life and looking beyond the now. Overall it was a wonderful read despite its shortness.

The writer is trying too hard to be a good writer. Too many sentences start with "There was..." and adjectives are used as adverbs. The psssive creeps in too often. Characters are described physically, but we have no idea of what they are really like. This is a dull rendering of what could have been a rollicking good story. As a reader, I cringe when I sense that the writer is reaching desperately for a new way to present an idea when the simplest way is straight ahead. Writing that draws attention to itself faulty writing. Faulkner and McCarthy he is not. I am sorry I bought the book, but I was seduced by the title. That's the best part.

Olmstead, to me, continues to remain the premier ultra-talented master of realism who, some way some how, manages to wedge in descriptions that might seem experimental - you read some of his sentences twice or three times - they are so damn good, so damn unique and so damn vivid with an arrangement of rhetoric and vocabulary that sends most readers to reference material - moreover, it's scary to think that Olmstead bleeds and breathes like most of us, b/c his writing cannot be replicated. It's so pitch-perfect to the story's period, its places, circumstances and its characters. Olmstead and his work cannot be overstated. He keeps realism alive in a voice that is entirely original and extremely convincing.

The closest thing you will find to Cormac Mccarthy's Blood Meridian. My only complaint is that it was not longer.

Love Olmsted

This book is an absolute masterpiece! It accurately conjures up a time and place long since gone. The characters are about as hard and real as men can be, and the story, dialogue, emotions refreshingly honest. As a writer myself the descriptions, the imagery, the prose in this work of art are to die for! I'm now going to read everything else Mr Olmstead has written.