Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Clive Sinclair's top 10 westerns

1. The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister

2. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

3. The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider

4. True Grit by Charles Portis

5. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen

6. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

7. Close Range & Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 1 & 2 by Annie Proulx

8. Stories from Mesa Country by Jane Candia Coleman

9. Snow Mountain Passage by James D Houston

10. Crazy Horse by Larry McMurtry

I've read #s 2, 4 and 7. I have #10 on my bookshelf but I don't imagine it will be better than Lonesome Dove. And I don't care what he says, Gatsby does not belong on this list. I might substitute The Mineral Palace by Heidi Julavits.

To read his rationale for including each of these novels click here
To read Clive Sinclair's account of what goes into a good western, click here.

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