The Homesman
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The Homesman is a devastating, humane story of early pioneers to America's West in the 1850's. It celebrates the ones we hear nothing of-the brave women whose hearts and minds were broken by that life of bitter hardship. When a nineteen-year-old mother loses her three children to diphtheria in three days, or a woman left alone for two nights has to shoot wolves as they crash through the window, it is no wonder they should lose their minds. After a dreadful winter, the Rev. Dowd finds there are four such cases in his parish and, as yet, no asylum in this frontier town.
A 'homesman' must be found to escort the women East to civilization. Not a job anyone would volunteer for, it falls to Mary Bee Cuddy, ex-teacher, spinster-indomitable, resourceful, "plain as an old tin pail." Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she cannot succeed alone, and the only companion available is the low-life and untrustworthy "George Briggs," a claim-jumper.Thus begins a trek East, against the tide of colonization, against hardship, Indian attacks, ice storms, loneliness, and
the unceasing aggravation of a disparate group of mad women, which provides a series of tough, fast-paced adventures and introduces two wonderful, idiosyncratic characters.
Coming to cinemas in 2014 with an incredible cast - featuring Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank and John Lithgow. Not to be missed!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The frontier of the Old West has rarely been evoked as a more miserable, barren land than it is in this melancholy novel by the author of The Shootist. After venturing west of the Missouri to stake claims in uncharted territory, a number of settlers find the earth fallow and the desolate, lonely winters unbearable. When four of the wives go mad, the local minister entrusts a prim, strong-willed young schoolmarm, Mary Bee Cuddy, to transport them back to Iowa by covered wagon. With her, virtually against his will, is Briggs, a dishonest, foul-mouthed land-grabber (he steals other peoples' claims) whom Mary Bee saved from a lynching in exchange for his help. Utilizing a classic western plota journey across rough land under perilous conditionsand a mismatched pair of protagonists who'll remind many readers of those in The African Queen , the author tells a sturdy if by now familiar tale. Unfortunately, once the novel goes wrong, which it does with a bizarre, alienating plot twist about three-quarters of the way through, it never recovers.
