The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

De: Ron Hansen

Narrado por: Sam Freed

“Recalls the literature of Americana by John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell, Willa Cather, and Hamlin Garland . . . Hansen has broadened our perception of the West in much the same way as the best historians . . . and proven himself one of our finest stylists of American historical fiction.” —Christian Science Monitor

Bestselling author Ron Hansen recreates the real West with his imaginative telling of the life of the most famous outlaw of them all, Jesse James, and of his death at the hands of the upstart Robert Ford.

Jesse James was a fabled outlaw, a charismatic, spiritual, larger-than-life bad man whose bloody exploits captured the imagination and admiration of a nation hungry for antiheroes. Robert Ford was a young upstart torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy, the ""dirty little coward"" who coveted Jesse's legend. The powerful, strange, and unforgettable story of their interweaving paths—and twin destinies that would collide in a rain of blood and betrayal—is a story of America in all her rough, conflicted glory and the myths that made her.

©1983 Ron Hansen; (P)2006, 2007 HarperCollins Publishers

Jesse and Bob

The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford is by far my favorite book and film.

loved the movie, loved the book

rally the only words that need to be said are the words in my tital

A good read, but could have been more . . .

I saw the movie long before I read the book, and unlike many, I found the film version to be hypnotically compelling. The music, the cinematography, the performances . . . I think it was art. That said, it has a flaw at it's core, which is that it maintains too much distance between the characters and the viewer. Particularly in the middle bits, where some of the events felt disjointed and made the narrative feel like it was pieced together with a lot left on the cutting room floor.

Upon listening to this book, I see that the film was likely not edited in parts into vague incoherence at all. Narratively, I have the same complaint about the book, which is that the scenes involving Wood Hite, Dick Liddil, the Fords and the nature of Wood's conflict with Liddil just ring . . . incomplete, if not hollow.

In some ways, the narrative intent and what Hansen's trying to do with Jesse himself make this problem difficult. Scenes not involving Jesse lack gravitas. Like everyone else in the book, Jesse is not a completely drawn character; rather, we get glimpses into who he is and what he *might* intend with his actions. And this is problematic because we simply don't get enough scenes with which to frame whatever it is we're to think of him, or Robert Ford, or anyone else.

There's a bigger story to be told about Ed Miller, his fate and Jesse's choices about him, for instance. Normally, I tend to believe that most books, even really good ones, would benefit from an aggressive editor. Very few books merit epic treatment. However, this is a rare case where I think a good third of a book was left either in Hansen's head or somewhere at the mercy of an overly aggressive editor.

All that said, I prefer a quiet narrative style, especially with subjects like old West celebrities (that's what we're talking about when we discuss Jesse James), and Ron Hansen delivers that. In fact, I think he's a brilliant writer. He is drawn to unusual details that really place the reader in a scene, and he hits on certain minor actions that convey a lot more than entire paragraphs from lesser authors might.

But it's too short. The topic, and his writing talent, deserve more. As it is, it's a loosely connected series of vignettes about Ford and James -- which still gives us a beautiful book in many ways, and I recommend it. But when I think of lovely prose in the service of a human, historical tale, I can't help but think Hansen has better in him -- I think this could've been a book equal to authors like Mary Doria Russell or Marilynne Robinson.

In the end, I enjoyed it very much -- I think I just wish there were more of it to enjoy. If it were developed to the level it could've been, I wager I'd have it at 4.5 stars. As it is, it sits at 3.5 for me, so round up.

Amazing

If you're like me, you probably watched the movie version of this and wanted to check out the book. As great as the movie is, this is better in many aspects.

First, the book is very well-written. In fact, the movie takes much of the wording and pace from the book. The book expands on things the movie did not go into, however, adding details to things like the aftermath of Jesse James death and what happened to his assassins. It wasn't nearly as cut-and-dry as the movie made it appear to be.

Second, there's items the movie exaggerated or changed, and the book gets right. The reason for specific feuds, the feel of certain events; it does an amazing job with those.

Theres more too, but you get the gist.

The narrator is great. The book flies by.

Th use of language that no longer exists

Disliked the music between chapters that ran into the narrator. Overall, it was a very good reading. I like how the movie of the same name kept to the plot line and strayed slightly from storyline.

The book itself was well written. The story was so descriptive, you could almost smell the gunsmoke in the air. You could feel the crispness of the wind. And you can almost feel like you’re in the room as events happened.

As a fan of gunslinger stories, I enjoyed this telling of Jesse James’ last days. I took a gamble buying this audio book from listening to the sample. The music almost made me not buy it, but I watched the movie of the same name and wanted to read the book it was based on.