The Western Lonesome Society
“comic novel or surreal novella, or a genre all its own”
In this hilarious, poignant, over-the-top Western, Jim O’Brien writes the quixotic saga of his ancestors who grew up with a tribe of Comanches. As his grip on reality loosens, O’Brien weaves into the tale modern day stalkers, drug dealers, secret agents, strippers, a mad linguist, an imaginary therapist, Ernest Hemingway, and an RV trip through the soul of the West. Having been displaced, each of the characters must embark on the great American quest for a place to truly call home.
Evoking the Western drama of Cormac McCarthy, the family sensibility of Kent Haruf, and the wacky, magical humor of Christopher Moore, McBrearty displays his storytelling prowess and wit in his debut novel.
Reviews
“Robert McBrearty’s stories occupy a fascinating world where the daft becomes heartfelt, the dangerous becomes ordinary, and the ordinary becomes downright odd. A world, in other words, seen through a pane of absurdist old glass.”
— David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
“The Western Lonesome Society is a thing of beauty, a house with many rooms, all built of humor and pathos. I don’t know what to call it, comic novel or surreal novella, or a genre all its own, a literary tall tale. McBrearty’s work shows an extraordinary imagination and a deeply felt love for the written word.”
— Barry Kitterman, NEA Fellowship Winner, author of The Baker’s Boy and From the San Joaquin
“McBrearty’s writing is simultaneously poignant and hilarious. Themes of belonging, nostalgia, and the nature of home intertwine in this deep short novella.”
— Foreword Magazine
“The Western Lonesome Society includes enough intrigue to fill books twice its size”
— Aspen Times Weekly
“His writing is always lovely and down-to-earth and his exuberant sense of humor blends beautifully with the very serious human realities underlying his tales. . . . Robert’s stories deliver what I think all great stories do: they illuminate what’s universal in our shared human experience.”
— Anthony Powell, Artistic Director, Stories on Stage
“If you tossed some Richard Brautigan, a little Charles Bukowski, maybe a dash of Walker Percy into a blender, you might get a cocktail like this.”
— Vancouver Province
“. . . An unruly and hilarious story-within-a-story that might have been written by the illegitimate child of Thomas McGuane and Richard Brautigan.”
— Daily Camera
