Hard Country: A Novel
Series: Kerney Family, Book 1
By: Michael McGarrity / Narrated By: George Guidall
Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
Truly EPIC, but boy oh boy did I loooooathe the main character, or what?!
Yup, I shall be the first to admit it: We (I) got a plain ol’ DEARTH o’ genres on Audiobook Accomplice, and at times, I don’t even worry about it, shameless wench that I am.
I mean, I AM trying in certain places, say with Mysteries (Even to the point where I’m starting to catch a rhythm with tuning in for clues and figuring out Whodunnit). But I gotta tell ya: Were it not for a fellow Accomplice turning me on to The Trail series, singing praises to the heavens, oh gosh! I’d probably never have gotten around to Cowboy/Westerns.
So!
It occurred to me that there MUST be some mighty fine audiobook out there that I’m simply missing out on, and I started avidly looking for the genre. Enter scrolling through a PLETHora of Publisher’s Summaries to find some that oughta be mighty fine. -And-?
I was looking for EPIC, withOUT it being, say, Lonesome Dove. Not that I’d have anything against listening to THAT one o’ these days, but I was just kinda sorta looking for good that was a triiiiifle off the beaten path.
Enter the EPIC! Hard Country by Michael McGarrity. At just shy of 16 hours, ‘twasn’t the longest, not by a long shot, but as part of a “Kerney Family” series, I figured I’d be going through the lives of one family, with the background of ol’ New Mexico, as generation by generation they lived and thrived and suffered and died in some pretty hard country.
Yup, but by no meeeeans does it follow the paltry, what? 3-line summary re: John Kerney finding adventure and jaunting about on the trail doin’ work as a cowhand and such all. Nope, really this does indeed start with him, with his young and DESperately unhappy wife getting her wish and escaping the bleak and dusty land by dying in childbirth. Not one for fathering, knowing his way of life wouldn’t foster it at all, he gives the baby boy, Patrick, to Ida, his sister-in-law after she has nothing else to live for: Hardened horse thieves murdered her husband and young son in cold blood, and she’s ready to move to more civilized whereabouts.
Many, many chapters are of John Kerney looking for Patrick, taking on odd jobs here and there for money as he searches. This is after he starts to get word of Ida going off the deep end and finding her way into the bottle; this after he gets word of Ida’s death; this after he gets word that little Patrick is being passed around like an unwanted sack of flour. Several hours are of his search, meeting friends along the way, starting a ranch, then finally reuniting with Patrick.
And then he dies.
Nope, no spoiler as John Kerney, he who’s spoken of in the Publisher’s Summary as the main character, dies off only a few hours into the tale. THEN it becomes about John’s friend Cal, who takes Patrick under his wing; also of Emma, a young woman saved from miserable circumstances and who becomes wife to Patrick and mother to his son(s); and even of CJ, Emma and Patrick’s oldest son.
Moooooostly, however, it’s about Patrick.
And dude, is he exasperating and vile, or what?! Okay okay okay. I get that as a youngster he had zippo stability in his life and saw horrible things done in front of him, did not have ANY reason to trust that any good thing would last, but GOSH! He certainly grew up to be SUCH an insensitive creep! I mean, after he beats up a prostitute and gets thrown out of a business/drinking establishment, and after he parts ways with Cal, and then aaaaalll we get is aaaaallll Patrick? Yoiks, my friend!!!
Who wants to be stuck in the head of such a miserable and unfeeling snake? For HOURS?!
Thank God for the light that Emma brought to the story, and God did I love Cal and George! But Patrick? For HOURS?!
When baaaad things happened as these three generations fought and struggled and had successes on the ranch, good golly gosh, I couldn’t have hoped for more destruction to be heaped on Patrick, vile fellow that he was. And seriously, this epic, yessss, was simply a series of events that occurred to each generation as time went on.
Make no mistake: I reeeeally liked this book; it was written in SUCH an engaging manner. It’s just that I would’ve had FAR more sympathy if I’d felt any kinship towards the guy that wound up being THE Main Character.
George Guidall does his usual magnificent job with the narration. My only beef was when he did Ignacio’s voice (The Mexican ranch hand), and esPECially the voice of Cesario, Ignacio’s father. Oh gosh, he danged near strayed into Speedy Gonzales territory, and that’s never a good thing, a complimentary thing to say.
-BUT- Guidall did Emma in an engaging manner, and he did CJ’s innocence, even as CJ fought in WWI and was hit with War’s reality, really well. Really, considering Hard Country had a multitude of cowboys in it, and Guidall made each voice unique to the character? StuPENdous indeed!
Well-written, and I deeeeearly loved John Kerney, Cal, and George. Plus I assumed, near the end, when I saw the “emotional” cannon fodder that was offered to wring a tear or two out of the listener, that I’d made it outta the woods with fairly dry eyes. But then McGarrity hit me with “the real” ending, and danged if I DIDN’T wipe a tear or two away. A little bit tooooo late, but seriously, I sniffled as I listened to how it was all to be wrapped up for this first in the series. Sneaky McGarrity doing a bit o’ character development in the last 15 minutes. Didn’t change much.
But it DID make me soooo happy to add this to this Week O’ Hittin’ the Trail with Cowboys…!
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