Long a fan of Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove series, I’m working my way through his oeuvre. McMurtry demonstrates his mastery of writing female characters, ranging from Lorena Wood in Lonesome Dove to Aurora Greenway in Terms of Endearment. He brings this ability to Nellie Courtright in Telegraph Days. At the time of publication of Telegraph Days, McMurtry was seventy years old, writing a twenty-two year old female protagonist, yet this spunky heroine rings true with all the foibles and graces typical of young girls. A Southern belle, Nellie is transported by her father to a ranch in an ill-defined area of America—no one really knows which state either the ranch or the nearest town of Rita Blanca lie in. With the move come losses, including all but one of her siblings, servants, and her mother. Finally, with her father’s suicide, Nellie sets “aside being a lady and had the grave half dug by the time Jackson [her seventeen-year-old brother] finished the coffin.” The two abandon the ranch and set out for Rita Blanca where shrewd Nellie convinces her beau, the sheriff, to make Jackson his deputy while she becomes the town’s telegrapher. Powered by common sense and being “organized,” she’s hired by Buffalo Bill to run his financial affairs while observing the exploits of some of the West’s most notorious men (and being courted by some of them, including George S. Custer). And this is just the beginning of her adventures.
Nellie, a quirky heroine, is clearly out of touch with the expected role of women in the late 19th century. She can take down the raunchiest of men with a glare. She’s not only sexually active but relishes it. She travels during her lifetime from the South to California and turns herself into a wealthy woman. This is a funny, rollicking read that, like many of McMurtry’s other works, blows the lid of Western myths while being full of Texas dust and the fumes of rotgut whiskey. I couldn’t put it down.
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Telegraph Days (Simon & Schuster, May 24, 2010) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my review of McMurtry’s Zeke & Ned here.
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