Hey y'all! My goal for the year is to read more often, so I think I'm gonna start posting book reviews in addition to the other fannish stuff on my blog. My review for this novel is under the cut!
I picked up this novel while on a trip with my husband in Tombstone, Arizona. I haven't seen much info about it online yet, probably because it's a few decades old and it appears to be self and/or indie published.
Apparently, the author of "Partners" cowboyed professionally for years, and his main goal with the novel was to tell an authentic story in a contemporary western setting that resonated with his own experience. Wayne lists his work as a combination adventure and romance novel, but I would argue that the romance elements were very back-seat. I'm willing to bet that far more pages were devoted to the bounty hunt plot and the platonic friendship dynamic than any of the romances.
I read the first edition from 1987 (not the newer edition from 2005). This version of "Partners" came with a sticker referencing old western bootleg laws. Neat! I feel lucky to have found a copy, seeing as I doubt this book ever got widespread release-- and I don't live in the west.
Anyways ! Here are my thoughts on Mr. Wanye's novel:
Firstly, the easy-going chemistry between the two leads is definitely the soul of this novel. I really, really enjoyed RC and Curtis-- in pretty much all of the strange situations they got caught up in.
The novel's prose is pretty good too. This may be a strangely specific compliment to give, but I think "Partners" is at its strongest when it comes to describing old people. Scenes at the nursing home and at the grandparents house were incredibly vivid. Every elderly character in this novel pops off the page like a real flesh-and-blood person.
The descriptions of the natural landscapes and the horse care & tack procedures were also quite vivid, but sometimes to the point of feeling a bit formulaic. As much as I love detailed descriptions of locations, sometimes just listing the species of shubbery felt too face-value.
But the weakest part of this novel is definitely the plot. It feels kind of aimless and meandering, like a strange amalgamation of western subgenres thrown together. It's hard to explain, but this feels like a story that was written without an outline. I figure the author sat down at a typewriter, week after week, writing the chapters piecemeal-- without an overarching idea of why or how they were going where they were going.
Lots of elements (like RC's dad, wanda, the fixed up shack, gold panning, etc) have almost zero payoff by the end of the book. Removing these characters/locations wouldn't affect the plot in the much, so they end up feeling extraneous. The chapters are fun to read while they're happening, but the big-picture plot certainly could've been stronger. Though I was invested in the characters and the prose regardless of what was happening, everything outside of the bounty hunt plotline felt like an episodic event with not much of a resolution.
Tldr; character-driven, likeable leads, multiple sections with colorful prose... but a meandering, low-payoff plot. I definitely recommend "Partners" if you'd like to read some cowboy slice-of-life, though.
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