Search - Zeke and Ned

I have read nearly all of McMurtry's books, and this is one of the really good ones. No one can bring out the characters in a story like L.M.

I haven't read any westerns or anything else by McMurtry, but this may be my starting point. The novel seems epic but the main plot is the trouble between two Cherokee friends and the white settlers nearby. The tone throughout the novel is very satiric, even during some pretty horribly violent episodes. I found the middle to be a bit sluggish though, the writing taking a little too long to describe things. But the last third takes a more dramatic and operatic tone and while told in a straight-forward manner, left me reeling in its' profound summation of Cherokee / White relations, without any sap. This novel proves that you can tell a very small tale about very big things.

From Library Journal
McMurty and Ossana employ a technique they used successfully in Pretty Boy Floyd (LJ 9/1/94), in which a historical character of legendary proportions become the hero of a modern work of fiction. This work focuses on Zeke Proctor and Ned Christic, Cherokee Indians who became folk heroes in the Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s. Unforgiven wrongs that festered since the removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia in the 1830s become a moving force in the story of a casual love affair gone awry and the bloody feud and even bloodier legal actions that transpire when federal judges intervene. McMurty paints Zeke's courtship, murder trial, and marriage debacle with broad humor, and Ossana takes the story home with Ned's four-year standoff of armed federal marshals dispatched to take him dead or alive. A wonderfully readable historical novel that furthers the understanding of the Native-white disputes of the last century. Recommended for most collections.

This cover shows wear but is still intact just well read.

This is an off beat western which has the flavor of being the "real" thing. I said to myself, after reading it, maybe this is how it really was.

This is a western, but I absolutely loved it! Its about two crazy "native americans" and their ability to stand up for what they beleive in until the very end. They are honorable men, even if their methods are questionable. Some of the best caracterization I've seen, and when the book ended I felt like I was saying goodbye to two good friends.

I'm not a western novel fan, but I just love Larry McMutrty! This was a great read--a real page turner. You can almost believe the story was true instead of fiction.