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The Wandering Hill - Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2
Author: Larry McMurtry

In The Wandering Hill, Larry McMurtry continues the story of Tasmin Berrybender and her family in the still unexplored Wild West of the 1830s, at the point in time when the Mountain Men and trappers like Jim Bridger and Kit Carson (both lively characters in the book), though still alive, are already legendary figures, when the journey of Lewis a... more »nd Clark is still a living memory, while the painter George Catlin is at work capturing the Mandan tribes just before they are eliminated by the incursion of the white man and smallpox, and when the clash between the powerful Indian tribes of the Missouri and the encroaching white Americans is about to turn into full-blown tragedy.

Amidst all this, the Berrybender family -- English, eccentric, wealthy, and fiercely out of place -- continues its journey of exploration, although beset by difficulties, tragedies, the desertion of trusted servants, and the increasing hardships of day-to-day survival in a land where nothing can be taken for granted.

Abandoning their luxurious steamer, which is stuck in the ice near the Knife River, they make their way overland to the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, to spend the winter in conditions of siege at the trading post of Pierre Boisdeffre, right smack in what is, from their point of view, the middle of nowhere. By now, Tasmin is a married woman, or as good as, and about to be a mother, living with the elusive young mountain man Jim Snow (The Sin Killer), and not only going to have his child, but to discover that he has a whole other Indian family he hasn't told her about.

On his part, Jim is about to discover that in taking the outspoken, tough-minded, stubbornly practical young aristocratic woman into his teepee he has bitten off more than he can chew -- Tasmin doesn't hesitate to answer back, use the name of the Lord in vain, and strike out, though she is taken aback when the quiet Jim actually strikes her.

Still, theirs is a great love affair, lived out in conditions of great risk, and dominates this volume of Larry McMurtry's Berrybender Narratives, in which Tasmin gradually takes center stage as her father loses his strength and powers of concentration, and her family goes to pieces stranded in the hostile wilderness, surrounded by interesting savages with ideas of their own and mountain men who are all of the "strong, silent type" of later Western legend, and hardly less savage than the Indians.

From the murder of the iced-in steamship's crew to the appearance of the Partezon, a particularly blood-thirsty Sioux warrior with a band of over two hundred followers (the Partezon thoughtfully buries one of Lord Berrybender's servants alive in a gutted buffalo, ordering his feet and hands to be chopped off so he will fit into the body cavity, to see if the man can get out), The Wandering Hill (which refers to a powerful and threatening legend in local Indian folklore) is at once literature on a grand scale and riveting entertainment by a master storyteller.

ISBN-13: 9780743233033
ISBN-10: 0743233034
Publication Date: 5/13/2003
Pages: 320
Rating:

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.

3.6 stars, based on 17 ratings

Publisher: Simon Schuster
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 1
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Gerhard O. (nccorthu) reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 4/22/2008 + 569 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Good book, the second in the Berrybender series, for readers that like Mc Murtry books. Not up to "Lonesome Dove" though

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Danny N. (Alameda) - , reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 2/19/2007 + 336 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

-Book 2 in the Berrybender Narratives.
There are 4 books total.
"Sin Killer", "The Wandering Hill", "By Sorrows River" and "Folly and Glory". Each a good read, as a set - "Excellent"

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Sue M. (southwestreader) - , reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 4/10/2007 + 52 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Took me awhile to get into this series, but it was Mcmurty all the way.

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Billy T. (sataro) reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 10/14/2006 + 50 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Excellent series by Larry McMurtry!

Billy T.

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Zale A. (moncar) reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 10/28/2008 + 40 more book reviews

I have gotten so ingrossed in this series ... it takes you to another place and time in history. The characters are engaging, the story line, quirky, whacky, truthful and very engrossing. A must read - is the whole series, just can't just read one!

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Karen K. (k5karen) reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 7/1/2006 + 579 more book reviews

tasmin berrybender and her family trek on through the wwild west of thr 1830s america, and suffer the harsh realities of the untamed wildneress

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Mona H. (MoMoH) reviewed The Wandering Hill (Berrybender Narrative, Bk 2) on 6/17/2006 + 31 more book reviews

The indefatable Tasmin Berrybender and her eccentric family trek on through the unexplored Wild West of 1830s America --and suffer the harsh realities of the untamed wilderness, including sickness, brutal violence and death, the desertion of trusted servants, and the increasing hardships of daily life in a land where survival is never certain. Filled with larger-tha-life figures such as Jim Bridger and Kit Carson.

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Berrybender Narrative 2 of 4

Genres:

Literature & Fiction >> Genre Fiction >> Westerns >> Pioneer
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