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The Berrybender Narratives #1-4
The Berrybender Narratives
A sweeping four-part epic of the American West that could only come from the boundless skill and imagination of Pulitzer Prize–winning author Larry McMurtry.
Over a career that spans fifty years, Larry McMurtry has been celebrated as “one of America’s great storytellers” ( The Wall Street Journal ) and a writer who “stands among our best not only because of his uncanny ability to compress a cogent narrative arc but also because his eye for the moving detail is infallible” ( Los Angeles Times ). In The Berrybender Narratives, now published in a single volume for the first time, the author of Lonesome Dove delivers the unforgettable story of an idiosyncratic pioneer family and a truly unique view of the American West, reminding us again that his writing “has the power to clutch the heart and also to exhilarate” ( The New Yorker ).
In 1830, the Berrybender family—British, aristocratic, and fiercely out of place—abandons their home in England to embark on a journey through the American West just as the frontier is beginning to open up. Accompanied by a large and varied collection of retainers, Lord and Lady Berrybender intend to travel up the Missouri and settle in Texas, hoping to broaden the perspectives of their children, including Tasmin, a young woman of grit, beauty, and cunning. But when Tasmin’s fast-developing relationship with Jim Snow, a frontiersman and ferocious Indian fighter, begins to dictate the family’s course, they move further into the expansive and hostile wilderness and into the path of Indians, pioneers, mountain men, and explorers. As Lord Berrybender’s health falters, and the rest of the family goes to pieces around him, Tasmin finds herself taking command of their collective fate and is finally forced to decide where her future lies.
Full of real and fascinating characters, famous shoot-outs, adventure, humor, love, and loss, The Berrybender Narratives is an epic of the American West during its period of transformation, a landscape that nobody understands better than Larry McMurtry.
Over a career that spans fifty years, Larry McMurtry has been celebrated as “one of America’s great storytellers” ( The Wall Street Journal ) and a writer who “stands among our best not only because of his uncanny ability to compress a cogent narrative arc but also because his eye for the moving detail is infallible” ( Los Angeles Times ). In The Berrybender Narratives, now published in a single volume for the first time, the author of Lonesome Dove delivers the unforgettable story of an idiosyncratic pioneer family and a truly unique view of the American West, reminding us again that his writing “has the power to clutch the heart and also to exhilarate” ( The New Yorker ).
In 1830, the Berrybender family—British, aristocratic, and fiercely out of place—abandons their home in England to embark on a journey through the American West just as the frontier is beginning to open up. Accompanied by a large and varied collection of retainers, Lord and Lady Berrybender intend to travel up the Missouri and settle in Texas, hoping to broaden the perspectives of their children, including Tasmin, a young woman of grit, beauty, and cunning. But when Tasmin’s fast-developing relationship with Jim Snow, a frontiersman and ferocious Indian fighter, begins to dictate the family’s course, they move further into the expansive and hostile wilderness and into the path of Indians, pioneers, mountain men, and explorers. As Lord Berrybender’s health falters, and the rest of the family goes to pieces around him, Tasmin finds herself taking command of their collective fate and is finally forced to decide where her future lies.
Full of real and fascinating characters, famous shoot-outs, adventure, humor, love, and loss, The Berrybender Narratives is an epic of the American West during its period of transformation, a landscape that nobody understands better than Larry McMurtry.
911 pages, Hardcover
First published May 29, 2010
66 people are currently reading
520 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
150 books4,049 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
March 24, 2019
McMurtry's epic story of a family's trek across 1830s American frontier.
This is a series I think about fairly often as a scene will come to me. This is for the collection as a whole but composed of four books.
Sin Killer
The Wandering Hill
By Sorrow's River
Folly and Glory
Excellent historical fiction. McMurtry's ability to create believable characterizations and blend interweaving storylines is Dickensian. Entertaining on the surface, the narrative is a vehicle to paint a portrait of the American West in the early days of westward expansion, beginning from the office of Captain Clark himself.
Violent, often disturbingly so, this is artistic realism of a time and place - the very early western movement of American civilization into the west. The author's depiction of Native Americans is sympathetic and objective.
This is a series I think about fairly often as a scene will come to me. This is for the collection as a whole but composed of four books.
Sin Killer
The Wandering Hill
By Sorrow's River
Folly and Glory
Excellent historical fiction. McMurtry's ability to create believable characterizations and blend interweaving storylines is Dickensian. Entertaining on the surface, the narrative is a vehicle to paint a portrait of the American West in the early days of westward expansion, beginning from the office of Captain Clark himself.
Violent, often disturbingly so, this is artistic realism of a time and place - the very early western movement of American civilization into the west. The author's depiction of Native Americans is sympathetic and objective.
June 17, 2024
This a quick minireview of the whole Berrybender series, now complete with the fourth volume -- it's really one long novel, and an omnibus edition can't be far behind. A *very* odd bunch of English aristos visit the American west in the 1830's and have adventures. A few of them even survive .
This is McMurtry in antic farce mode, but with a base level of cruelty & violence that may squick some. And don't get too attached to your favorite characters! McMurtry is as good a novelist as any now writing, and knows the history of the American West very well, indeed. And doesn't let real history get in the way of a good story....
The past is a foreign country, and McMurtry's treatment of 1830's American history is strange enough to be sfnal.... Anyway, I had a great time reading the Berrybenders. Second only to _Lonesome Dove/Streets of Laredo_ among his historicals, I think, though not much like those. But very, very good. My overall series rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up.
This is McMurtry in antic farce mode, but with a base level of cruelty & violence that may squick some. And don't get too attached to your favorite characters! McMurtry is as good a novelist as any now writing, and knows the history of the American West very well, indeed. And doesn't let real history get in the way of a good story....
The past is a foreign country, and McMurtry's treatment of 1830's American history is strange enough to be sfnal.... Anyway, I had a great time reading the Berrybenders. Second only to _Lonesome Dove/Streets of Laredo_ among his historicals, I think, though not much like those. But very, very good. My overall series rating: 4.5 stars, rounded up.
July 24, 2012
As with most McMurtry stories, no character is immune to getting maimed or killed and when you least expect it. I love that about his books. This series has caused me to read "Prairie Fever", a historical book British aristocrats who roamed the American plains in the 1800's.
September 19, 2011
Larry McMurtry is my guy. He casts a spell here with an incredible cast of eccentric characters from the Sin Killer to sad Pomp to the naughty Petal. Travel with the Berrybender clan as they make their way across the rugged west and encounter every type of calamity known to man!
August 9, 2012
Read all four in short order! What can I say? It's Larry McMurtry!
July 10, 2014
Even better than Lonesome Dove.
The idea of a series about a handful of people facing the sometimes fierce and violent challenges of traveling cross-country in pioneer days wouldn't normally appeal to me all. But I love Larry McMurtry, and at the time, needed something so absorbing that I could completely forget about my own state and circumstance. This series did not disappoint.
The characters are realistic, so they're flawed but sometimes awe inspiring. The journey, which is central to the plot throughout the series, is brutal and often surprising. But as in so many great novels, the plot pales in comparison to the handling of it. In my opinion Larry handles this genre like no other.
The idea of a series about a handful of people facing the sometimes fierce and violent challenges of traveling cross-country in pioneer days wouldn't normally appeal to me all. But I love Larry McMurtry, and at the time, needed something so absorbing that I could completely forget about my own state and circumstance. This series did not disappoint.
The characters are realistic, so they're flawed but sometimes awe inspiring. The journey, which is central to the plot throughout the series, is brutal and often surprising. But as in so many great novels, the plot pales in comparison to the handling of it. In my opinion Larry handles this genre like no other.
November 26, 2011
This book is a compilation of the four Berrybender novels. I think they work together as one long novel like this. It just seemed like too much of a broken up story when they came out in short installments. Nobody writes westerns like McMurtry. Action, adventure, humor, gunslingers, Indians, whores, he's got it all. I recommend reading this only after reading his entire Lonesome Dove series (a classic). I wish McMurtry would write more stuff like this before he dies.
June 16, 2012
I am amazed at McMurtry's skill at portraying the Old West with each additional page I read. His characters are quirky individuals, sometimes funny, sometimes pathetic, but always real. HIs descriptions of the action of the untamed West are not to be equalled--brutal, breath-taking, and again, very real.
April 19, 2013
McMurtry has never failed me. His characters become so real to me. These stories are about a Wealthy English family traveling through the old west for sport and adventure. They came to see the Indians and shoot the buffalo, and they are all crazy. It was shocking the way this family behaved. Yet, it was probably more historically true than all the American history books I had ever read.
March 15, 2022
McMurtry is the Caligula of the old west.
Read
July 9, 2013great book series.. heros, villans struggles in the west with a rich
english family starting on a River Boat with servants.. and heroine is amazing along with all the characters.
McMurtry is always worth reading including the none westerns..
english family starting on a River Boat with servants.. and heroine is amazing along with all the characters.
McMurtry is always worth reading including the none westerns..
May 9, 2015
As good as Lonesome Dove, and that's saying something.
September 7, 2012
Sorry when the Series came to a conclusion!!
August 2, 2013
Absolutely loved it. McMurtry is a master at pulling humanity and history into a an engaging series of tales based in the old west.
April 18, 2024
I've previously read book #1 "Sin Killer", and book # 3 "By Sorrow's River".
When I got this Berrybender Narratives collection of all four books I decided to read all four in order. It ended as a good approach to reread the two from before.
This is great historical fiction and Lonesome Dove is one of my McMurtry favorites. All that I've read by him have been excellent.
So much of this Berrybender collection could be analyzed. English vs American, male vs female, marriage fidelity, violence, sexuality, brutality...
The contrasts of English nobility and the rawness of the American mountain people, including the Native American indigenous, is highlighted. The well educated English family is mean spirited, rude, and not self reliant, where as the native Americans and Americans are very comfortable with the struggles of surviving the wild plains, hunting, finding water, fighting, etc.
The English noble woman are mouthy and are frustratingly irritating females to both the Indians and mountain men. The Indian/mountain women take care of the domestic life on the trail and in camp by doing their share of work to survive and keep talk to a minimum. Many, of the educated characters throughout the stories use their philosophical and existential knowledge and ultimately die. To survive this ancient wilderness world, it is near useless education, and becomes more like a weakness.
That said, Lord Berrybender, his daughter Tasmin are main characters whose spirits are so forceful they keep the story glowing with hot steam. Mountain man, Jim Snow, the "Sin Killer" is more like the blazing fire to the Berrybender's or anyone else that riles his solitude mood.
These unpredictable stories connect, travel the unpredictable trails, and end with a sad satisfaction to have lived some life in the 1830's wild America.
When I got this Berrybender Narratives collection of all four books I decided to read all four in order. It ended as a good approach to reread the two from before.
This is great historical fiction and Lonesome Dove is one of my McMurtry favorites. All that I've read by him have been excellent.
So much of this Berrybender collection could be analyzed. English vs American, male vs female, marriage fidelity, violence, sexuality, brutality...
The contrasts of English nobility and the rawness of the American mountain people, including the Native American indigenous, is highlighted. The well educated English family is mean spirited, rude, and not self reliant, where as the native Americans and Americans are very comfortable with the struggles of surviving the wild plains, hunting, finding water, fighting, etc.
The English noble woman are mouthy and are frustratingly irritating females to both the Indians and mountain men. The Indian/mountain women take care of the domestic life on the trail and in camp by doing their share of work to survive and keep talk to a minimum. Many, of the educated characters throughout the stories use their philosophical and existential knowledge and ultimately die. To survive this ancient wilderness world, it is near useless education, and becomes more like a weakness.
That said, Lord Berrybender, his daughter Tasmin are main characters whose spirits are so forceful they keep the story glowing with hot steam. Mountain man, Jim Snow, the "Sin Killer" is more like the blazing fire to the Berrybender's or anyone else that riles his solitude mood.
These unpredictable stories connect, travel the unpredictable trails, and end with a sad satisfaction to have lived some life in the 1830's wild America.
January 20, 2025
This book is actually 4 books combined: sin killer, the wandering hill, by sorrows river and folly and glory. The books all stand alone very well, but reading them together worked great for me, except it made for one very long (and heavy) book.
The story continued smoothly from one book to the next, so much so that I wonder if they were all written at one time.
The books tell the story of a wild, rich and extremely quirky English family travelling through much of the central Western states long before they were settled or even part of the United States.
I love how McMurtry combines his well developed characters and story with historical events, attitudes and most importantly real people to make a book that not only tells a great story, but seems to capture what life was really like in the United States at that time.
I really enjoy how the books let us inside each character's mind and point of view. That, with the short chapters, makes the story so much richer and complete than if we only got to see the events from one person's perspective.
It's all part of McMurtry's special way of story- telling, which I can't get enough of.
The story continued smoothly from one book to the next, so much so that I wonder if they were all written at one time.
The books tell the story of a wild, rich and extremely quirky English family travelling through much of the central Western states long before they were settled or even part of the United States.
I love how McMurtry combines his well developed characters and story with historical events, attitudes and most importantly real people to make a book that not only tells a great story, but seems to capture what life was really like in the United States at that time.
I really enjoy how the books let us inside each character's mind and point of view. That, with the short chapters, makes the story so much richer and complete than if we only got to see the events from one person's perspective.
It's all part of McMurtry's special way of story- telling, which I can't get enough of.
August 22, 2021
Although this is a continuing story, it was written and originally published as four discrete novellas. My copy was the collection of all four.
I read the first three and enjoyed them, as McMurtry is a truly great storyteller, You know that his tongue is firmly in his cheek as he writes and you get it. However after Story #3 other books that I wanted to read started piling up and I got that "been there done that" feeling, so I quit and went on to other books. Not sorry I quit and not sorry that I read the first three either.
BTW, McMurtry died as I was finishing Story No. 3.
I read the first three and enjoyed them, as McMurtry is a truly great storyteller, You know that his tongue is firmly in his cheek as he writes and you get it. However after Story #3 other books that I wanted to read started piling up and I got that "been there done that" feeling, so I quit and went on to other books. Not sorry I quit and not sorry that I read the first three either.
BTW, McMurtry died as I was finishing Story No. 3.
March 28, 2021
I love reading Larry McMurtry’s books. His characters are well developed. Do you know that feeling when you’re finishing a series of books and you’re so close to the end that you have to know what happens, but then you’re sad when you’re done reading it? I’d really like to know what happens to Tasmin after the novel ends.
January 11, 2022
Every McMurtry female lead is the same: I’ll-tempered, smart-mouthed, sex-crazed, and of course impossibly beautiful. Why do they say he writes women well? And there’s an undercurrent of disturbing pedophilia in a lot of his books. I couldn’t find a discernible plot in the almost thousand pages.
March 4, 2024
This one grabbed me, couldn't walk away even if had wanted to.
There's a combination of vulgarity, violence, insightful character development, and a few broad reflections on America's west as it was penetrated by Europeans (settlers, trappers, scoundrels) that leaves the reader whipsawed.
There's a combination of vulgarity, violence, insightful character development, and a few broad reflections on America's west as it was penetrated by Europeans (settlers, trappers, scoundrels) that leaves the reader whipsawed.
June 5, 2017
So long. So great at times. So disjointed at times. Huge plot holes. Wanted to love it. At the end really just felt disappointed. Sorry Larry.
December 31, 2018
Old world travels to new world with extreme naiveté resulting in death and heartbreak. The human and pioneering spirit manage to come through amidst all the tragedy.
August 11, 2020
i wish i could write like this
August 16, 2021
I only read the first book called sin killer. It wasn’t good enough to make me want to finish the rest.
Read
September 19, 2021Giving up on this one for now, not because it's bad, but because I don't think I'm in the right space to read it. 100 pages in and I'm interested but stalled so calling it a day for now.
June 1, 2022
My second time reading this and it is still as brilliant and brutal as ever.
August 11, 2024
Fantastic
June 14, 2016
At 909 pages, this is a huge book (actually a compendium of four related stories). I confess that at times I wondered if it would ever end. There did seem to be a fair amount of repetition on certain themes. However, by the end, I appreciated the way that McMurtry protrayed the conversion of a headstrong, aristocratic, spoiled young Englishwoman, Tasmin Berrybender, coming to the American west with her father's retinue for adventure into a weary, practical survivor and mother who wanted her headstrong daughter to experience the more "civilized" Europe.
The portrayal of different Indian tribes was a key element of the story. The "river Indians" were mostly peaceful traders, serving the mountain men and traders coming from both the mountains and the rivers; the "wild Indians," like Utes and Comanches, were vicious and treacherous. Equally treacherous was the wild land. I had never thought much about how much having a gun or bow and being able to hunt for game would mean in the great open spaces of the American west in the early days (around the 1830s).
Tasmin's husband Jim, whom she fixated on after seeing him naked along the riverbank, was a puzzling character. In the end, it was lust that brought them together. Tasmin and Jim couldn't have been more different. She was bossy and opinionated and entitled (literally, Lady Tasmin); he was a white orphan who'd been raised by Indians. Jim was an adept frontiersman, with the skills and brutality to survive all manner of hardships and violence, but he was so bothered by his wife's chatter and the hubbub of the Berrybenders' lives that he disappeared for many months at a time. Tasmin, amusingly, whiled away the time with George Catlin, Kit Carson, Pompey Charbonneau, and other celebrities of that time and place.
One other quick note: The travelers spent some time in New Mexico. The Spaniards ensconced there were every bit as brutal as some of the Indians.
The portrayal of different Indian tribes was a key element of the story. The "river Indians" were mostly peaceful traders, serving the mountain men and traders coming from both the mountains and the rivers; the "wild Indians," like Utes and Comanches, were vicious and treacherous. Equally treacherous was the wild land. I had never thought much about how much having a gun or bow and being able to hunt for game would mean in the great open spaces of the American west in the early days (around the 1830s).
Tasmin's husband Jim, whom she fixated on after seeing him naked along the riverbank, was a puzzling character. In the end, it was lust that brought them together. Tasmin and Jim couldn't have been more different. She was bossy and opinionated and entitled (literally, Lady Tasmin); he was a white orphan who'd been raised by Indians. Jim was an adept frontiersman, with the skills and brutality to survive all manner of hardships and violence, but he was so bothered by his wife's chatter and the hubbub of the Berrybenders' lives that he disappeared for many months at a time. Tasmin, amusingly, whiled away the time with George Catlin, Kit Carson, Pompey Charbonneau, and other celebrities of that time and place.
One other quick note: The travelers spent some time in New Mexico. The Spaniards ensconced there were every bit as brutal as some of the Indians.
December 4, 2015
This was my first time reading Larry McMurtry and I enjoyed it very much. He is an excellent storyteller, and you get wrapped up into the lives of the characters very quickly. The story is intriguing and the charters are engaging, although I felt the Berrybender family is closer to a parody of 19th century British aristocrats then they are to reality.
The book series started out great but ended with a whimper. The last segment of the series (Folly and Gory) felt rushed, over edited, as if the publisher and writer just wanted to put an end to the story quickly. It’s like going to dinner at a high-end restaurant, enjoying your cocktails, horderves and dinner at a nice pace, and then rushing through your dessert.
I’m a big historical fiction fan, and it is very common to have the fictional characters interact with real historical figures. Sometimes the historical figures are primary actors within the story. That is the case with this series, and that is one of the biggest problems I had with this book series. It rewrites history by killing a real historical figure 30 years before he actually died. That was a lame tactic to shock the reader, and quickly lowered my enjoyment of the story. Not because the person died but because it turned the story into alternate history, making the whole story unbelievable. When I read historical fiction I like to think that these fictional people lived, and that cheap ploy took that away.
The book series started out great but ended with a whimper. The last segment of the series (Folly and Gory) felt rushed, over edited, as if the publisher and writer just wanted to put an end to the story quickly. It’s like going to dinner at a high-end restaurant, enjoying your cocktails, horderves and dinner at a nice pace, and then rushing through your dessert.
I’m a big historical fiction fan, and it is very common to have the fictional characters interact with real historical figures. Sometimes the historical figures are primary actors within the story. That is the case with this series, and that is one of the biggest problems I had with this book series. It rewrites history by killing a real historical figure 30 years before he actually died. That was a lame tactic to shock the reader, and quickly lowered my enjoyment of the story. Not because the person died but because it turned the story into alternate history, making the whole story unbelievable. When I read historical fiction I like to think that these fictional people lived, and that cheap ploy took that away.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2024
-This series is a DNF for me, I read the first two books which where incredibly dry and basically nothing happens for 400 pages.
-The berrybender chronicles is a darkly comedic story about the berrybender family as they ride up the Mississippi River and encounter many things from wild animals, Kit Carson, Hugh Glass,etc.
-It sounds like it’d be great but unfortunately the plot lines are not that interesting. The first book “Sin Killer” is basically just a full on romance novel between a girl (one of the berrybenders obviously) and Jim Snow (the bounty hunter and Osage killer). I’m not opposed to romance in books if it’s done well but it’s just not here.
-Jim Snow is portrayed as this badass bounty hunter and the Osage give him the nickname “Sin Killer” but he doesn’t do anything except fall in love with this girl and be the strong silent type.
-The girl (I genuinely forgot her name) is the biggest Mary Sue in the world, she sees Jim Snow naked in the lake and then she’s head over heels. She doesn’t need anything else.
-If you like this series, I’m glad you like it but I just didn’t.
-2/5
-The berrybender chronicles is a darkly comedic story about the berrybender family as they ride up the Mississippi River and encounter many things from wild animals, Kit Carson, Hugh Glass,etc.
-It sounds like it’d be great but unfortunately the plot lines are not that interesting. The first book “Sin Killer” is basically just a full on romance novel between a girl (one of the berrybenders obviously) and Jim Snow (the bounty hunter and Osage killer). I’m not opposed to romance in books if it’s done well but it’s just not here.
-Jim Snow is portrayed as this badass bounty hunter and the Osage give him the nickname “Sin Killer” but he doesn’t do anything except fall in love with this girl and be the strong silent type.
-The girl (I genuinely forgot her name) is the biggest Mary Sue in the world, she sees Jim Snow naked in the lake and then she’s head over heels. She doesn’t need anything else.
-If you like this series, I’m glad you like it but I just didn’t.
-2/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews