The Kid

by Ron Hansen

“A marvelous journey into both history and imagination…A perfectly compelling and fast-paced story” ( San Francisco Chronicle ) from Ron Hansen about an iconic American criminal of the old legendary outlaw, Billy the Kid.

Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand—a skill that both got him into and out of trouble and that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well-spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime westerns, novels, and movies.

“The Kid’s story has been told many times. But not like this” ( The New York Times Book Review ). In his incredible novel, Ron Hansen showcases his masterful research and inimitable style as he breathes life into history, bringing readers back into Billy’s boyhood as a ranch hand just trying to wrest a fortune from an unforgiving landscape. We are with Billy in every gunfight and horse theft and get to know him in full before his grand death in a hail of bullets in 1881 at the age of twenty-one. Original, powerful, and swiftly told, The Kid is “entertaining and lively…an excellent, transportive read” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review).

Genres: Historical Fiction, Westerns, Fiction, American History, Adult, Historical, Crime

321 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2016

About the author

Ron Hansen is the author of two story collections, two volumes of essays, and nine novels, including most recently The Kid, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. His novel Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award. He teaches at Santa Clara University.

Reviews

[Chadwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I should begin by saying that I've enjoyed Ron Hansen's books for more than three decades. It's impossible not to admire his versatility and the breadth of subject matter he has treated in his fiction, not to mention its consistent excellence. That said, my favorites have always been his two early novels of the Old West: DESPERADOES and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD. So when I heard he was returning to those roots with a novel about Billy the Kid, it put a little hop in my step.

I probably should have taken it as a warning sign when the first thing I encountered was a detailed list of "Major Characters." That qualifying use of "major" on a longish list gave me pause for thought (how many minor characters are there?). But I put that out of my mind and began reading. It wasn't long before the novel was weighed down by an endless stream of people in Billy's life, most of whom appear only briefly. And for nearly every character, Hansen provides a sort of mini-biography: brief background, how they arrived in the West, what happened to them after they left Billy's life, and how and where they died. That is no exaggeration -- it's a lot of detail. Ironically, the prefatory list of characters isn't even necessary, because the information is all repeated in the text.

Billy begins to get lost in the shuffle as all these actors enter and exit the stage around him.

But the biggest problem is that I don't think Hansen successfully breathed life into Billy, who never emerged as a fully fleshed character for me. I understand the picture of Billy that Hansen was trying to paint: a damaged and complicated young man, with smarts and mischievousness, and, yes, danger. But it felt like he was telling me too much, and showing me too little. Billy never leapt off the page like Emmett Dalton or Bob Ford did in Hansen's early novels.

The early portions are surprisingly slow and repetitive (Billy steals, gets caught, fights, steals again, goes to jail, fights some more, etc.). But things do come to life when the Lincoln County War begins in earnest. Hansen has always been at his best writing about violence and our darker impulses, and some of the passages show what I've come to expect from him.

The novel isn't without its charms. Hansen's prose is spare, and there is much of his typically fine writing on display. There's wit and dark humor from time to time, and some stirring narrative. He gives us a complicated group of characters and lots of moral ambiguity. It's never all black hats and white hats in Hansen's Old West.

I respect the extensive research Hansen obviously did, and his attention to detail. But it feels as if, having acquired this wealth of documentation, he felt obliged to use it all. Perhaps all that research weighed down his creativity. In the end, his account of Billy's life strangely reads more as biography than novel, and a dry biography at that.

I'm sorry to say that the whole thing ultimately just felt a bit flat and wooden to me.

(Thanks to Scribner for an advance e-galley. Receiving a free copy did not affect the content of my review.)

[Dan Radovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished in one sitting. THE KID is a wonderfully written telling of the life of the man we all know as Billy The Kid. Hansen brings Henry McCarty's story to life with his magical sparse prose. You learn of his early years in New York City to his final days in New Mexico and America's Wild West. The hardships McCarty lived through over his short life (21 years) are spun into this story so you get an understanding what drove him to crime. The detailed research shows in Hansen's writing; the story is filled with characters, places, situations you can trust and believe in. The movie in my mind was playing in glorious black and white, like the classic westerns from Hollywood's heyday; thanks to Hansen's superior talents telling stories.

[Laura McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't, as a rule, read biographies of western gunslingers, nor would I deliberately seek out historical fiction where the characters wear cowboy boots in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Thank goodness for the Ron Hansen Exception. Hansen's lyricism and his fantastic ear for dialogue make every scene crackle, and he slowly, deftly turns Billy the Kid and the men and women in his orbit into living, wise-cracking, stumbling beings. Billy himself is the greatest achievement, being the center of it all, and his ghost will be with me a long time--forever, I hope. This informed imagining of his life is a shining example of what historical fiction can and should do: resurrect the dead in their most tragic guise, full of hope and valor.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to the author’s acknowledgments, “This is a work of fiction based on fact” of the life of Billy the Kid. It is streamlined, and some people consolidated but stays true to the Kid’s biography. There is a long list of characters provided at the beginning of the book and it contains a good amount of detail. It is sympathetic to the Kid, trying to paint him as a real person and separate facts from sensationalism. It reads like an essay and gives a good idea of what life was like in New Mexico Territory in the 19th century. I found it a good, solid read, but not particularly dynamic. Recommended to fans of westerns or those interested in the lives of famous outlaws.

[Still · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Hansen is one of my favorite authors.
is probably my favorite of all of his novels - a modern day Western noir.
He's probably more famous for and the brilliant

This is as accurate an accounting of the days of "Billy The Kid" as one could possibly expect for a work of fiction. Masterful writing spiced with action sequences and narrow escapes throughout.

Recommended.

[Leah Angstman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very, very dry. It did not read like a novel at all; it reads like creative nonfiction. As a novel, it's a pretty big failure. As creative nonfiction, it wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't mind-blowing. It lists people's names, places, events, in nonfiction-style detail, and the tone is just too matter-of-fact to be an exciting novel. Overall, it was very meh.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't bad. The writing could have been better. It seemed to jump from. The present part of the book to the end and back again quite a bit and it began to be confusing when following along on an audiobook. I still really enjoyed this novel. Thought a very creative way to tell Billy The Kids story almost like a memior. Brilliantly done otherwise. Gave it 3 stars for the jumping back and forth alot and for the narrator reading the audiobook.

[Ericka Clou · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is supposed to be historical fiction but reads like very dense nonfiction history with too many characters and no clarity on what's real and what's invented. So I read a dry nonfiction but have no idea if I learned anything.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Kid is a disappointing return for Hansen to the western themes with which he first came to the reading public’s notice with Desperadoes and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It’s disappointing not because he returned to it, but because he does so without much discernible success. The story is familiar, the setting is familiar, the motives and backstory of the characters familiar. Even so, there can sometimes be success in the telling of a familiar tale told if it is told well, like skilled genre writers who may be following a formula but still entertain with atmosphere, dialogue, subplots. I suspect it works in those instances because the writers themselves are yet entertained by the genre, find pleasure in the craft of it. There is no sense of writerly pleasure in the story or place (the New Mexico Territory for the most part) or the occasional intersection of unexpected characters (General Lew Wallace of Civil War and Ben-Hur fame or the cameo made by Jesse James).

The Kid, despite its relative brevity, never gets going. Some of the dialogue clinks and clanks like the irons with which the title character periodically finds himself hobbled. Between films and books, the Old West is as about as overworked a subset of the American experience as urban crime. I suspect that if writers and filmmakers were banned for five years from making any work with a six-gun or automatic weapon as part of their character’s sartorial makeup, that one by-product of the ban would be some truly creative leaps of imagination when it comes to characterization and storytelling.

Hansen’s first half-dozen or so works of fiction (from Desperadoes through Atticus at least) were damned impressive. This one just trots along a thin timeline of events that might as well have been pulled from an encyclopedia biography of William Bonney. Hansen clearly knows this stuff in detail, has read deeply in the literature—historic and mythic—but makes too little of that knowledge and of his own considerable skills. I like restraint but wanted more of the scene where Billy is a gambler and Pat Garrett is the bartender, in the same dive, or of Billy and his relationship with the Hispanics of New Mexico, among whom he was popular and found some romantic partners, or more of Hansen taking a chance on his interior thoughts related to his violence, his geniality, potentially seminal moments (when he doesn’t aid his sponsor during the man’s assassination), et cetera.

If you haven’t read Ron Hansen there is very good fiction of his to read, but not The Kid unless any western is a good western for you. There is the early western work but also Marietta in Ecstasy and Atticus. Any reader would do well to read any of those works.

[Audrey Ashbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kid by Ron Hansen is a historical fiction and western mainly taking place between 1878-1881, the last three years of William "The Kid" or "Billy the Kid" McCarty/Antrim/Bonney's life. 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is one of my favorite novels of all time; it is a masterpiece. I feel the same about Desperadoes, another of Hansen's historical fiction/western blends about the Dalton gang. The Kid was an entertaining and fascinating novel, and although it had the same charm of Hansen's other works, the characters weren't quite as fleshed out. They didn't leave a lasting impact in the same way that Hansen's other characters (Jesse James, Bob Ford, Charley Ford, Dick Liddel, all of the Dalton brothers) have. I'm not sure why. However, it seems that The Kid was meticulously researched and I enjoyed reading it a lot. This period in U.S. history is endlessly fascinating to me, so I enjoyed the setting and scenery as well. 

The Kid is a thick, heavily detailed western that I would definitely recommend to someone interested in the life of Billy the Kid, who became "each person's wild invention" after living a fast and violent life as a cattle and horse thief. Hansen's dialogue is stellar and his prose artful; he is becoming one of my favorite authors. Looking to read more of his fiction.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story from Hansen. Again.

[Brad Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

There has been so much written about Billy the Kid, fiction and fact, that Ron Hansen's novel of last year doesn't seem at first to be necessary. But, along with Mary Doria Russell's Epitaph, there seems to be a trend lately to write historical fiction that is close to accurate, and that The Kid is. For Western fans, there's not much new here, but it was a pleasure to read.

One of the things I enjoy about Westerns, both in print and on film, is the style of putting grandiloquent language in cowpoke's mouths. You can see this done to death on Deadwood, but apparently these guys had some education, and the education they had was formal. Therefore you get dialogue like “I deserve whatever you hand out in regard to admonishment,” he said. “I done wrong and judge myself kindly in need of correction.”

That statement was by Pat Garrett, the lawman who hunted down Billy, but the Kid himself, who was known by many names--William Bonney, Henry Antrim (that was his stepfather's name) or just Billy the Kid, is a regular cut-up. He's asked for a bit of advice and answers,“Well,” the Kid said, “I would advise your readers to never engage in killing.”

In fact, Billy was a horse thief who got caught up in what was known as the Lincoln County War, a turf struggle between ranchers in New Mexico in the late 1870s. Billy, who stole a man named John Tunstall's horse, was hired by him, and later rode with men who sought vengeance for Tunstall's murder. Billy was nothing if not loyal. His loyalty to the family of his sweetheart, Paulita, would prove to be his undoing. Hansen admires the Kid, who only claimed to have killed two people (he would later kill two more in his celebrated jail break, when he killed a rascal named Bob Olinger with a blast to the face, before which he said, "Hello, Bob") was the stuff of dime novels. Only in his late teens when he perpetrated most of what he was supposed to have done, he had only one picture of him taken in his lifetime, and was by all accounts charming.

The Kid made the front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune on December 29, when it named “Billy the Kid” as the leader of “the notorious gang of outlaws composed of about 25 men who have for the past six months overrun Eastern New Mexico, murdering and committing other deeds of outlawry.” He was quick with a gun but was blamed for every death that happened while he was nearby. Therefore he became Moby Dick to Garrett's Ahab. After he broke out of jail, Garrett says, "I’ll follow the Kid to the end of time, and there will be a fierce reckoning. There will be a whirlwind he will reap while desperately begging for my forgiveness.”

When Billy broke out of his jail he was advised to go to Mexico, but instead went to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, where Paulita Maxwell lived. He was disheartened to find out she was going to marry another man. Garrett went looking for him there, and when Billy went to the father's bedroom, asking in Spanish, "Who is it?" Garrett shot him in the heart, in pitch darkness. He was 21.

The Kid's reputation was revived by a book full of alternative facts by Walter Noble Burns in the 1920s, and then came many film adaptations.“The boy who never grew old,” Burns wrote, “has become a sort of symbol of frontier knight-errantry, a figure of eternal youth riding forever through a purple glamour of romance.”

Hansen, who also wrote of another Western legend in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, writes with a nice, blood and thunder style. I particularly liked the way he sent off characters who would not appear again in the book, telling us what became of them: "Sombrero Jack, by then, had heard of the Kid’s arrest and skinned his way out of town and out of this narrative, but he would find Jesus and finally reform his life and wind up a justice of the peace in Colorado."

At times the telling of the Lincoln County War is very complicated, as there are many names to keep track of (Hansen says in the acknowledgements that he actually removed some characters!) but it's best to read this book not as a history but as a good oater that actually was true. It seems that if there were no Billy the Kid we'd have to invent him.

[Bob Mustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years Ron Hansen has been perhaps my favorite contemporary writer, and as far as I know, I’ve been a loyal reader, having read every published book he’s written. Even met him years ago in Atlanta, had the opportunity to chat briefly with him that evening. The thing about being so familiar with another writer’s work: The other’s writing - both the good and the bad - becomes glaringly obvious.

Hansen’s work has been largely historical fiction, from other legendary western heroes to Hitler to somewhat contemporary religious personalities. Most fiction these days virtually requires saturating the writing with historical data from the book’s era, and Hansen seems to have the best historical resources of any contemporary writer. The danger in using such amassed research material, though, is in overusing it, and Hansen seems increasingly liable in this regard. Another danger, and this is merely the other side of the coin in using research material to that extent, is in allowing the characterization and storyline to suffer because of it. This too seems to be an indulgence that Hansen owns, although reviews indicate he gets away with it.
In the case of The Kid, the author seems compelled to use every bit of minutiae at his command: the brands of clothing, including and especially hats. The operative rule here is generally “Does this information help describe the story’s landscape? Does it help set the story’s mood and aid in depicting the characters?” In this work, for perhaps its first half, the narrative flow bogs down from an excess of such detail, as if the reader much assay these story characteristics through a microscope instead of enjoying them in panorama.
But eventually, as in this piece, Hansen’s work planes out eventually and the writing gains its necessary use of the author’s “camera” in negotiating close-ups and panoramas, in exposing Billy the Kid’s true character, and in pacing the story. And, as in other of his works, Hansen’s insight into the import of Billy’s place in history seems unique, provocative and, more than likely, ultimately accurate. As I continually state, no piece of writing, especially fiction, is perfect, and while sticking with Hansen’s books sometimes takes patience, that patience is always rewarded.

My rating: 17 of 20 stars

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the epitome of historical fiction. As nearly as I can determine from doing a little research after reading the book, almost all the significant events related actually happened, and the characters are for the most part real, and accurately portrayed. Mr. Hansen seamlessly adds in the details and invents dialog which, while obviously not real, certainly could have been. True, he has shaded things in favor of portraying Billy in a more favorable light, and more sophisticated, than was probably the reality, but the result makes for a good story. In this sense, perhaps the general atmosphere of the book is a bit romantic, like the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Probably like many others, as I read this book I learned that I really didn't know much about the real Billy. Popular history has not treated him kindly, and even if Mr. Hansen does stack the deck a little bit in Billy's favor there doesn't seem to be much doubt that he was not the cold-blooded and brutal killer of common repute. The book is worth reading for that knowledge alone, but it's also great entertainment.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to read and disappointing as a story, I do not recommend this book. There is a long cast of characters, none of which is developed so that you never know who is who and what side they're on. Hansen's writing style switches from normal prose to some fictional western vernacular, sometimes in a paragraph, so that reading is difficult. Finally, Billy the Kid is cardboard and just a set of dialogue lines. I want to read another book about him to find out what made him the legend he is.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kid is William Henry McCarty, aka William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid. The novel is loaded with so many characters, I had a hard time keeping track of them all. This despite the four pages of “Major Characters” that precede the narrative. This is really the story of the old west of the 1870-80’s with the cowboys, cattle rustlers, gun-slingers, back-stabbers, vigilante mobs, etc. The research is absolutely amazing but the telling felt dry to me.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an interesting story, the first complete account of Billy the Kid I've read. I'm not, however, a big fan of Hansen's writing. He's glib, almost winking a you sometimes as he cracks another stale joke or cliche. His dialogue has been praised here, but I found much of it unnecessary and included only so the author could show how clever he is (Or thinks he is).

[Doctor Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is kind of a return by Ron Hansen to what first drew me to his writing, in his historical fiction about Jesse James (The Assassination of Jesse James) and about the Dalton Gang (Desperadoes). I was really happy to see this one in the upcoming fiction lists.

Billy the Kid is mythological, like other old west figures. Hansen doesn’t completely de-mythologize him, but he does bring him down to earth a bit. This kind of fiction does that, maybe a bit ironically, given that it is fiction, taking the image and reducing it down to a human scale.

Hansen’s book taught me new things about Billy’s life, and also provoked some thoughts about what makes an outlaw an outlaw.

Billy the Kid’s life was only 21 years long, but he was making his own way very early. He came from an almost cliche broken family. He was born Henry McCarty in 1859, and his father, Michael McCarty, died in the Civil War just a few years after Billy’s birth. His widowed mother Catherine married a man named William Antrim, who became Henry’s stepfather but left the family for a life of a prospecting. In Hansen’s portrayal, Henry seeks out his stepfather after his mother’s death (when he was 15), but Antrim wanted nothing to do with his stepson. Henry wasn’t yet Billy the Kid, and he genuinely seemed to be searching for an identity and a fatherly connection. He didn’t find it with his stepfather.

So at 15, Henry, soon to become “Kid Antrim” or William Bonney or Billy the Kid, was on his own. He was somewhat educated and even considered traditional occupations. But opportunities for hustling a way of life were closer to hand. He seems to have been a natural at gambling and stealing.

He was still a “kid”, especially in appearance — small, even a bit feminine. But he had daring, and he began to develop the kind of charisma that feeds mythology.

Both his charisma and his small stature played into his first killing, a blacksmith named Windy Cahill. What could have been just edgy bantering about prostitutes turned wrong, Cahill asking Billy, “Was it your momma who taught you how to pimp?” A classic over-the-edge attack against a man’s mother, and it got under Billy’s skin. Cahill was much bigger and stronger than Billy, and he bullied him. Billy’s response turned from bravado to weakness (“Stop it! You’re hurting me!”). But Billy got to his gun and shot Windy in the gut.

That one killing got Billy a reputation, but it was the Lincoln County War that looks to have been the point of no return, making “Billy the Kid” an outlaw forever.

John Tunstall was a New Mexico rancher. Billy had stolen horses from Tunstall, and he’d been caught and jailed. Tunstall came to see him, giving him what amounted to a job interview, and hired him to protect his ranch. Along with his ranch, Tunstall owned a mercantile store that had begun to eat into the business of L.G. Murphy & Co, known as “The House.”

The resulting battle, known as the Lincoln County War, pitted Tunstall’s side against the established powers of New Mexico. For Billy, the die seemed to be cast from then on. It’s not so much that he acted any differently than others, on either side. It was a matter of who won the war — the winning side got to exact “justice” and Billy was on the wrong side. From then on he was an outlaw.

The story that Hansen tells doesn’t make Billy bigger than life, but he does show what made him the outlaw that everyone remembers. Billy was not the “worst of the worst” — some of his own gang, especially “Dirty Dave” Rudabaugh, seemed much more brutal. But Billy was the one people listened to and noticed. He had charisma, he had a way with women, and he was smart enough and successful enough that other outlaws, like Rudabaugh, fell in behind him.

A book like this should be a fun read, as well as a book you actually learn something from. I think Hansen accomplishes both. He’s done his homework on Billy the Kid’s life, and he’s filled in the blanks — the thoughts in Billy’s head, the atmosphere of an outlaw’s life in the New Mexico territory of Billy’s time, and he even adds a light touch of dialect to his writing to make the reader feel just a little bit more present in the scene. Good stuff.

[Derek Rutherford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ron Hansen's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is one of my favourite western books (although maybe I should describe that, and this, as historical fiction?) so I was really looking forward to The Kid.

It didn't disappoint.

A straightforward telling (in plot terms) of the life and death of Billy the Kid, the book is so rich in research and fact (much of it no doubt made up, this is after all fiction), that it's a wonderful educational experience as well as an emotional and entertaining one.

Whilst someone writers seduce you delicately into suspending your disbelief and facilitate your sinking into the tale by (amongst other things) keeping well out of the tale themselves, Hansen has a different approach. He's not averse to reminding you loud and clear that you're reading a book and at times the authorial intrusions feel a little odd, but slowly he surrounds you with facts and scenes, characters and places, conversations and thoughts, and bit by bit he sends you as deep into the tale as any author, it's just he does it from the outside in, if that makes sense?

The first half of the book was a bit more of a struggle than the second, simply because of the sheer number of characters involved, especially in the Lincoln County War. Hansen provides a character list at the beginning of the novel - and it's vast, and it's only "main" characters. It was, I admit, tough to remember who was who, who was on which side, who used to be on who's side, who knew who, and so on. But, by the second half, when the character list slimmed down a little, the book really flew along.

I'd highly recommend this. Really enjoyed it and I must admit I learned a hell of a lot, too.

[Michelle Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoroughly researched and sympathetic portrayal of arguably the most famous outlaw of the Old West. Punchy dialogue and gritty characterization breathed life into this 100-year-old story in a way that made it feel real. This wasn’t the romanticized dime novel sheriffs-and-outlaws type of book I was somewhat expecting. It was dusty, bloody, and sad. It blurred the lines between good guys and bad guys. It felt honest. I guess that’s a good word for it. It didn’t excuse or condone Bonney’s lawbreaking, but it made me feel the sort of frustration and desperation and anger that could make a hot-blooded young man without much guidance in his life think it was the only just option.

I will say it took me a long time to get used to Hansen’s on-again, off-again approach to fictionalizing the history, though. Sometimes it reads like a history book. Sometimes it reads like a novel. Stylistically, that didn’t gel very well, and it tempted me to abandon it a time or two. Hansen writes both styles very well. VERY well. As a reader, though, it’s less jarring to stay in one place. I think it would have read more smoothly as a pure, 100% novel with some of the historical notes in either an epilogue or an author’s note. It never quite found that balance between narrative nonfiction and historical fiction. Such a fine line between those two, and this one just hopped over it way too many times.

Once I got over my frustrations with the style (and the cast of characters got to be a little more constant - my goodness, it’s aggravating, trying to keep track of who’s who when everyone is getting shot so early on), I really found it easy to immerse myself in the history and ride along with Bonney on his exploits.

[Albert Strong · Rating 3 out of 5]

While reading James Lee Burke's latest book, Robicheaux, the central character mentioned he was reading this book and it was the best book on Billy the Kid he had ever read. I admire the writing of Burke very much, so taking that as his endorsement i checked it out.

It is gook but i rate it only as ok. It is a novel based on true fact as well as the author can establish it. It is readable and enjoyable but the writer takes too much time telling the full name of every character who appears in the narrative sometimes filling in what happens to that character later in life whether it has anything to do with the narrative or not.

My criticism are two: 1) all this full identification slows down the narrative and 2) I am not sure how much of it is fiction and how much is true. It is a novel after all. An example is his story of Sallie Chisum, some of which is obviously fabricated. However, checking the internet there some but little information on Sallie, including pictures, and an inference to the detailed diary she left. And it appears that she lived and died in Lincoln County. This mixture of fact and carefully crafted fiction to seem like fact, I find to be confusing.

I liked the book in general but I also suspect that Billy was made more sympathetic that he was in real life. I liked it enough that I am going to sample another of Hansen's novels and perhaps judge him better with more experience.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hansen weaves a tight historical narrative with imagined scenes and conversations to explore the central question: who was this kid that remains a part of the American myth? (He was a kid.) To his credit, Hansen neither romanticizes not crucifies. What emerges through a mess of great writing and research is an enigma: can a sweet boy be vicious and vice versa? Wisely, Hansen allows the reader to decide after making a strong case for either verdict. The final sentence does indeed sum it up and tho I'll not give it away, I'm confident that anyone who picks up the novel will get to it.

Fun line, attributed to Billy's buddy T.O. Folliard: "I'm a motherless child and I'm so broke I can't even pay attention."

Post comment: Re-read yet again Ondaatje's "Collected Works of Billy the Kid" after finishing the Hansen. Enjoyed it less this time, tho not sure why. The poetry did not crackle as it had before, the imagery did not sink in as deeply, after Hansen's sure prose. But it did remind of this great quote, allegedly from the Kid during a jailhouse interview:
Billy: "A friend of Garrett's, Mr Cassavetes or something, said something about editorial. He said editorials didn't do anything, they just make people feel guilty.
Interviewer: That's rather good.
Billy: Yes. It is.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring!

I am a huge fan of Billy the Kid, and this read like either a watered-down nonfiction book, or a watered-down novel.

Hansen seemed to find it important to include every bit of history he learned about The Kid. And everything felt like it was being told about a past event (duh, I know, it IS a past event). But I want to LIVE it. I want to be right there in Billy's shoes and know what he is thinking about.

I flipped around a bit to when things actually start happening, like when he met Tunstall, hoping that the story would finally take off, but the dialogue was so cringe-worthy.

Then I skipped to the end to see how his death was handled. All we got was Billy repeating Quien es? a lot, Garrett's POV, and some random dude outside's POV who heard a ricochet shot as two. In the same paragraph. Facts are fine and dandy, but lacking emotion. We all know Billy is going to die, but that is no reason to make us not care if he does.

Which is another thing that Hansen does a lot - POV jumps. We never stay in one POV. In Billy's past, we are told a lot of things that his mother is thinking, which are unimportant and takes away from The Kid. I loathe this style of writing as it creates distance from the characters you are supposed to be following. If the mother's POV is so important, then give her her own chapter. Not random sentences.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading about the American West, circa late 1800's, and so this title was of interest to me.
For the historical part of this historical fiction work, I thought the author did a pretty good job citing various well-known figures and how they came to be prominent in our Western history, and their eventual fates. As to the fictional portions, such as the dialogue between "the Kid" and his various contacts throughout the book, they were rather entertaining, and the author painted Billy in a pretty favorable light. He largely seemed to frame the Kid as a victim of circumstance and political bad luck / naivete more than as the killer history and old movies have portrayed him to have been.
That said, I found the book somewhat disappointing as a reader-- it was slow at times, even tedious, as the structure of the chapters and writing style lacked a real cohesive thread to make the story flow and remain interesting. It was almost like reading a series of events from a time-line or history book, peppered with fictional dialogue, rather than a novel based on fact but still woven together by a compelling story.
An average grade for the writing and structure, and a better than average grade for the personality with which the protagonist was painted.

[J. Griff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was a diminutive, charming, blond-haired young man who, growing up in New York, Kansas, and later New Mexico, demonstrated a precocious dexterity at firing six-shooters with either hand—a skill that both got him into and out of trouble and that turned him into an American legend of the old West. He was smart, well-spoken, attractive to both white and Mexican women, a good dancer, and a man with a nose for money, horses, and trouble. His spree of crimes and murders has been immortalized in dime westerns, novels, and movies. But the whole story of his short, epically violent life has never been told as it has been here.

I'm glad I enjoyed this book in audio book versus reading as like so many other reviews as it would've been reading a history book & been quite dry. The narrator Mark Bramhall made the book so much more enjoyable with his talents of voices & accents. Having been a child of the '80s & enjoying the movies "Young Guns" & its sequel was all I knew about Billy the Kid. This having been my first Ron Hansen novel I did enjoy what story telling there was. If you have an interest in Billy the Kid I would recommend the audio book over the novel.

[Norman Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the subject matter (death, mayhem, betrayal, etc.), I found this to be a curiously flat and unemotional book. Its tone struck me as being like a Wikipedia article, "Just the facts". The story picked up its emotional content toward the end of the book, but by then it was too late to be really engaging, just entertaining.

As for the factual content of the book - I am not familiar with the overall history of the time and place, but the mythology is certainly well known. This is a novel, so it should not be regarded on its historical merits, but I did note that there were some alternative versions to episodes described in the book.

Billy was apparently admired by the Mexican population of New Mexico, but it is not really clear why that should have been the case. There was mention of him being on the side of someone who was on the side of the Mexicans who were despoiled of their properties, and that he was a fluent speaker of Spanish and lover of Spanish women, but it still isn't clear to me why the average José would have found him to be admirable.

Overall, then, not a bad book but it failed to meet my expectations.

[Linda Branich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this historical fiction book about the life of Billy the Kid.
It is obvious Hansen did a tremendous amount of research. The book not only details the life of the Kid, but also answers the questions one might have after finishing a book like this-- what happened to so-and-so afterwards?

I believe the author had a soft spot in his heart for the Kid, who was accused of every wrong-doing that happened wherever he was, probably many of which were false.

I was amazed to find that so many who knew the Kid lived well into the 20th century. Being familiar with the geography of the area where the Kid was, I fell into the story, amazed at the distances travelled on horseback and foot. At times I felt I was right there, walking and riding beside Billy with his associates and friends.

I found it interesting that this small, baby-faced young man who was a cattle rustler, gambler, lady's man, horse thief, robber, and murderer was an avid and well- read reader, despite being on his own from age 14, and that he was well-liked and beloved in Mexico. I also found it tragic that his life ended at age 21, just seven years after his mother's death.

Four big stars from me.

[Dan Downing · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Lee Burke, in "Robicheaux," has the eponymous character reading Hansen's book 'about the Lincoln County Wars', calling it 'the best'. In truth, not to gainsay Burke who may or may not have an opinion, the book is a fictional biography of Billy the Kid. Like everything else associated with that diminutive name, one must wonder what is fact and what fiction. For instance, if the owl hoots and cowboys of the time were half as funny as their repartee here, no one would have been able to shot straight for the laughing.
Hansen is not a tyro, but neither does he write at an exalted level, his time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop notwithstanding.
There is a Cast of Characters in the front of the book, and well there should be, as between Billy's family and the warring factions and miscellaneous characters stumbled over, the cast is large and varied. Hansen does supply follow up for the destinies of those who survive the gunplay, a touch which adds to the interest of the book.

[Larry Kloth · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And now he'll never be old"

This is an interesting and well-written piece of historical fiction based on the short life and career of Henry McCarty, later known as William H. Bonney, best known as Billy the Kid.  For some reason, the Kid has always been a peripheral character in my reading of western history and watching western movies and TV shows, someone I knew about, but didn't know much about.  Hansen has done a great job of telling how a rootless young man of obvious talent and charm was shaped by the circumstances of his life and life choices, as well by the corrupt and violent social and political culture in which he lived, to become the legendary outlaw.  I have read and enjoyed Hansen's books on Jesse James and the Dalton Gang, but I think "The Kid" is my favorite.  Now that Hansen has introduced me to the Kid's life and time and place, I want to read more.  "The Kid" itself is worth a second read.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I could listen to this book and enjoy it more than I would if I was reading it. I tried reading the author's book about Jesse James a few years ago and just couldn't get very far. Listening was almost as difficult. Both books read very much like textbooks, with way too many details to keep track of.

I was also thrown off by the title saying it was a novel. How much was based on letters and other records? It seemed that everything was factual based on how it was written like a text book. Except for the sex scenes. I don't need to know the details of anyone's first time with a prostitute. Or any other of their possible sexual exploits.

Other than those things The Kid seemed like a likable character and I liked getting to know more about him - if any of it is true.