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The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times
"Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer―so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible." ―Tom Bissell Raising the literary bar to a new level, Jerome Charyn re-creates the voice of Theodore Roosevelt, the New York City police commissioner, Rough Rider, and soon- to-be twenty-sixth president through his derring-do adventures, effortlessly combining superhero dialogue with haunting pathos. Beginning with his sickly childhood and concluding with McKinley’s assassination, the novel positions Roosevelt as a “perfect bull in a china shop,” a fearless crime fighter and pioneering environmentalist who would grow up to be our greatest peacetime president. With an operatic cast, including “Bamie,” his handicapped older sister; Eleanor, his gawky little niece; as well as the devoted Rough Riders, the novel memorably features the lovable mountain lion Josephine, who helped train Roosevelt for his “crowded hour,” the charge up San Juan Hill. Lauded by Jonathan Lethem for his “polymorphous imagination and crack comic timing,” Charyn has created a classic of historical fiction, confirming his place as “one of the most important writers in American literature” (Michael Chabon). 6 black and white illustrations
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 8, 2019
56 people are currently reading
424 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Charyn
220 books228 followersJerome Charyn is an award-winning American author. With more than 50 published works, Charyn has earned a long-standing reputation as an inventive and prolific chronicler of real and imagined American life.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon calls him "one of the most important writers in American literature." New York Newsday hailed Charyn as "a contemporary American Balzac," and the Los Angeles Times described him as "absolutely unique among American writers."
Since the 1964 release of Charyn's first novel, Once Upon a Droshky, he has published thirty novels, three memoirs, eight graphic novels, two books about film, short stories, plays, and works of non-fiction. Two of his memoirs were named New York Times Book of the Year.
Charyn has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He received the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. Charyn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the American University of Paris.
In addition to writing and teaching, Charyn is a tournament table tennis player, once ranked in the top ten percent of players in France. Noted novelist Don DeLillo called Charyn's book on table tennis, Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins, "The Sun Also Rises of ping-pong."
Charyn's most recent novel, Jerzy, was described by The New Yorker as a "fictional fantasia" about the life of Jerzy Kosinski, the controversial author of The Painted Bird. In 2010, Charyn wrote The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, an imagined autobiography of the renowned poet, a book characterized by Joyce Carol Oates as a "fever-dream picaresque."
Charyn lives in New York City. He's currently working with artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka on an animated television series based on his Isaac Sidel crime novels.
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January 2, 2020
”I stepped into the roaring crowd of greeters--that was the Roosevelt way.
‘Mr. President, Mr. President.’
Babies were thrust at me. I wanted to rock them in my arms, reassure a mother or two, but I didn’t dare in a field of bayonets that reminded me of monstrous porcupine quills. I could feel my freedom slip away with a sudden pull, like the silent shrug of a straitjacket. I didn’t require bayonets, not at all. Deep within my throat, I let out the Rough Rider rip.
‘YA-HA-HAWWW’”
Theodore Roosevelt, always rough and ready.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our 32nd President, was not the first Roosevelt to be accused of being a traitor to his class. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was accused of that long before Franklin entered the fray. Theodore was a true son to his father, who also waged his own battles against inequality. He called his father Brave Heart, and for the rest of his life, he did his best to live up to the high ideals his father embraced. Being called a traitor to your class when you belong to the wealthiest elites was about the largest compliment that could be paid to any man.
Teddy was a driven man. One could say he was reckless and almost desperate to push the limits of the definition of what a man is supposed to be. He was living LARGE a century and some change before the concept became a slang term for a lifestyle of extravagance. He did spend money, and it went through his fingers like sand because of his many interests. His version of extravagance was in how he devoted his time and energy to large and small endeavors. He was a New Yorker who bought into the concept of the West representing the place where a man could truly find the person he was meant to be. The West was JUST big enough to contain the expansiveness of Theodore’s vibrant personality.
Theodore would have been perfectly happy making a life for himself out West, but the East Coast would be the arena in which he would have to wage a war for the soul of America. The corruption was there; inequality was embraced there, and he wanted the power and influence to change it.
Jerome Charyn brought the legend charmingly to life by telling the story of his life with wit, style, and humor. His descriptions were so vivid and written with such verve that I felt almost as if, from the kaleidoscope of images in my mind, that I was reading a graphic novel. If it were a graphic novel, it would be a weighty volume because there was simply no way to contain Roosevelt to a small panel on a page. Each illustrated panel would have to be a full sized page to accommodate his large teeth, his bullish body, and his booming voice.
Theodore took on men with names like Jay Gould and Pierpont Morgan who saw him as a threat to their profits. For men like these, there was never enough money in their possession. The concept of giving men a living wage was as foreign an idea to these rich robber barons as shaking hands with the man in the moon. The contentious Roosevelt transformed the NY police department and found that the cancer of corruption had almost consumed the whole body of the police force. He had to cut out more than he kept. The famous newspaper man Joseph Pulitzer knew where his bread was buttered with men like Gould and Morgan, but he also knew that Roosevelt always made good copy.
”Mr. Joseph Pulitzer was relentless in his attacks on my presidency of the Police Board. He called me ‘that little runt of a man with the red moustache’ who had failed as a Civil Service Commissioner and was now making a mess of 300 Mulberry Street. The World swore I was a despot, the czar of czars. Pulitzer couldn’t stop talking about my teeth. ‘Roosevelt’s satanic grin,’ the World said. ‘The Commissioner looks like a crazed colt.’
Considered that a compliment.”
The American people loved Roosevelt. The Republican Party, to which he belonged, was less enamored with the young firebrand. He was too popular to destroy, but he was too unpredictable to trust. He couldn’t be bribed. He couldn’t be reasoned with if he knew his cause was just. He would not fall in line with a party platform.
What to do with him?
They buried him as Undersecretary of the Navy, but he emerged from there, somehow, the hero of San Juan Hill in Cuba. The crafty Republican bosses, with much chuckling I’m sure, decided that the best place to tuck Roosevelt out of the way was as President William McKinley’s Vice President.
Let’s just say, Theodore Roosevelt was impossible to contain. The universe by a series of quirks of fate always seemed to make way for him.
The author Jerome Charyn, looking rough and ready as well.
This book will be so enjoyable for anyone who has an interest in history. Though this is a novel, it is based upon the true events of his life. People are a product of the times they live in, and a man like Theodore Roosevelt was always knee deep in whatever was going on. For people who know nothing about Theodore Roosevelt, this book will be a great introduction to the man. For those who know a little, they will be given a wonderful back bone of knowledge to help them pursue more in-depth studies of his life. For those, like myself, who know quite a bit about the man, they will be entertained by the way Charyn deftly brought the man and the people around him to life. He was so alive I felt like I could reach into the pages of the book and shake the man’s hand.
If you want to meet the man who actually lived up to the myths surrounding him, then there is no better place than in The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King. (@CowboyKingTR)
I want to thank Rachel Gul, Liveright Publishing (@LiverightPub), and Jerome Charyn (@jeromecharyn) for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
‘Mr. President, Mr. President.’
Babies were thrust at me. I wanted to rock them in my arms, reassure a mother or two, but I didn’t dare in a field of bayonets that reminded me of monstrous porcupine quills. I could feel my freedom slip away with a sudden pull, like the silent shrug of a straitjacket. I didn’t require bayonets, not at all. Deep within my throat, I let out the Rough Rider rip.
‘YA-HA-HAWWW’”
Theodore Roosevelt, always rough and ready.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our 32nd President, was not the first Roosevelt to be accused of being a traitor to his class. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, was accused of that long before Franklin entered the fray. Theodore was a true son to his father, who also waged his own battles against inequality. He called his father Brave Heart, and for the rest of his life, he did his best to live up to the high ideals his father embraced. Being called a traitor to your class when you belong to the wealthiest elites was about the largest compliment that could be paid to any man.
Teddy was a driven man. One could say he was reckless and almost desperate to push the limits of the definition of what a man is supposed to be. He was living LARGE a century and some change before the concept became a slang term for a lifestyle of extravagance. He did spend money, and it went through his fingers like sand because of his many interests. His version of extravagance was in how he devoted his time and energy to large and small endeavors. He was a New Yorker who bought into the concept of the West representing the place where a man could truly find the person he was meant to be. The West was JUST big enough to contain the expansiveness of Theodore’s vibrant personality.
Theodore would have been perfectly happy making a life for himself out West, but the East Coast would be the arena in which he would have to wage a war for the soul of America. The corruption was there; inequality was embraced there, and he wanted the power and influence to change it.
Jerome Charyn brought the legend charmingly to life by telling the story of his life with wit, style, and humor. His descriptions were so vivid and written with such verve that I felt almost as if, from the kaleidoscope of images in my mind, that I was reading a graphic novel. If it were a graphic novel, it would be a weighty volume because there was simply no way to contain Roosevelt to a small panel on a page. Each illustrated panel would have to be a full sized page to accommodate his large teeth, his bullish body, and his booming voice.
Theodore took on men with names like Jay Gould and Pierpont Morgan who saw him as a threat to their profits. For men like these, there was never enough money in their possession. The concept of giving men a living wage was as foreign an idea to these rich robber barons as shaking hands with the man in the moon. The contentious Roosevelt transformed the NY police department and found that the cancer of corruption had almost consumed the whole body of the police force. He had to cut out more than he kept. The famous newspaper man Joseph Pulitzer knew where his bread was buttered with men like Gould and Morgan, but he also knew that Roosevelt always made good copy.
”Mr. Joseph Pulitzer was relentless in his attacks on my presidency of the Police Board. He called me ‘that little runt of a man with the red moustache’ who had failed as a Civil Service Commissioner and was now making a mess of 300 Mulberry Street. The World swore I was a despot, the czar of czars. Pulitzer couldn’t stop talking about my teeth. ‘Roosevelt’s satanic grin,’ the World said. ‘The Commissioner looks like a crazed colt.’
Considered that a compliment.”
The American people loved Roosevelt. The Republican Party, to which he belonged, was less enamored with the young firebrand. He was too popular to destroy, but he was too unpredictable to trust. He couldn’t be bribed. He couldn’t be reasoned with if he knew his cause was just. He would not fall in line with a party platform.
What to do with him?
They buried him as Undersecretary of the Navy, but he emerged from there, somehow, the hero of San Juan Hill in Cuba. The crafty Republican bosses, with much chuckling I’m sure, decided that the best place to tuck Roosevelt out of the way was as President William McKinley’s Vice President.
Let’s just say, Theodore Roosevelt was impossible to contain. The universe by a series of quirks of fate always seemed to make way for him.
The author Jerome Charyn, looking rough and ready as well.
This book will be so enjoyable for anyone who has an interest in history. Though this is a novel, it is based upon the true events of his life. People are a product of the times they live in, and a man like Theodore Roosevelt was always knee deep in whatever was going on. For people who know nothing about Theodore Roosevelt, this book will be a great introduction to the man. For those who know a little, they will be given a wonderful back bone of knowledge to help them pursue more in-depth studies of his life. For those, like myself, who know quite a bit about the man, they will be entertained by the way Charyn deftly brought the man and the people around him to life. He was so alive I felt like I could reach into the pages of the book and shake the man’s hand.
If you want to meet the man who actually lived up to the myths surrounding him, then there is no better place than in The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King. (@CowboyKingTR)
I want to thank Rachel Gul, Liveright Publishing (@LiverightPub), and Jerome Charyn (@jeromecharyn) for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
January 24, 2019
Who knew Teddy Roosevelt lived such a life?! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Upon reading The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, I quickly realized how little I knew about Teddy Roosevelt. What a life! What a character.
Did you know Theodore Roosevelt was a police commissioner for New York City, a Rough Rider, an environmentalist? (Shhh…don’t tell…I didn’t know exactly what a Rough Rider was prior to reading this?)
No one would have known our fearless twenty-sixth president had a childhood filled with illness, but Teddy Roosevelt certainly did. The chapters on his childhood endeared him to me instantly. Teddy’s older sister, Bamie, had a disability. In addition to Bamie and Teddy, there is quite the cast of characters, including a lovable (pet!) mountain lion named Josephine.
Teddy has more than his share of hardship with his sick early life. He also loses his first wife during childbirth, and his mother passes away on the same day. Can you imagine? He leaves New York broken-hearted and filled with grief and ends up fighting crime as a sheriff in the Dakota territories. When he returns to New York, he marries his childhood sweetheart and quickly gets his life back on track, filling one political position after another when he becomes the youngest president of the United States after McKinley’s assassination.
My favorite aspects of the book are the wily and charming “characters,” who just so happen to have been real people, along with the perfectly timed humor. The facts about the time were illuminating and insightful, and the book almost reads like an adventure because Roosevelt led such a fascinating and unusual life. What filled these pages was only about half of Roosevelt’s life! I would love to read more!
Overall, I was enthralled with Teddy Roosevelt’s story and in awe of how Charyn presented it.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
Upon reading The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, I quickly realized how little I knew about Teddy Roosevelt. What a life! What a character.
Did you know Theodore Roosevelt was a police commissioner for New York City, a Rough Rider, an environmentalist? (Shhh…don’t tell…I didn’t know exactly what a Rough Rider was prior to reading this?)
No one would have known our fearless twenty-sixth president had a childhood filled with illness, but Teddy Roosevelt certainly did. The chapters on his childhood endeared him to me instantly. Teddy’s older sister, Bamie, had a disability. In addition to Bamie and Teddy, there is quite the cast of characters, including a lovable (pet!) mountain lion named Josephine.
Teddy has more than his share of hardship with his sick early life. He also loses his first wife during childbirth, and his mother passes away on the same day. Can you imagine? He leaves New York broken-hearted and filled with grief and ends up fighting crime as a sheriff in the Dakota territories. When he returns to New York, he marries his childhood sweetheart and quickly gets his life back on track, filling one political position after another when he becomes the youngest president of the United States after McKinley’s assassination.
My favorite aspects of the book are the wily and charming “characters,” who just so happen to have been real people, along with the perfectly timed humor. The facts about the time were illuminating and insightful, and the book almost reads like an adventure because Roosevelt led such a fascinating and unusual life. What filled these pages was only about half of Roosevelt’s life! I would love to read more!
Overall, I was enthralled with Teddy Roosevelt’s story and in awe of how Charyn presented it.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
May 16, 2019
Oh, this book cover. Don't judge a book by its cover but, oh my, this one is pretty epic. There's Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (AKA Teddy / TR / the bull in a china shop / 26th POTUS), with his mountain lion Josephine.
In history class, each president was defined in a brief paragraph with basic information. If you'd given me a history book with an epic cover depicting any POTUS as a cinematic action hero badass, I would've devoured it.
After reading this historical ficion/biographical fiction novel about the early life of Teddy Roosevelt, I'm certain he is deserving of this over the top book title and cover!
While many fascinating biographies have been written about Roosevelt, it's hard to top the wild adventure recreated in the voice of the man himself. His life was full of triumph, tragedy, romance, heartbreak, crime fighting, and a cast of fascinating characters!
Born into a wealthy family, Teddy grew from a sickly child into a young politician known as the "Cyclone Assemblyman" because he was willing to take on the corrupt government in New York. "I was everywhere at once, the great meddler, poking into other Assemblymen's affairs. How else could I get anything done? I had to meddle." *
He fell in love with ("I had courted her as if I were courting a cougar. That's how persistent I was." *) and married a beautiful young woman named Alice Lee who tragically died after childbirth on the same day that his mother died.
(Seriously, you cannot make up that much cruel heartache!)
Heartbroken, he left his newborn daughter, also named Alice, in the care of his older sister Bamie and left politics behind for the wild west, becoming a rancher and crime fighting sheriff in the Dakota territories. "I had to get outside my own country, leave the United States, to discover my own damn self in a Territory that was still uncharted and unknown." *
After returning to New York a couple years later, Roosevelt married his childhood sweetheart Edith, took over raising his first child Alice, and they began to expand their family with several more children.
He couldn't stay away from politics for long and soon became Secretary of the Navy, taking on the Spaniards with his infamous group of volunteers, the Rough Riders and their beloved mascot, Josephine the mountain lion.
From there, Roosevelt goes from governor of New York, to the VP of the United States, to the youngest POTUS when McKinley is assassinated.
Full of fascinating and true details of President Theodore Roosevelt, The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is an entertaining look into the early life of the 26th President. Since this was just the first half of TR's life, I'm going to need Charyn to write a sequel!
Thanks to W.W. Norton/Liveright and Edelweiss for providing me with a DRC in exchange for my honest review. The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times is scheduled for release on January 8, 2019.
*The quotes included are from a digital review copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
In history class, each president was defined in a brief paragraph with basic information. If you'd given me a history book with an epic cover depicting any POTUS as a cinematic action hero badass, I would've devoured it.
After reading this historical ficion/biographical fiction novel about the early life of Teddy Roosevelt, I'm certain he is deserving of this over the top book title and cover!
While many fascinating biographies have been written about Roosevelt, it's hard to top the wild adventure recreated in the voice of the man himself. His life was full of triumph, tragedy, romance, heartbreak, crime fighting, and a cast of fascinating characters!
Born into a wealthy family, Teddy grew from a sickly child into a young politician known as the "Cyclone Assemblyman" because he was willing to take on the corrupt government in New York. "I was everywhere at once, the great meddler, poking into other Assemblymen's affairs. How else could I get anything done? I had to meddle." *
He fell in love with ("I had courted her as if I were courting a cougar. That's how persistent I was." *) and married a beautiful young woman named Alice Lee who tragically died after childbirth on the same day that his mother died.
(Seriously, you cannot make up that much cruel heartache!)
Heartbroken, he left his newborn daughter, also named Alice, in the care of his older sister Bamie and left politics behind for the wild west, becoming a rancher and crime fighting sheriff in the Dakota territories. "I had to get outside my own country, leave the United States, to discover my own damn self in a Territory that was still uncharted and unknown." *
After returning to New York a couple years later, Roosevelt married his childhood sweetheart Edith, took over raising his first child Alice, and they began to expand their family with several more children.
He couldn't stay away from politics for long and soon became Secretary of the Navy, taking on the Spaniards with his infamous group of volunteers, the Rough Riders and their beloved mascot, Josephine the mountain lion.
From there, Roosevelt goes from governor of New York, to the VP of the United States, to the youngest POTUS when McKinley is assassinated.
Full of fascinating and true details of President Theodore Roosevelt, The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is an entertaining look into the early life of the 26th President. Since this was just the first half of TR's life, I'm going to need Charyn to write a sequel!
Thanks to W.W. Norton/Liveright and Edelweiss for providing me with a DRC in exchange for my honest review. The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times is scheduled for release on January 8, 2019.
*The quotes included are from a digital review copy and are subject to change upon final publication.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
February 7, 2020
This book could have be subtitled: “The Good Parts.” Any event in Theodore Roosevelt’s life from the near-sighted little boy who mastered birdcalls and taxidermy to the Vice-President who was the “hero of San Juan Hill” are culled and set before the reader.
“Father had six generations of Roosevelts at his rear, bankers and traders in glass, and he took nothing for granted. The Roosevelts had arrived in Manhattan as pig farmers, and Father never forgot the smell of manure that clung to the family name.”
The whole book is narrated by our “to be” 26th President of the United States. This takes the storyline and makes it a personal reminiscence. “A melodrama is a dramatic work wherein the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue, which is often bombastic or excessively sentimental…” Make no mistake, Charyn’s “Adventures” is a very entertaining melodrama.
Teddy (or Teedie as he was referred to around the house) idolized his father whom he thought of as Brave Heart. His father, the elder Theodore Roosevelt, had all the virtues that Teddy came to admire: strength, intelligence, alacrity, and kindness. His early death when Teddy was away at Harvard was a big blow. This was one of their last conversations:
“(The insane are) numbers, Teedie in some forgotten book.”
“You’ll fight for them, Father, when you’re feeling better.”
He shut his eyes. “Whistle to me son. I want to hear the birdcalls.”
I sang the mating song of the male robin, that wavering warble that Papa loved, and the dry chip-chip-chip of the hairbird. His eyes fluttered and he fell asleep, his hand clutching mine.”
Yes, I believe it is Charyn’s intent to give us a big dose of melodrama. Teddy’s mother wanders through his early years, obviously mentally infirm, supporting Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy’s cause that her relatives fought for. His sister, “Bammy,” had a permanently crooked back but was the one who was totally capable of running the house in their father’s absence and mother’s incapabilities. And, we keep on coming back to Brave Heart, his father.
“Your’re a wonder, Will.”
“…Roosevelt, you’re the deity,” he said, “not I. And your father was even a bigger deity. I’m only here because of Brave Heart.”
“….Papa was devoted to the newsies,” I said. “That’s true, but you got here on your own cunning, Will.”
“He was quiet for a moment, summoning up the difficult days and nights of a newsie. ‘You cannot possibly imagine what it meant to have him there week after week…”
Teddy always needed someone (his sister, his wife, etc.) to manage his finances: “I could not handle money---it liquefied in my fist.”
Charyn does an excellent job of describing the incredibly raw Badlands with their black ice winters and droughts that killed both cattle and men. But he goes further into the geography with comments like: “We had obstacle courses in the Badlands---buttes and sandbars and underground fires that could asphyxiate a man if he crept near enough.”
In Charyn’s version, Roosevelt is almost always viewed as a cowboy by Easterners and then the nation after his return from the Dakota Badlands. It is interesting to see how this plays as he is a N.Y assemblyman, police commissioner, governor, “Rough Rider” during the conflict with Spain, and Vice President. Inside the man, he is often that cowboy having to restrain himself for settling things with his fists, or the young boy tormented by dreams of monsters and calamities. We know that he couldn't handle his wife's death, his mother's death, his father's death and his escape to the Dakotas was accompanied by his dropping his baby daughter in his sister's care for her early years.
The book contains the truth, but whether it is “the whole truth” or “nothing but the truth,” I can’t tell. It was the kind of historical novel that I like as I often ran to other books and the encyclopedia to track down references. 3.5*
“Father had six generations of Roosevelts at his rear, bankers and traders in glass, and he took nothing for granted. The Roosevelts had arrived in Manhattan as pig farmers, and Father never forgot the smell of manure that clung to the family name.”
The whole book is narrated by our “to be” 26th President of the United States. This takes the storyline and makes it a personal reminiscence. “A melodrama is a dramatic work wherein the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue, which is often bombastic or excessively sentimental…” Make no mistake, Charyn’s “Adventures” is a very entertaining melodrama.
Teddy (or Teedie as he was referred to around the house) idolized his father whom he thought of as Brave Heart. His father, the elder Theodore Roosevelt, had all the virtues that Teddy came to admire: strength, intelligence, alacrity, and kindness. His early death when Teddy was away at Harvard was a big blow. This was one of their last conversations:
“(The insane are) numbers, Teedie in some forgotten book.”
“You’ll fight for them, Father, when you’re feeling better.”
He shut his eyes. “Whistle to me son. I want to hear the birdcalls.”
I sang the mating song of the male robin, that wavering warble that Papa loved, and the dry chip-chip-chip of the hairbird. His eyes fluttered and he fell asleep, his hand clutching mine.”
Yes, I believe it is Charyn’s intent to give us a big dose of melodrama. Teddy’s mother wanders through his early years, obviously mentally infirm, supporting Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy’s cause that her relatives fought for. His sister, “Bammy,” had a permanently crooked back but was the one who was totally capable of running the house in their father’s absence and mother’s incapabilities. And, we keep on coming back to Brave Heart, his father.
“Your’re a wonder, Will.”
“…Roosevelt, you’re the deity,” he said, “not I. And your father was even a bigger deity. I’m only here because of Brave Heart.”
“….Papa was devoted to the newsies,” I said. “That’s true, but you got here on your own cunning, Will.”
“He was quiet for a moment, summoning up the difficult days and nights of a newsie. ‘You cannot possibly imagine what it meant to have him there week after week…”
Teddy always needed someone (his sister, his wife, etc.) to manage his finances: “I could not handle money---it liquefied in my fist.”
Charyn does an excellent job of describing the incredibly raw Badlands with their black ice winters and droughts that killed both cattle and men. But he goes further into the geography with comments like: “We had obstacle courses in the Badlands---buttes and sandbars and underground fires that could asphyxiate a man if he crept near enough.”
In Charyn’s version, Roosevelt is almost always viewed as a cowboy by Easterners and then the nation after his return from the Dakota Badlands. It is interesting to see how this plays as he is a N.Y assemblyman, police commissioner, governor, “Rough Rider” during the conflict with Spain, and Vice President. Inside the man, he is often that cowboy having to restrain himself for settling things with his fists, or the young boy tormented by dreams of monsters and calamities. We know that he couldn't handle his wife's death, his mother's death, his father's death and his escape to the Dakotas was accompanied by his dropping his baby daughter in his sister's care for her early years.
The book contains the truth, but whether it is “the whole truth” or “nothing but the truth,” I can’t tell. It was the kind of historical novel that I like as I often ran to other books and the encyclopedia to track down references. 3.5*
January 1, 2019
The Teddy Roosevelt who narrates “The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King” is a whirlwind of activity, a man so caught up in the escapades of his intrepid life that he can’t always be bothered with details. As Henry Adams once said, “All Roosevelt’s friends know that his restless and combative energy was more than abnormal,” and that’s the dynamo whom Charyn has spun into being.
The story opens in panicked gasps. Little asthmatic Teddy spies a werewolf at the foot of his bed. The boy’s life might have been snuffed out early if not for the unorthodox response of his heroic father who prescribed cigars to his 5-year-old son and took him on wild carriage rides through the most dangerous slums of New York. It was from this man — nicknamed “Brave Heart” — that Teddy acquired his deep. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
The story opens in panicked gasps. Little asthmatic Teddy spies a werewolf at the foot of his bed. The boy’s life might have been snuffed out early if not for the unorthodox response of his heroic father who prescribed cigars to his 5-year-old son and took him on wild carriage rides through the most dangerous slums of New York. It was from this man — nicknamed “Brave Heart” — that Teddy acquired his deep. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
January 16, 2023
Ya-ha-haw!
Who can resist that pulp fiction era cover art, reserved for stories about daredevil heroes?
Yes--That is Teddy Roosevelt, our 25th president, dressed in his Brooks Brothers uniform, custom-made for his fantasy-come-true chance to play at war on San Juan's hills, his sidekick mascot cougar at his side!
I can't think of any other president so deserving of action hero fame, for TR's life was made up of Big Moments that prove that fact truly is stranger than fiction. And Jerome Charyon's The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King takes readers on a thrill ride of TR's early life.
Born wealthy, son of a veritable saint nicknamed Great Heart, and brother to a self-destructive sybarite. Became a boy state assemblyman, taking on the corrupt New York party machine. Married for love; lost her and his beloved mother on the SAME DAY. Ran off to the Wild West to work himself into oblivion, facing bad guys and evil Pinkertons. Left little Alice to his sister to raise until, returning home, he reencounters his childhood sweetheart Edith and realizes he has to marry her.
Our hero reenters NYC politics, again goes up against corruption, becoming a royal pain so the politicos send him packing to Washington, DC to be Secretary of the Navy. TR pushes for war in Cuba against the Spaniards, cobbles together a ragtag group nicknamed the Rough Riders who become media darlings. Ignored and maligned, after much suffering and victory, the hero of San Juan Hill is made NY State Governor. Again becoming a royal pain, he is pressured to be Garfield's VP where he, like every other VP, except perhaps Al Gore, rots away. And then Garfield is assassinated.
That's just the first part of TR's life.
You can read any one of several marvelous biographies, many thousands of pages have been written about him. Or...you could... go on a jaunt under Jerome Charyn's capable hands and meet the Cowboy King in his own voice. Or do both. Read the scholarly bios, but don't miss the chance to meet Teddy The Cowboy King. It's a rollicking good ride.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Who can resist that pulp fiction era cover art, reserved for stories about daredevil heroes?
Yes--That is Teddy Roosevelt, our 25th president, dressed in his Brooks Brothers uniform, custom-made for his fantasy-come-true chance to play at war on San Juan's hills, his sidekick mascot cougar at his side!
I can't think of any other president so deserving of action hero fame, for TR's life was made up of Big Moments that prove that fact truly is stranger than fiction. And Jerome Charyon's The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King takes readers on a thrill ride of TR's early life.
Born wealthy, son of a veritable saint nicknamed Great Heart, and brother to a self-destructive sybarite. Became a boy state assemblyman, taking on the corrupt New York party machine. Married for love; lost her and his beloved mother on the SAME DAY. Ran off to the Wild West to work himself into oblivion, facing bad guys and evil Pinkertons. Left little Alice to his sister to raise until, returning home, he reencounters his childhood sweetheart Edith and realizes he has to marry her.
Our hero reenters NYC politics, again goes up against corruption, becoming a royal pain so the politicos send him packing to Washington, DC to be Secretary of the Navy. TR pushes for war in Cuba against the Spaniards, cobbles together a ragtag group nicknamed the Rough Riders who become media darlings. Ignored and maligned, after much suffering and victory, the hero of San Juan Hill is made NY State Governor. Again becoming a royal pain, he is pressured to be Garfield's VP where he, like every other VP, except perhaps Al Gore, rots away. And then Garfield is assassinated.
That's just the first part of TR's life.
You can read any one of several marvelous biographies, many thousands of pages have been written about him. Or...you could... go on a jaunt under Jerome Charyn's capable hands and meet the Cowboy King in his own voice. Or do both. Read the scholarly bios, but don't miss the chance to meet Teddy The Cowboy King. It's a rollicking good ride.
I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
January 23, 2019
In Jerome Charyn’s last book I AM ABRAHAM the author presents an unforgettable portrait of Lincoln and the Civil War. He boldly narrates his story in the first person and mixes his brand of humor with Shakespearean like tragedy. In his current effort Charyn takes on the character of Theodore Roosevelt, entitled, THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING: A NOVEL OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES. As he has done in the past, Charyn speaks in the first person beginning with Roosevelt’s relationship with his father, “Braveheart” as a boy during the Civil War and follows his career as an Assemblyman in the New York State legislature, serving as New York City Police Commissioner and Governor of New York, organizing the Rough Riders, to the precipice of the presidency. As in most of his books when he resorts to a first-person narrative, Charyn possess the uncanny ability to get inside the mind of his protagonist and speak in very accurate historical terms, adding a dash of humor and sarcasm, in conjunction with an exceptional imagination.
Charyn’s first book was published in 1964 and he has not lost any of his verve for writing, particularly entertaining, but meaningful historical fiction. There are numerous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt ranging from Edmund Morris’ trilogy, single volumes by H.W. Brands, Kathleen Dalton, David McCulloch, and of course Roosevelt’s autobiography. Reading a novel about Roosevelt is like riding an unbroken horse. It usually proceeds at a gallop, then a canter, resulting in a full sprint. Numerous characters appear, and thankfully Charyn has prepared a “Dramatis Personae” at the outset delineating all the major and secondary characters with a brief sentence or two for each. This is a great tool for the general reader who is not familiar with the Jay Gould’s, Roscoe Conklin’s, Dr. Leonard Wood, William Winters-White, Boss Thomas Platt, J.P. Morgan, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Josephine, Roosevelt’s pet cougar among the many historical figures that are recreated that appear in rapid-fire fashion throughout the novel.
The Roosevelt family is accurately portrayed, particularly the roles of Bamie, his sister who became his mother, overseer, and confidante after the deaths of his mother and young wife Alice. Whether it is conversations within the Roosevelt family or “Robber Barons,” political hacks, or other important historical figures Charyn’s dialogue and commentary reflect the author’s knack of gaining entrance into Roosevelt’s thought process. It seems as if the author has obtained an intimacy with Roosevelt’s mind that allows the reader to feel as if he is in a private conversation with “Teddy.” The reader can touch Roosevelt’s emotional pain as his beloved Alice and mother pass away the same night or the reemergence of his relationship with his childhood friend Edith Carow who he goes on to marry. The emotional torture Roosevelt deals with as he must decide to forgo widowhood as its implications for his sister Bamie and his daughter Baby Alice is on full display and is indicative of Charyn’s ability to present the emotional torture that Roosevelt experiences, but at the same time exhibit the talent to describe it in a sensitive and meaningful manner.
Charyn is correct that Roosevelt was never without a cause, and once he was committed it was full speed ahead be it the corruption he dealt with as New York Police Commissioner, trying to push the United States into war with Spain as Undersecretary of the Navy, or his formation and financing of the Rough Riders for the war over Cuba. In all these situations Charyn’s descriptions, scene recreation and dialogue are priceless as Roosevelt confronts the corrupt Pinkertons as Police Commissioner, his approach to training men for war, and the Battle for Kettle and San Juan Hills during the Spanish-American War.
Charyn’s Roosevelt is an obstreperous, emotional, and generous person who cared about those stricken by poverty, his soldiers, and it seemed anyone down on their luck. We gain insights into the family man and his softer side. However, this is not a hagiographical approach to fiction as Roosevelt’s flaws are readily apparent from his temper, racism, and intolerance for those who opposed him. Overall, an entertaining read and a remarkable success as it could not have been easy writing a fictional account of a man whose actual life fostered so many examples that seem made up.
Charyn’s first book was published in 1964 and he has not lost any of his verve for writing, particularly entertaining, but meaningful historical fiction. There are numerous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt ranging from Edmund Morris’ trilogy, single volumes by H.W. Brands, Kathleen Dalton, David McCulloch, and of course Roosevelt’s autobiography. Reading a novel about Roosevelt is like riding an unbroken horse. It usually proceeds at a gallop, then a canter, resulting in a full sprint. Numerous characters appear, and thankfully Charyn has prepared a “Dramatis Personae” at the outset delineating all the major and secondary characters with a brief sentence or two for each. This is a great tool for the general reader who is not familiar with the Jay Gould’s, Roscoe Conklin’s, Dr. Leonard Wood, William Winters-White, Boss Thomas Platt, J.P. Morgan, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Josephine, Roosevelt’s pet cougar among the many historical figures that are recreated that appear in rapid-fire fashion throughout the novel.
The Roosevelt family is accurately portrayed, particularly the roles of Bamie, his sister who became his mother, overseer, and confidante after the deaths of his mother and young wife Alice. Whether it is conversations within the Roosevelt family or “Robber Barons,” political hacks, or other important historical figures Charyn’s dialogue and commentary reflect the author’s knack of gaining entrance into Roosevelt’s thought process. It seems as if the author has obtained an intimacy with Roosevelt’s mind that allows the reader to feel as if he is in a private conversation with “Teddy.” The reader can touch Roosevelt’s emotional pain as his beloved Alice and mother pass away the same night or the reemergence of his relationship with his childhood friend Edith Carow who he goes on to marry. The emotional torture Roosevelt deals with as he must decide to forgo widowhood as its implications for his sister Bamie and his daughter Baby Alice is on full display and is indicative of Charyn’s ability to present the emotional torture that Roosevelt experiences, but at the same time exhibit the talent to describe it in a sensitive and meaningful manner.
Charyn is correct that Roosevelt was never without a cause, and once he was committed it was full speed ahead be it the corruption he dealt with as New York Police Commissioner, trying to push the United States into war with Spain as Undersecretary of the Navy, or his formation and financing of the Rough Riders for the war over Cuba. In all these situations Charyn’s descriptions, scene recreation and dialogue are priceless as Roosevelt confronts the corrupt Pinkertons as Police Commissioner, his approach to training men for war, and the Battle for Kettle and San Juan Hills during the Spanish-American War.
Charyn’s Roosevelt is an obstreperous, emotional, and generous person who cared about those stricken by poverty, his soldiers, and it seemed anyone down on their luck. We gain insights into the family man and his softer side. However, this is not a hagiographical approach to fiction as Roosevelt’s flaws are readily apparent from his temper, racism, and intolerance for those who opposed him. Overall, an entertaining read and a remarkable success as it could not have been easy writing a fictional account of a man whose actual life fostered so many examples that seem made up.
Read
January 8, 2019There are SO many ways to get Theodore Roosevelt WRONG in historical fiction that it was a sharp relief to find him done so well in this latest book by the semi-legendary Jerome Charyn. Here's my full review:
https://openlettersreview.com/open-le...
https://openlettersreview.com/open-le...
August 19, 2021
Edmund Morris, Henry Pringle, David McCullough, and many other historians and biographers have told the story of Teddy Roosevelt’s life in a passel of well-researched and widely read biographies. (Amazon offers 623 items in response to the query “Theodore Roosevelt biographies.”) Jerome Charyn adds a stirring fictional account of this most fascinating of American presidents in The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King. It’s a roller-coaster ride through TR’s life up until just before he was sworn in to become the first President Roosevelt.
You can’t make this stuff up
Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) was one of those outrageous characters you wouldn’t believe if he hadn’t really lived. He rushed from one adventure to another throughout his life.
As a young man, he owned a ranch in North Dakota and enlisted as a deputy sheriff, leading a gang of toughs to battle murderers and corrupt Pinkerton agents alike.
Back in New York, TR upended the corrupt and powerful officials of the Republican establishment by charming his way into a seat in the state legislature. In Albany, he proved to be the bane of the bosses’ existence with demands for long-overdue reform.
Named head of the Civil Service Commission by the president, he battled the corruption of the patronage system that persisted even in the face of laws to end it.
Then, returned to New York City, he served as president of the police commission. There, he faced off with the powers-that-were, including no less than J. Pierpont Morgan and the same corrupt Pinkerton agents he’d known in the badlands. His sin? Insisting that the laws should actually be enforced.
Finally, he mustered a regiment of his own to fight in the war in Cuba that he and his friends had engineered.
TR also spent eventful terms as Governor of New York and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Frustrations aside, throughout it all, he was consistently dee-lighted. And it all transpired before he reached the age of forty-two. Eight tumultuous years as the first President Roosevelt and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate then lay in his future.
And that’s not all: the first President Roosevelt was a family man
Yet, all the while these adventures unfolded, TR struggled with the problems of his large and sometimes difficult family. Barely coping with the death of his young first wife, Alice Lee (1861-84), after just four years of marriage. Attempting without success to tame the wildness of his oldest child, Alice (1884-1980), who proved ungovernable throughout her long life. Protecting and covering up the excesses of his beloved younger brother Elliott (1860-94), an alcoholic and flagrant serial adulterer who caused him great pain. And raising six rambunctious children in the White House in the full glare of national publicity.
About the author
Novelist and playwright Jerome Charyn (1937-) has written forty novels, fourteen works of nonfiction, and two plays as well as a slew of short stories. His first novel appeared in 1964. The books have won him many literary awards. He divides his time between Paris and New York City.
You can’t make this stuff up
Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) was one of those outrageous characters you wouldn’t believe if he hadn’t really lived. He rushed from one adventure to another throughout his life.
As a young man, he owned a ranch in North Dakota and enlisted as a deputy sheriff, leading a gang of toughs to battle murderers and corrupt Pinkerton agents alike.
Back in New York, TR upended the corrupt and powerful officials of the Republican establishment by charming his way into a seat in the state legislature. In Albany, he proved to be the bane of the bosses’ existence with demands for long-overdue reform.
Named head of the Civil Service Commission by the president, he battled the corruption of the patronage system that persisted even in the face of laws to end it.
Then, returned to New York City, he served as president of the police commission. There, he faced off with the powers-that-were, including no less than J. Pierpont Morgan and the same corrupt Pinkerton agents he’d known in the badlands. His sin? Insisting that the laws should actually be enforced.
Finally, he mustered a regiment of his own to fight in the war in Cuba that he and his friends had engineered.
TR also spent eventful terms as Governor of New York and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Frustrations aside, throughout it all, he was consistently dee-lighted. And it all transpired before he reached the age of forty-two. Eight tumultuous years as the first President Roosevelt and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate then lay in his future.
And that’s not all: the first President Roosevelt was a family man
Yet, all the while these adventures unfolded, TR struggled with the problems of his large and sometimes difficult family. Barely coping with the death of his young first wife, Alice Lee (1861-84), after just four years of marriage. Attempting without success to tame the wildness of his oldest child, Alice (1884-1980), who proved ungovernable throughout her long life. Protecting and covering up the excesses of his beloved younger brother Elliott (1860-94), an alcoholic and flagrant serial adulterer who caused him great pain. And raising six rambunctious children in the White House in the full glare of national publicity.
About the author
Novelist and playwright Jerome Charyn (1937-) has written forty novels, fourteen works of nonfiction, and two plays as well as a slew of short stories. His first novel appeared in 1964. The books have won him many literary awards. He divides his time between Paris and New York City.
January 11, 2019
@LiverightPub @jeromecharyn @CowboyKingTR
http://perilousadventuresblogtour.com/
BLURB
In this novel, which Kirkus Reviews calls, “colorful, entertaining” in its starred review, Charyn gives new dimension to Roosevelt, revealing Manhattan’s swampy underbelly after the Civil War, TR’s farcical and dangerous expeditions to the Dakota Badlands, and his personal anguish at losing his mother and wife on the same day. Like the best of E.L. Doctorow, historical detail is supported by a keen grasp of language and marked by a lack of sentimentality about the past. With a colorful supporting cast—including Buffalo Bill Cody, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leon Czolgosz (President McKinley’s assassin), plus Josephine, the lovable mountain lion who was the mascot of the Rough Riders (seen with Roosevelt on the cover), and the Rough Riders themselves, whom Roosevelt never deserted, THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING is historical fiction and Jerome Charyn at their very best.
REVIEW
A captivating tale of the early life, and subsequent rise to the Presidency, of a true American icon. A political maverick from the start, the author gives the reader an intimate look at how and why he became such a pain in the arse to the party powers in New York and D.C. As well as the exciting narrative of TR's adventures, the author paints a vivid picture of late 19th century politics in America. It is replete with colorfully drawn characters from precinct captains to captains of industry, from Pinkerton's to down on their luck cowboys. My particular favorite, however, is a cougar named Josephine who forms an amazing bond with TR, and who symbolizes the spirit of The Rough Riders, a ragtag militia formed by TR, and despised by the regular army. That is a prime example of the battles TR had to fight for the little guy against the stranglehold of the wealthy. The Cowboy King is a thoroughly enjoyable look at a fascinating man; his triumphs, his hopes, and the disappointments he endured as a bonafide reformer in a vicious political atmosphere. 4 stars
My blog Historical Fiction reviews has been selected as one of the Top 100 Fiction Blogs on the web.
http://blog.feedspot.com/fiction_blogs/
http://perilousadventuresblogtour.com/
BLURB
In this novel, which Kirkus Reviews calls, “colorful, entertaining” in its starred review, Charyn gives new dimension to Roosevelt, revealing Manhattan’s swampy underbelly after the Civil War, TR’s farcical and dangerous expeditions to the Dakota Badlands, and his personal anguish at losing his mother and wife on the same day. Like the best of E.L. Doctorow, historical detail is supported by a keen grasp of language and marked by a lack of sentimentality about the past. With a colorful supporting cast—including Buffalo Bill Cody, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leon Czolgosz (President McKinley’s assassin), plus Josephine, the lovable mountain lion who was the mascot of the Rough Riders (seen with Roosevelt on the cover), and the Rough Riders themselves, whom Roosevelt never deserted, THE PERILOUS ADVENTURES OF THE COWBOY KING is historical fiction and Jerome Charyn at their very best.
REVIEW
A captivating tale of the early life, and subsequent rise to the Presidency, of a true American icon. A political maverick from the start, the author gives the reader an intimate look at how and why he became such a pain in the arse to the party powers in New York and D.C. As well as the exciting narrative of TR's adventures, the author paints a vivid picture of late 19th century politics in America. It is replete with colorfully drawn characters from precinct captains to captains of industry, from Pinkerton's to down on their luck cowboys. My particular favorite, however, is a cougar named Josephine who forms an amazing bond with TR, and who symbolizes the spirit of The Rough Riders, a ragtag militia formed by TR, and despised by the regular army. That is a prime example of the battles TR had to fight for the little guy against the stranglehold of the wealthy. The Cowboy King is a thoroughly enjoyable look at a fascinating man; his triumphs, his hopes, and the disappointments he endured as a bonafide reformer in a vicious political atmosphere. 4 stars
My blog Historical Fiction reviews has been selected as one of the Top 100 Fiction Blogs on the web.
http://blog.feedspot.com/fiction_blogs/
February 4, 2019
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.
So I simply adore historical fiction, and learning about one of the most notable and intriguing characters of history in an entertaining fashion made this book a truly exciting read. I appreciated the fact that the author had a cast list at the beginning of the book (I highly recommend copying this for easy reference as you read). Furthermore, the fact that the story was told from Teddy Roosevelt's perspective made the story that much more engaging. While much of the story was entertaining, I truly enjoyed the character of Josephine the most! By far my favorite part of the book!
Now, since Teddy Roosevelt was not one of the most polished people in history, at times, the book has some content and language that not every reader may find appropriate. I never felt that anything included was too graphic or too offensive. In fact, I believe what was included fit perfectly with the story being told and was never superfluous nor shocking in any way.
I will say that I found myself "lost" on occasion due to the fact that I had not brushed up on my history of this time period. I would have preferred a little more factual insights from time-to-time as I occasionally got confused or was unclear about some of the details and/or the people. But that is only my opinion, and if anything, it inspires me to investigate the real story of Teddy Roosevelt in order to discover the wonder of this man's life and perspective on my own. I assume the historical nature of the book is correct in most aspects, but of course, being somewhat of a scholar, I do like to research things on my own.
I do believe this was a brilliant tribute to a man who impacted history in ways we may not even understand today. Or perhaps we have forgotten.
So I simply adore historical fiction, and learning about one of the most notable and intriguing characters of history in an entertaining fashion made this book a truly exciting read. I appreciated the fact that the author had a cast list at the beginning of the book (I highly recommend copying this for easy reference as you read). Furthermore, the fact that the story was told from Teddy Roosevelt's perspective made the story that much more engaging. While much of the story was entertaining, I truly enjoyed the character of Josephine the most! By far my favorite part of the book!
Now, since Teddy Roosevelt was not one of the most polished people in history, at times, the book has some content and language that not every reader may find appropriate. I never felt that anything included was too graphic or too offensive. In fact, I believe what was included fit perfectly with the story being told and was never superfluous nor shocking in any way.
I will say that I found myself "lost" on occasion due to the fact that I had not brushed up on my history of this time period. I would have preferred a little more factual insights from time-to-time as I occasionally got confused or was unclear about some of the details and/or the people. But that is only my opinion, and if anything, it inspires me to investigate the real story of Teddy Roosevelt in order to discover the wonder of this man's life and perspective on my own. I assume the historical nature of the book is correct in most aspects, but of course, being somewhat of a scholar, I do like to research things on my own.
I do believe this was a brilliant tribute to a man who impacted history in ways we may not even understand today. Or perhaps we have forgotten.
January 3, 2019
I don't care that Charyn has a body of critically acclaimed work. I don't care that the reviewer in the Washington Post raved about this yesterday. I don't even care that he is a fellow Bronxite.
I simply hated his writing style. Perhaps it will float your boat. It sank mine.
I simply hated his writing style. Perhaps it will float your boat. It sank mine.
January 6, 2019
I think that Theodore Roosevelt, who died 100 years ago today, is quite possibly one of the best presidents we ever had and one of the most fascinating men. As a child, I was often sick due to being asthmatic and having allergies that just wouldn’t quit. I always felt that I would never do anything fun because I had asthma. It was my mother who informed me, “Theodore Roosevelt had asthma.” A strange thing to say to a child, but I was a child who was utterly enthralled with reading about Presidents. Theodore became something of a personal hero to me. I have always wanted to read a fictional take on his adventures. His was a life that begged to be written about.
My wish came true, you guys. Because I happened to see this cover and I could not help but feel excited. I have featured Mr. Charyn before with his book, “I Am Abraham.” (Click to read the review, if you like.) He is a brilliant writer and I knew Teddy was in safe hands. I was not at all disappointed.
No, I lie. I found it too short. That is my sole complaint. But I have hopes for a sequel since this only covers the first half of Theodore’s life, but honestly, what a life. We go from his youth all the way to when President McKinley was assassinated. That would be where the second half–if there is one–picks up. (And I hope it does.) Despite his being so wealthy, I was always struck by how he cared so much about the common man when he did things. He knew his privilege and he did his best to not lord it over anyone; much like his father before him. He went from an assemblyman, where he took on Tammany Hall–aka, all things corrupt. During this time, he married, only to lose her and his mother on the same day.
Unable to really deal, he goes West and leaves his infant daughter with his sister. When he returns, he runs into his childhood sweetheart, whom he marries. It is not a spoiler to say that they remained married for the rest of his life. Once more, he is drawn to politics where he becomes the bull in a china shop, basically, that we know him to be. He does not relent in how hard he works and drives everyone mad and they send him to Washington, where he became Secretary of the Navy. It’s a position that allows him to push for war in Cuba against Spain, and where the Rough Riders came to be. (Tired yet, ya’ll?) And from there…Teddy becomes the New York State Governor. I forgot to mention that he was, at one point, the police commissioner. His stint as governor led him to be Vice President and then…you already know.
I can’t tell you how much I really enjoyed this, though I’m sure you can tell. This is definitely a four star for me.
My wish came true, you guys. Because I happened to see this cover and I could not help but feel excited. I have featured Mr. Charyn before with his book, “I Am Abraham.” (Click to read the review, if you like.) He is a brilliant writer and I knew Teddy was in safe hands. I was not at all disappointed.
No, I lie. I found it too short. That is my sole complaint. But I have hopes for a sequel since this only covers the first half of Theodore’s life, but honestly, what a life. We go from his youth all the way to when President McKinley was assassinated. That would be where the second half–if there is one–picks up. (And I hope it does.) Despite his being so wealthy, I was always struck by how he cared so much about the common man when he did things. He knew his privilege and he did his best to not lord it over anyone; much like his father before him. He went from an assemblyman, where he took on Tammany Hall–aka, all things corrupt. During this time, he married, only to lose her and his mother on the same day.
Unable to really deal, he goes West and leaves his infant daughter with his sister. When he returns, he runs into his childhood sweetheart, whom he marries. It is not a spoiler to say that they remained married for the rest of his life. Once more, he is drawn to politics where he becomes the bull in a china shop, basically, that we know him to be. He does not relent in how hard he works and drives everyone mad and they send him to Washington, where he became Secretary of the Navy. It’s a position that allows him to push for war in Cuba against Spain, and where the Rough Riders came to be. (Tired yet, ya’ll?) And from there…Teddy becomes the New York State Governor. I forgot to mention that he was, at one point, the police commissioner. His stint as governor led him to be Vice President and then…you already know.
I can’t tell you how much I really enjoyed this, though I’m sure you can tell. This is definitely a four star for me.
February 14, 2019
I'm not sure how to rate this book. It was easy to read and entertaining, but as a fictionalized version of TR's life it was almost like a fantasy. There were visions and conversations with dead people that completely undercut the gravitas of the book. I think I should just stick with David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin next time I want to read about an historical figure. I did find it interesting, however, to read a biography told in the first person. But, again, how much was actually based on fact?
I received this book in a package that contained a Goodreads Giveaway. The book I had won came very late, much later than was promised. I suspect this book was added as an apology. I really didn't like the book I won, I liked this one okay, but I don't think I'd recommend it unless the reader is not a usual biography reader.
I received this book in a package that contained a Goodreads Giveaway. The book I had won came very late, much later than was promised. I suspect this book was added as an apology. I really didn't like the book I won, I liked this one okay, but I don't think I'd recommend it unless the reader is not a usual biography reader.
January 9, 2019
I know…I know…don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Generally, I’m not a hystorical fiction fan. Not because it isn’t good reading, but because I’m too interested in the fantasy type novels, and I never give historical a chance. Well, when this book was offered to me, I couldn’t help myself. This time, I judged the book by its cover, and I think it worked out pretty well.
I don’t know Jerome Charyn’s work, but I do really like his style of writing. The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is narrated by Teddy Roosevelt (yes, the president), and is an interesting take on his life, and a pretty fun biography to read.
The downside to this novel, in my opinion, is that if you aren’t a history buff, it isn’t as easy to get into it. It’s still fun, just took me a little work to grasp everything.
For fans of historical fiction, I think this is an awesome tale and an interesting and fun look into Roosevelt’s life. Definitely check it out!
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
I don’t know Jerome Charyn’s work, but I do really like his style of writing. The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is narrated by Teddy Roosevelt (yes, the president), and is an interesting take on his life, and a pretty fun biography to read.
The downside to this novel, in my opinion, is that if you aren’t a history buff, it isn’t as easy to get into it. It’s still fun, just took me a little work to grasp everything.
For fans of historical fiction, I think this is an awesome tale and an interesting and fun look into Roosevelt’s life. Definitely check it out!
*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
September 26, 2018
I received a galley of this book to review for Library Journal. Please read my review there when it is published.
January 28, 2019
Just when you think Jerome Charyn has crafted the best book he could ever write, he comes out with a new one that is even better than the last.
The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is a novel of Teddy Roosevelt, who would one day become the 26th president of the United States. Covering the years of 1862 when he was still suffering from debilitating asthma, through 1901 when Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is on his way to take a new oath after President McKinley is assassinated, the reader discovers the whirlwind that was Roosevelt.
Charyn makes this larger than life historical figure even grander through his well-researched, in-depth account of the man's tragedies and triumphs. Told in first person, every detail and each rich description draws the reader into Roosevelt's world. Lovers of historical novels will be captivated by this Cowboy King who pushed himself outside of his comfort zone every day of his life. The story is as unique as he was.
With The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, Charyn has outdone himself. Another amazing historical figure that he brings to life in colorful new ways. A phenomenal story. A clever cover. No wonder Charyn has been entertaining readers for decades. He's the best at what he does, and he leaves readers longing for more.
The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King is a novel of Teddy Roosevelt, who would one day become the 26th president of the United States. Covering the years of 1862 when he was still suffering from debilitating asthma, through 1901 when Vice President Theodore Roosevelt is on his way to take a new oath after President McKinley is assassinated, the reader discovers the whirlwind that was Roosevelt.
Charyn makes this larger than life historical figure even grander through his well-researched, in-depth account of the man's tragedies and triumphs. Told in first person, every detail and each rich description draws the reader into Roosevelt's world. Lovers of historical novels will be captivated by this Cowboy King who pushed himself outside of his comfort zone every day of his life. The story is as unique as he was.
With The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King, Charyn has outdone himself. Another amazing historical figure that he brings to life in colorful new ways. A phenomenal story. A clever cover. No wonder Charyn has been entertaining readers for decades. He's the best at what he does, and he leaves readers longing for more.
March 2, 2019
A dee-lightfully silly fictionalized account of TR's life before the presidency. Told with TR as the narrator, Charyn's story adds several over-the-top stories to an already larger-than-life character.
January 19, 2019
I have never been an American history buff. I always felt our history was boring and I liked British history so much better, that I minored in it in college. When I was asked to be a part of this tour, I hesitated because even though I’ve read other books by Jerome Charyn and loved them, I wasn’t sure if a book about Teddy Roosevelt was really for me.
BOY WAS I EVER WRONG!
If this would have been the way American history was taught, maybe I would have paid more attention! Jerome Charyn brings the stubborn, passionate, force to be reckoned with that is Teddy Roosevelt to life with a brilliance that I believe only he possesses. None have pulled me away from work so quickly with a piece of non-fiction as he has. He makes you feel as if you are right there with Teddy as he bravely goes forward, even when the deck is stacked seriously against him. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened next as he went from the arenas of politics, badlands sheriff and soldier of war.
I feel a little guilty for having doubts that this book would delight me. I should have had faith in Jerome Charyn, but the non-fiction world is so dry! If you feel the same way I did, give this book a try. I highly recommend it. Maybe you’ll feel the same way I do.
BOY WAS I EVER WRONG!
If this would have been the way American history was taught, maybe I would have paid more attention! Jerome Charyn brings the stubborn, passionate, force to be reckoned with that is Teddy Roosevelt to life with a brilliance that I believe only he possesses. None have pulled me away from work so quickly with a piece of non-fiction as he has. He makes you feel as if you are right there with Teddy as he bravely goes forward, even when the deck is stacked seriously against him. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened next as he went from the arenas of politics, badlands sheriff and soldier of war.
I feel a little guilty for having doubts that this book would delight me. I should have had faith in Jerome Charyn, but the non-fiction world is so dry! If you feel the same way I did, give this book a try. I highly recommend it. Maybe you’ll feel the same way I do.
January 12, 2019
This novel is utter joy to read from the first page to the last line. I enjoyed the ride and felt like a sad child when I knew it was over.
After reading this book, I realized that Theodore Roosevelt should be everyone's favorite president. A man whose whole life was dedicated to others, to nature, to our future.
I will share this book with my grandchildren when they are old enough to read it, and I hope they follow the example of our finest president - a true superhero worthy of the Marvel comics they adore.
After reading this book, I realized that Theodore Roosevelt should be everyone's favorite president. A man whose whole life was dedicated to others, to nature, to our future.
I will share this book with my grandchildren when they are old enough to read it, and I hope they follow the example of our finest president - a true superhero worthy of the Marvel comics they adore.
July 13, 2019
Teddy Roosevelt was indeed a heroic figure whose words seem prescient:
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official…It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country… It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
Charyn succeeds in telling Teddy Roosevelt’s origin story by recreating his voice. This approach gives us the birth of a heroic persona with all of the folksiness and grandiosity one might expect from Teddy. Masquerading as pulp fiction, this entertaining account is filled with the expected humor and boasting, but also contains the doubt and pathos that Roosevelt skillfully hid from view. Charyn wisely realizes that much of the original source material comes from Roosevelt’s own writings. Thus, the parsing of truth and fantasy would be nearly impossible. So why not just tell the story of a superhero in the style of the dime novels that were so popular in Roosevelt’s time? Clearly, the grandiose title and cover art reflect this belief.
Despite required settings in North Dakota and Cuba, the heart of this novel is set in Manhattan. Charyn evokes the city through its politics, which were unabashedly corrupt. This provides Teddy with the perfect milieu to display his bona fides as a progressive reformer. Charyn sets this stage for Teddy by developing the character of his father, a man Roosevelt called Brave Heart. BH never failed to encourage his sickly son while also displaying courage and empathy, especially toward the homeless newsboys of the city.
The cast of characters is bewilderingly vast, with corrupt pols, prostitutes, journalists, ranchers, soldiers, policemen, etc.. But, in the final analysis, the core of the story becomes Teddy’s family. His first wife, Alice, has a small role because she died young leaving Roosevelt with a daughter, Baby Lee. His second wife, Edith, proves to be the perfect partner for the man. Teddy’s brother Elliott is a burden due to his addictions and philandering, but someone he never fails to love and protect. With all of this aside, the star attraction happens to be a cougar cub by the name of Josephine. Roosevelt adopts this military mascot following the Cuban conflict. Thereafter, he never overcomes his guilt for failing to accommodate her into his lifestyle after the war.
The plot dutifully covers the high points in Roosevelt’s life, including his sickly childhood, his education at Harvard, his roles as husband and father, as well as his careers in law enforcement, combat, and politics. However, the tragedy of losing his wife and mother to disease on the same day stands out as a key turning point. Those losses drove him to the Badlands of North Dakota where he discovered his legendary persona as a Western sheriff and tough but honest cowboy. He reveled in this image while still clinging to the trappings of Eastern entitlement. Charyn never lets him off the hook in this regard by describing a cowboy lawman “with silver stirrups, a tailored buckskin suit, and a Bowie knife from Tiffany’s…” or a Rough Rider with a tent from Abercrombie & Fitch.
The narrative is loosely episodic but always lively and entertaining. With a subject like Teddy Roosevelt, one would be tempted to be fawning. Instead Charyn gives us a remarkably human narrator.
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official…It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country… It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
Charyn succeeds in telling Teddy Roosevelt’s origin story by recreating his voice. This approach gives us the birth of a heroic persona with all of the folksiness and grandiosity one might expect from Teddy. Masquerading as pulp fiction, this entertaining account is filled with the expected humor and boasting, but also contains the doubt and pathos that Roosevelt skillfully hid from view. Charyn wisely realizes that much of the original source material comes from Roosevelt’s own writings. Thus, the parsing of truth and fantasy would be nearly impossible. So why not just tell the story of a superhero in the style of the dime novels that were so popular in Roosevelt’s time? Clearly, the grandiose title and cover art reflect this belief.
Despite required settings in North Dakota and Cuba, the heart of this novel is set in Manhattan. Charyn evokes the city through its politics, which were unabashedly corrupt. This provides Teddy with the perfect milieu to display his bona fides as a progressive reformer. Charyn sets this stage for Teddy by developing the character of his father, a man Roosevelt called Brave Heart. BH never failed to encourage his sickly son while also displaying courage and empathy, especially toward the homeless newsboys of the city.
The cast of characters is bewilderingly vast, with corrupt pols, prostitutes, journalists, ranchers, soldiers, policemen, etc.. But, in the final analysis, the core of the story becomes Teddy’s family. His first wife, Alice, has a small role because she died young leaving Roosevelt with a daughter, Baby Lee. His second wife, Edith, proves to be the perfect partner for the man. Teddy’s brother Elliott is a burden due to his addictions and philandering, but someone he never fails to love and protect. With all of this aside, the star attraction happens to be a cougar cub by the name of Josephine. Roosevelt adopts this military mascot following the Cuban conflict. Thereafter, he never overcomes his guilt for failing to accommodate her into his lifestyle after the war.
The plot dutifully covers the high points in Roosevelt’s life, including his sickly childhood, his education at Harvard, his roles as husband and father, as well as his careers in law enforcement, combat, and politics. However, the tragedy of losing his wife and mother to disease on the same day stands out as a key turning point. Those losses drove him to the Badlands of North Dakota where he discovered his legendary persona as a Western sheriff and tough but honest cowboy. He reveled in this image while still clinging to the trappings of Eastern entitlement. Charyn never lets him off the hook in this regard by describing a cowboy lawman “with silver stirrups, a tailored buckskin suit, and a Bowie knife from Tiffany’s…” or a Rough Rider with a tent from Abercrombie & Fitch.
The narrative is loosely episodic but always lively and entertaining. With a subject like Teddy Roosevelt, one would be tempted to be fawning. Instead Charyn gives us a remarkably human narrator.
February 16, 2019
Jerome Charyn is undoubtedly a treasure of American literature, and a champion of that rebel spirit that keeps presenting itself as the true spirit of the nation, so it's not surprising that he finally wrote a novel focusing on the last of the revolutionaries. The results might be bewildering or illuminating, but they're a testament to all Charyn's best instincts.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a party that had splintered the United States upon election of an unpopular president suddenly found itself with a virtually unchallenged political monopoly for the next fifty years. In the midst of all that power massive corruption reigned, and it seemed the system was powerless to correct itself. In came a maverick man of privilege, raised like a rogue to champion the little people and remember the wonder of the mythical frontier. He rose on the back of a charge up a hill in a war that would be wiped from existence, except for the name of the Rough Riders and the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt. L. Frank Baum would enshrine the era, and the man, in a circus called Oz, obscuring him as a man made of tin, but this was a time when electricity ripped the world into Technicolor, and this was a man who would not be denied, no matter how many people called his quest mad.
Charyn recounts this incredible real-life fable in fits and snatches, in the moments that should never have happened. For those seeking a straight narrative, they will be disappointed. As if conjuring the long-buried inspiration for his most famous creation, the New York sensation Isaac Sidel, Charyn is all but giddy at the prospect of showcasing Teddy's struggles, all the while assured of the knowledge that his readers are aware of the face enshrined on Mount Rushmore, the portrait of giants. We live in times where heroes don't exist, and revel in struggles, and actively stir the pot, hoping that we'll be contradicted. That's the freeze-frame Charyn captures, as if his message all this time was about hope against despair. His hero stumbles and triumphs almost in spite of himself, and appears in this tale to be all but inexplicable, the bull in the china shop, completely unaware of his movements. But also possessed of a single-minded determination, a paradox with poor vision but magnificent grandeur.
And just perhaps, Josephine, his trusted kitty, is the love of Teddy's life, a theme that often dominates Charyn's tales, a struggle that consumes his protagonists until they're fairly spit out by adventure. Along the way Charyn casts his trademark pen against familiar names made vivid in the telling, reputations reshaped in brief sketches, for instance the true nature of Buffalo Bill, revealed as a shadow of a greater man, subject of another Charyn escapade (Darlin' Bill), and a poor imitation of what Teddy himself was, the last of the cowboys.
In short, Charyn does what he always does, and thank goodness.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a party that had splintered the United States upon election of an unpopular president suddenly found itself with a virtually unchallenged political monopoly for the next fifty years. In the midst of all that power massive corruption reigned, and it seemed the system was powerless to correct itself. In came a maverick man of privilege, raised like a rogue to champion the little people and remember the wonder of the mythical frontier. He rose on the back of a charge up a hill in a war that would be wiped from existence, except for the name of the Rough Riders and the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt. L. Frank Baum would enshrine the era, and the man, in a circus called Oz, obscuring him as a man made of tin, but this was a time when electricity ripped the world into Technicolor, and this was a man who would not be denied, no matter how many people called his quest mad.
Charyn recounts this incredible real-life fable in fits and snatches, in the moments that should never have happened. For those seeking a straight narrative, they will be disappointed. As if conjuring the long-buried inspiration for his most famous creation, the New York sensation Isaac Sidel, Charyn is all but giddy at the prospect of showcasing Teddy's struggles, all the while assured of the knowledge that his readers are aware of the face enshrined on Mount Rushmore, the portrait of giants. We live in times where heroes don't exist, and revel in struggles, and actively stir the pot, hoping that we'll be contradicted. That's the freeze-frame Charyn captures, as if his message all this time was about hope against despair. His hero stumbles and triumphs almost in spite of himself, and appears in this tale to be all but inexplicable, the bull in the china shop, completely unaware of his movements. But also possessed of a single-minded determination, a paradox with poor vision but magnificent grandeur.
And just perhaps, Josephine, his trusted kitty, is the love of Teddy's life, a theme that often dominates Charyn's tales, a struggle that consumes his protagonists until they're fairly spit out by adventure. Along the way Charyn casts his trademark pen against familiar names made vivid in the telling, reputations reshaped in brief sketches, for instance the true nature of Buffalo Bill, revealed as a shadow of a greater man, subject of another Charyn escapade (Darlin' Bill), and a poor imitation of what Teddy himself was, the last of the cowboys.
In short, Charyn does what he always does, and thank goodness.
February 14, 2019
This historical novel relates the life of Theodore Roosevelt, nicknamed The Cowboy King, from his childhood until he takes office as President. Roosevelt grew up a sickly child; his hero was his father known as Braveheart, who fought for those who were poor and persecuted. As Roosevelt grew, he incorporated many of his father's ideals. He couldn't abide to see those who were victimized by the wealthy, those despised because they didn't have the ability to be educated and make it in the upper crust.
Roosevelt moved from occupation to occupation in his early years. He went out West where he fought for the ranchers. He was one of the early police commissioners in New York, where he rooted out corruption. He was an Undersecretary of the Navy. From there, he found the role that defined his life. He raised a regiment of volunteers to go to Cuba and fight the Spanish overlords who ruled the natives. This regiment was the Rough Riders, and their battle of San Juan Hill gave Roosevelt the identity he had the rest of his life.
After that war, Roosevelt soon found himself being elected as the Governor of New York, then on to be nominated and elected as the Vice President under President McKinley. When McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt became President and there the novel ends.
Along the way, Charyn explores Roosevelt's character. Written in first person narrative, the reader comes to know Theodore through his words, actions and thoughts rather than through the words of others. He is a man fiercely devoted to those he takes on. His first wife died in childbirth, leaving him with a daughter, Alice. His second wife, a childhood friend, gave him five more children. He was protective of his brood. But he also had a second family; those men who served with him in Cuba. He spent the rest of his life tied to each and every Rough Rider; helping them whenever he could as they readjusted to civilian life. This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.
Roosevelt moved from occupation to occupation in his early years. He went out West where he fought for the ranchers. He was one of the early police commissioners in New York, where he rooted out corruption. He was an Undersecretary of the Navy. From there, he found the role that defined his life. He raised a regiment of volunteers to go to Cuba and fight the Spanish overlords who ruled the natives. This regiment was the Rough Riders, and their battle of San Juan Hill gave Roosevelt the identity he had the rest of his life.
After that war, Roosevelt soon found himself being elected as the Governor of New York, then on to be nominated and elected as the Vice President under President McKinley. When McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt became President and there the novel ends.
Along the way, Charyn explores Roosevelt's character. Written in first person narrative, the reader comes to know Theodore through his words, actions and thoughts rather than through the words of others. He is a man fiercely devoted to those he takes on. His first wife died in childbirth, leaving him with a daughter, Alice. His second wife, a childhood friend, gave him five more children. He was protective of his brood. But he also had a second family; those men who served with him in Cuba. He spent the rest of his life tied to each and every Rough Rider; helping them whenever he could as they readjusted to civilian life. This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.
October 31, 2022
This is It is a historical narrative, hysterically told! The author focuses in turn on TR’s western period as a cowboy ranch owner fighting against rustlers, then as a U.S. Commissioner promoting and enforcing justice for the indigenous tribes of the west; the recruiting of volunteers for a regiment to fight in a campaign against the Spaniards in Cuba; and his subsequent political career. The tale is told in first person, Teddy Roosevelt, an excellent touch which places TR on center stage for the entire narrative. He runs into such contemporaries as New York Herald correspondent Wiliam Winters White, who accompanies him throughout the recruitment, training and deployment of the Rough Riders, resulting in his nationwide fame and respect; Dr. / Colonel Leonard Wood, the initial commander of what would become known as the Rough Riders; General Shafter (Civil War vet whom TR describes as a hippo with a walrus mustache), the Corps Commander in Cuba; J.P. Morgan, financier who backs the influential Senator “Boss” Platt; Buffalo Bill Cody; several desperados and Pinkerton men from his wild west days who later join the Rough Riders, and, of course, Josephine, the young panther adopted as the mascot of the RR’s. TR's fame and popularity lead to appointment as the NYC police commissioner, election as NY governor, the vice-presidency, and assumption of the presidency after the assignation of President McKinley. The narrative concludes there and does not continue into his years as President. Probably a good choice by the author as this period could not have been handled with the same entertaining alacrity as the previous ones. Jerome Charyn is now one of my favorite authors!
June 8, 2019
As I read this wonderful book I kept thinking, “We could use a man like TR in the White House right now!” The Cowboy King brings to life the man who would be our 26th president with the whirlwind fury of his powerful personality. We follow him from his childhood days to the very beginning of his presidency following the assassination of William McKinley. From earliest days he is influenced by his larger-than-life father, the man known as Brave Heart. Hard to say what was the best part of reading this novel. His loving but complicated relationships with family members. His days as a Dakota cowboy, trying to clean the badmen out of the Badlands. His reformer’s battles with the rich and powerful men of New York politics. His days as heavy-handed New York police commissioner, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the Governor of New York. His short but wildly famous army career, forming his regiment of “rough riders” to help defeat Spain in the war in Cuba. His devotion to the men, mountain lion and the one woman who fought by his side in that war. Fun, exciting, educational.
January 1, 2021
This book did a decent job of taking historical facts and developing them into a biographical-fiction narrative. However, events could have been more smoothly connected rather than lumped together in blocks of time as they were. Theodore Roosevelt is not presented as a particularly great man. His heart seems to have been in the right place but his actions are recorded here as somewhat rash and ill conceived with regular self-reflective misgivings. From this rendering, TR seems to have risen to high positions despite himself. "The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt and His Times" presents a first person perspective on the political machinery of the day and the wealthy men maneuvering that machinery. As such, it's a good reminder that politics in the past were as bad or worse than they are today. It is a helpful primer for those unfamiliar with TR's biography.
June 15, 2025
I've read many books about Theodore Roosevelt, who led possibly the most dramatic life of any American president. While his story seems a good fit for fiction, it took a great writer like Charyn to pull it off. By telling TR's story in first person, he shows the whirlwind of activity with little patience for detail that was our 26th president. Roosevelt's life from asthmatic child to vigorous cowboy, soldier and president is brought to vivid life. It is not hard to believe we are privy to Roosevelt's own thoughts here. That is a great achievement, for it lets even readers (like me) who have read a lot about TR to feel like we are actually listening to him narrate his own life story. Since I will never have the opportunity to speak with Roosevelt, this book allows me to imagine just how it might go. I also suspect he would do all the talking as well, just as in this thrilling, entertaining narrative. Highly recommended for people who like historical novels and American history buffs.
February 1, 2019
I couldn't get into this one and DNF'd at the halfway point. The narration was too...breezy? For 1st person, it was really distant and lacked emotion. The plot moved along at a fast clip and not much time was given to the really hard-hitting aspects of Roosevelt's life, such as the death of his wife and mother on the same day. I mean, I get that in pulp fiction like Charyn is trying to emulate, the focus is more on the action instead of the emotion, but you can still convey emotion in that style of writing. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett do it very well, so does Max Allan Collins and Joseph Wambaugh (in his early works at least). Could be my way of thinking but I do like my pulp heroes to have at least a little bit of life and interest to them. Charyn's Roosevelt did not.
June 11, 2019
This novelized auto-biography reminds us of how much has changed in America over the past 100 years. However, it trivializes Teddy Roosevelt's life before he became President. So many of the things that were most important to him, and that explain so much of what he accomplished, were totally ignored. I suppose that dealing with Roosevelt's religious-based morality and respect for the environment would have made it difficult to attempt the light-hearted humor that seems to be the objective of much of the book.
October 10, 2020
This is described as a "first person novel rich in historical detail and uproarious dialogue". It is definitely not a 'womb-to-tomb' biography, that's certain.
The author does take us from Roosevelt's childhood up to his arrival as 26th President of these United States. Teddy Roosevelt was a larger than life character. We know him as a crime fighter & champion of the disenfranchised, leader of the Rough Riders, and as an environmentalist. History tells us he is one of our greatest peacetime presidents.
The author does take us from Roosevelt's childhood up to his arrival as 26th President of these United States. Teddy Roosevelt was a larger than life character. We know him as a crime fighter & champion of the disenfranchised, leader of the Rough Riders, and as an environmentalist. History tells us he is one of our greatest peacetime presidents.
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