Devil Up

by T.R. Pearson

In the spring of 1879, a sixteen-year-old boy from the Virginia uplands finds himself alone on the Great Plains with a Colt Navy revolver and the family mule. What was meant to be a frontier adventure with two of his friends has turned into a solitary ordeal as he makes his way across a sparsely settled and largely lawless piece of the world. He’s bound for California and narrates his journey in harrowing and hilarious detail, telling the story of a farm boy from back east who becomes -- through pluck and heart and more than a little gunplay -- a man.

Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction

261 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 8, 2021

About the author

Thomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.

Reviews

[Nora Wolfenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot say enough about this author's unique style. Prose that is brutal and beautiful in the same sentence will keep this tale with me for some time to come. The story depicts the harsh life of the American frontier through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old boy alone with his mule in 1879. We barely get to know the boy's name, but what he comes to stand for takes us on a journey. Along the way other characters attach themselves in a seemingly meaningless way, but don't be fooled. The author develops each character to represent a different social issue. This group of misfits speaks to the humanity, and the cruelty of mortal beings. The story does drag from time to time, but overall, a lovely read. Nora Wolfenbarger author of The Promise.

[Mary Stenvall · Rating 5 out of 5]

First up, I am a fan of T.R. Pearson, have been since I wandered into a Brief History of a Small Town years ago. I've wandered back to that place over time, followed that Tatum on his adventures and generally kept him as kin. So, this time a Western? Well, why not. And I was not disappointed! This tale added a lot more wild to the old West and a handful of modern wisdom if you care about people. Loved it - all of 'em. From that boy to a girl who toots, a Mexican, an Octoroon, and a Pawnee, the freckled beauty from Ireland - all of 'em. Pretty sure we're kin somewhere along the line. Highly recommend this one for a rollicking read and a glimpse at what we may become if we're not careful. Thank you, TR, well done.

[Ken Hulse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story about a youth who moves across the US to the west in days of a frontier society. It is a fun read that just takes you along for a good journey. I would have liked to have seen a longer book that gave us more of the adult years of the main characters life. That said, I would recommend it as a pleasant read that keeps your attention all the way

[Sarah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Good Western

So it was the horse on the cover that attracted me to this book. And I must say many of the characters in here are very unique and memorable. The mute girl with her unique gifts and her tooting instead of speaking truly stands out. Even more so when she saved the soldier's bay and took that horse for herself. And the main character, while just a teen, stands out too. He wants to do the right thing and protect others, especially that tooting girl. But often the tables are turned and she is doing the protecting.

The story involves a rag tag bunch of assorted characters all working together in the wild west. Lots of adventure.

I read this for free but I would definitely buy a copy of this one so I can read it again.

[Richard Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

This book is about a 15 or 16 year old kid heading out West from back East. He He starts out in the 1870’s wanting to go to California to pan for gold. On the way he meets and befriends a number of interesting people that teach him how to survive. The characters are well described and I think you should read the story.

[Pamellia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful coming of age Western

This book has a lot going for it. Traveling, shooting, poetry, lovers, old west bounty hunters, Indians, very bad people, very good people and some just in between. The story was well written and organized. Well thought out and written. It moves with twist and turns. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story.. Five stars

[M D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 16-year-old boy runs away from his home in the western Virginia mountains with only the family mule, Gunther. It is 1879. After passing through Oklahoma, he begins accumulating assorted odd companions. Odd being the understatement. The girl, Belle, who communicates through tweets and grunts and such noises. The Pawnee youngster and his mangy dog. The romantic couple consisting of a Mexican hombre who loves to recite poetry and an Irish lass that is a deadeye shot. Ira, the octoroon, which is a person that is genetically one eighth black. He is a whiz with numbers. They meet many unusual characters (some of them are bizarre) on their trek to California, which gets hung up for some time while they wander around Colorado.
‘Devil Up’ is a lot of story in a few pages. It is often humorous, reminiscent of Mark Twain. It is violent, then poetic at times. Many twists keep it mostly interesting although it lags around the middle. The folksy dialogue and narrative, told in the first person, kept my interest, wondering what means of description the boy would come up with next. The outrageous characters, mostly antagonists, keep parading past the motley bunch. Danger and adventure are everywhere. The exploits keep the reader invested even if the connection to the boy and his group is tenuous. Sometimes the goings-on do border on the unbelievable. The eventual outcome is a bit bitter but the ending will leave the reader with a satisfied grin. I will read more by this author.

[Libby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Pearson novel, so I have nothing to compare it to. I enjoyed the humor, the quirky way that the experiences of this young man described his frontier experiences, the dangerous encounters that his motley band of travelers encountered on their trip west. I was a bit tired of all the killing near the end, but I am sure it was a pretty accurate depiction of the dangers of the time.

I found the ending of the story charming, as the reader discovers that our young hero is actually recalling his adventures to historians decades after they happened…and while he is finishing his time in sheltered housing.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising

Human nature in a new, violent land, where the old rules don’t apply anymore is explored in this surprisingly thoughtful story whose diverse characters make their own unique contributions to its progress. Ignorance, superstition, lack of hygiene and medical knowledge, lawlessness, prejudice all come in for scrutiny as we compare them to our own times and attitudes. Then it struck me that these characters would have been contemporaries of my own great grandparents. Surprising.

[Anthony Whittaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly entertaining.

While I agree with the reviewer who points out the similarities between this book and The Travels of Jamie McPheeters, I consider both books to be both separate and excellent.
Read it in two days. Probably would have been one day if life's hadn't kept interfering.

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been reading (and occasionally re-reading) T.R. Pearson since his debut novel, A Short History of A Small Place, and he never fails to entertain. Here, he wanders away from his usual locale (20th and 21st century rural South) to the wild, western American frontier of the 19th century. I recently read another book that had a similar setting, which I described it as part coming-of-age, part picaresque, and totally dark. And here, Pearson has given us an adventure that is part coming-of-age, part picaresque, and totally humorous, despite many episodes of gruesome violence. His narratives and dialogues can be pithy or expansive, but are always entertaining. Yes, the plot, with a band of misfit characters, beggars belief, but it’s plausible enough to justify his command of language.

One can complain of the attitude expressed toward Native Americans, but that was the reality of the white pioneers (so if you condemn Huckleberry Finn because almost all of the white characters were racist, don’t read this). Likewise shootings, stabbings and scalping are all described, so best to stay away if you’re squeamish. I was able to overlook these things and just enjoy the story.

[Kim Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting tale set in the late 1800's when the west was still wild. A boy sets out on his own to go west and look for gold, with a mule he stole from his dad. Along the way he picks up a odd group of friends including a 10 year old girl left alive after a massacre kills everyone in the wagon train she was in. He learns a lot about "devil up" ( pact with the devil) on the way west, resorting to bounty hunting with his crew to make money. There's lots of almost casual killing in this story and you can see how Americans got their love of using guns to solve problems.

The story is well written and will draw you in. The author was able to write in a group that included a Mexican, an Indian, a black, a strong willed and a little promiscuous pretty woman who happens to be a crack shot, and a handicapped child, plus the boy becoming a man. And there's an ugly dog and a stubborn mule to boot. TV series material I would think. But somehow the author makes it work without you thinking too much about it.

The thing I didn't like about the book was the ending. It was bland and left a lot unanswered. It was not an ending worthy of the rest of the book.

[Robert Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember at the end of Huckleberry Finn, when Huck says he thinks he might "light out for the territories"? That's roughly what this book is about. I'm not comparing T. R. Pearson to Twain as a writer - I like Pearson a lot but let's not go overboard - but this is a story of a young man leaving home, confronting the ugliness of American attitudes toward race and gender, and accreting a family of blacks, Hispanics, Indians, and strong women.

Because this is Pearson, they settle into a life of violence and semi-lawlessness. There is no sentimentality: the Pawnee is anything but a noble Red Man, the "Mexican" is the intellectual of the group, the "Black" character is humorously amorphous as to how black he really is ("Octoroon" or something else?), and the Irish femme fatale has more frontier survival skills than the rest of them. Also because it is Pearson, there is a touch of the uncanny.

The narrator's voice takes us back to Huck Finn: ingenuous, perceptive, folksy, and insightful. And funny.

Highly recommended.

[Vincent Eaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fluid novelist who set up his own publishing company when corporate publishing didn't suit. Has success and a growing reputation since. This is wild west territory, young lad in his teens setting out for California to find his fortune, who along the way collects in an "Outlaw Josey Wales" way, a disparate companions along the way - mute girl, belligerent Indian boy, sharp shooting Irish lass with Latin lover - who, through various encounters to the criminal sort, become a ragtag group of bounty hunters (he has to "devil up" to carry out such work.) There's humor - as he ages ... "I fell onto the sofa one evening when I was aiming just to pass it, and that left me to wonder if maybe my starch wasn't finally giving out." ... but is episodic, characters presented as clever variations on archetypes. Started out thinking it was pretty enjoyable; finishing knowing I'd had an even better time than I expected. I'll read another of his.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this author, and I loved this book. It came up in my Kindle recommendations. After reading the summary and positive reviews including a shoutout from John Grisham, I decided to give it a shot. T. R. Pearson has the right stuff. Super engaging prose, great voice, and man, can he spin a yarn.

Devil Up is a Western about a 16 year old boy who sets out for California in 1879. He's got a mule and a gun. He picks up various eclectic and interesting pals along the way and they engage in rollicking frontier adventures. Characters are totally memorable, right down to the mule. Told in the first person, with a good bit of humor. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

I am a fan of Westerns, but I believe this book would appeal even to those who aren't. It's a great story with a ton of zip. So glad I read I've discovered T. R. Pearson!

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Earlier this month I read Hernan Diaz's beautiful book "In the Distance" about a man travelling across the USA in the frontier days of the 1800s.

This is the funny version of that book but no less good for not being a stunning piece of literature.

Devil Up refers to the advice given by a fugitive to our hero. In other words you need to be as bad as the people you're hunting.

However I'm getting ahead of myself. The boy who begins a journey across the States finds himself picking up waifs and strays along the way. The result is a group of mismatched oddities who end up as bounty hunters.

The writing is great fun and the characters are beautifully drawn - just enough for you to get a sense of what they're about. It's funny, irreverent and I'd highly recommend it.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Devil Up is a very traditional style of Western, a sweeping tale of adventure, a ragtag crew of misfits on a quest for survival, pitted against fearsome enemies, contending with a bleak and brutal landscape littered with violence and heart-break. There's a simplistic note to the storytelling, a direct and brutal style for sure, yet, one that's not without its own beauty.

There's many a great thing going for this novel, but none of it remarkable in any way, it's a fairly typical story, one that will be familiar to anyone well versed in the genre of Westerns. That's not to say this had any impact on my enjoyment of this novel, it's a wonderful tale, but you'll be hard-pressed to find something that makes it stand out in the crowd.

[Jean Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dry Humor Western

I chuckled my way through this western even though it was full of the usual western stuff - guns, outlaws, natives, murder, horses, and campfires. It was the style of writing that tickled my funny bone!

A sixteen year old boy heads west aiming for the gold in California, and ends up collecting an odd and colorful assortment of companions.

I would rate it PG-13 only for the usual western stuff like murder, scalping, kniving, and stuff like that. References to sex or "ladies of the evening" were made with euphemisms. If there was language, it was mild.

I really recommend this book.
(Read with Kindle Unlimited subscription and listened to with Alexa Android app.)

[James Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A TR Fan Over 30 Years

TR Pearson is an excellent story teller. His stories include wonderful and memorable characters. Each character’s dialogue is rich with meaning and spare in the number of words they need to express themselves.

In this book he brings a group of people together, but not in a traditional way. They aren’t a tribe, a family or a community and, yet, their relationship shares characteristics of all three.

However, it’s the story - outrageous, funny, interesting, heartbreaking, joyous, infuriating and full of freedom - that make Devil Up a fine book. I’d love to see a movie from this book.

[Linda Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly good

In need of a download for an international trip, I quickly (and without much forethought) selected Devil Up. Admittedly, my expectations weren’t very high, but from the beginning, I was entranced by both the story and writing style. Seldom do I award five stars, but Devil Up hit every criteria I have for a 5 star rating: interesting writing style; well developed characters; historically informative; an ending that fully (and believably) wraps up the story; and finally, for that 5th star I need to be sad the book has ended. This isn’t a great novel like Grapes of Wrath or Atlas Shrugged, but it is a very good, well written story.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

The whole time reading, I couldn’t decide whether I did or didn’t like this. Now that I’m done, I still can’t decide. So little, but so much, happened on the narrator’s journey.

The writing was terse, but still had its beautiful moments. Throw in some humor there too that worked well. I liked the story’s grit—Pearson didn’t shy away from the viciousness of life towards the end of the Westward Expansion.

I don’t read westerns/historical fiction so I can’t compare it to anything else. I also think I’m not the target audience—this seems geared toward people who are 40+ but still a little woke.

Overall . . . 🤷‍♂️

[Jill Hessey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, T. R. Pearson serves up a unique and delightful story. I read "A Short History of A Small Place" in my twenties and never forgot it....especially its hilarious and vivid description of a law enforcement technique known as
"crotch levering".

With "Devil Up" you get another singular main character who is somehow simultaneously an iconoclast and everyman.
Supported by a cobbled together family of outcasts and misfits, he accidentally on purpose makes his way West and into adulthood both losing and retaining his humanity along the way.

Pearson's writing style is liberally peppered with laugh out loud humor. I enjoy reading his books and will most certainly
read more.

[Maggie Rotter · Rating 5 out of 5]

TR Pearson, the author of twenty-three novels under his own name, has been on my favorite list with his series of of frightening and funny Southern detective stories. Devil Up, unlike the others, is set in America - all of it - toward the end of the gold rush years and ends 70 years later. Along the way our 16 year old protagonist and his mule gather a diverse gang of misfits who take up bounty hunting to support themselves. There are whiffs of Larry McMurtry, Willie Vlautin's Lean on Pete, and more, but the mood here is more lighthearted mayhem.

[F.E. Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the narrator's homespun conversation with us. Riding with him, trying to figure out who we were and what life might hold, was a pure delight. His casual humor got to me as well, e.g. the Comanches he had to "kill twice." The cast of characters each lived up to the promise of the narrator. From Gunther, the mule with a mind of his own, to Orla, the fair Irish lassie with a taste for men and a deadeye with a rifle, they were all wonderful. The presentation of casual killing was historically accurate.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book

Really interesting. I can believe that what is presented in this book may very well be very much how it was back in “the good old days”.

When you see movies or old tv shows from back in those times, what you don’t see is that people did not have toothpaste and brushes, did not bathe regularly, did not necessarily have changes of clothing, and if they were shot or stabbed, there was a big possibility they would

The book was quite interesting. I enjoyed reading it . I urge you to read it and enjoy the reading.

[Barbara Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Reading

Start reading and you can't stop till the end. This is just a very satisfying story of the old west as told by someone who passed through it with his mule. Picking up interesting companions and falling into situations that call for life decisions he becomes a man. Just 16 years old and all alone except for the family mule he picks up a mute girl, A wild alcoholic indian, an Irish sharpshooter and a poetic Mexican. How this group become bounty hunters is a side note to the trek to California.

[Liane Willey · Rating 5 out of 5]

With curious wit and often profound wisdom, this tales satisfies!

A great read that begins gently before settling in as a story that brings what was likely every day life on the westward journey at the turn of the century into sharp clarity. As the storyline brings out the best and worst in humanity, the reader is often left to grapple if they too could have faced such tumultuous times with the same grace and grit this motley crew of characters showed. A super western but also a fine look at the underpins between and beneath society.

[Colin Kitchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book not just for its romance of the Wild West but also for the young narrators sense of innocent wisdom, conveyed with such ironic insight and sense of humour. The unusual characters are well drawn and the plot is not a stereotypical western drama making this an original story.
One of the main themes is the gradual acceptance of the need to use guns to kill for survival in a dog eat dog country. The boy even says how he dislikes the fact that people can’t accept other points of view without the use of guns. Has America ever over come this?

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devil Up is T.R. Pearson at his best; up with A Short History Of A Small Place.
It's the story of a 16 year old boy who decides to travel from Virginia to California in 1879 to find gold. Along the way, he picks up an unusual bunch of friends, survives various attacks, and takes up bounty hunting. I would normally not be interested in a Western novel, but Pearson's prose and story are phenomenal.

[cheryl sauve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frequently I choose my readings based on recommendations from other authors. That is the case with this choice. The story, set in the wild west, is not my usual preference but this book seduced me from the start. Pearson's storytelling with his simple prose and interesting characters made for an absolutely delightful read.
This was the first time I read a book written by Pearson but it will not be my last.