The Return of the Mucker

Mucker #2

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Billy Byrne squared his broad shoulders and filled his deep lungs with the familiar medium which is known as air in Chicago. He was standing upon the platform of a New York Central train that was pulling into the La Salle Street Station, and though the young man was far from happy something in the nature of content pervaded his being, for he was coming home. After something more than a year of world wandering and strange adventure Billy Byrne was coming back to the great West Side and Grand Avenue. Now there is not much upon either side or down the center of long and tortuous Grand Avenue to arouse enthusiasm, nor was Billy particularly enthusiastic about that more or less squalid thoroughfare. The thing that exalted Billy was the idea that he was coming back to _show them_. He had left under a cloud and with a reputation for genuine toughness and rowdyism that has seen few parallels even in the ungentle district of his birth and upbringing. A girl had changed him. She was as far removed from Billy's sphere as the stars themselves; but Billy had loved her and learned from her, and in trying to become more as he knew the men of her class were he had sloughed off much of the uncouthness that had always been a part of him, and all of the rowdyism. Billy Byrne was no longer the mucker.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Westerns, Classics, Historical Fiction, Action, Pulp

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

About the author

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mucker in Mexico in the days of Pancho Villa. With a new best friend hobo who recites poetry. What a coincidence that Barbara's father happens to own a ranch nearby that they're visiting when the banditos/revolutionaries get violent...

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book!!! I think it was even more fun than the first in the Mucker series but you need to read the first one to truly enjoy the story arc.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes the quest is far better than the culmination. The Mucker is far and away my favorite ERB book. It really just has everything in it. And it's the odd ERB book where the protagonist isn't the much vaunted hidden gentleman (though he's definitely a diamond in the very rough). Looking back to the early 80s when I first read The Mucker, I started looking for The Return of the Mucker. And it was elusive. Not like the ERB books that you became convinced were really urban legends (The Girl From Farris'; The Efficiency Exper). More like The Oakdale Affair and ERB westerns. You knew they existed. You might even know somebody who owned them (lucky bastards). But finding them in the wild...that was at best elusive, especially in small-town Idaho.

Fast forward 35 or so years and I'm slowly re-reading Burroughs' oeuvre. Through the wonders of the internet, being an adult with a job and whatnot books that eluded me in my youth are now largely obtainable. So I was able to read The Mucker Returns. And maybe I shouldn't have. It's not that it's actively bad. Maybe if I'd read it at age 13-17 nostalgia would make it better than it is now. It's just very middling Burroughs. It has most of his ticks transposed to a mediocre western. All the coincidence...all the "love at first sight"...all the happy happenstance with really none of the verve and frenetic energy of The Mucker.

It's an okay book. It's not "dire Burroughs" a la The Eternal Savage. But it wasn't what my teenage self had looked for so long.

[Keller Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the first book but enjoyable pulp read.

[itchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I slogged through The Mucker and this thinking I was reading only the former. I thought it was uncharacteristically long all that time, too. I only caught on once I finished the latter. At least the third book wasn't in the copy I had.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original MUCKER is one of my favorite ERB novels, so it's disappointing that RETURN OF THE MUCKER is so run-of-the-mill. The Mexican setting is a nice touch, but virtually nothing else stands out. The book suffers from what is quite possibly the lamest love triangle I've ever seen, and Burroughs stacks the plot with so many ridiculous coincidences that it's impossible to take any of it seriously. Ultimately, readers are left with a dues ex machina-style ending and all the plot threads tied up in an ultra-neat bow. That being said, there is some fun to be had here, assuming you can turn your brain off for the duration. Burroughs' prose is adept as always, and he occasionally includes some nice snippets of poetry by a guy named Knibbs, who--as far as I know--may or may not be a real person.
If you've read THE MUCKER, you may want to check this out just to see how the story ends. But don't expect too much.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the first book, "The Mucker."

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

If "The Mucker" was one of Burroughs' better efforts, "The Return of the Mucker" must rate as one of his weaker ones. Burroughs is always readable, but this outing just lacks the creativity one so often associates with Edgar Rice.

"Return" finds our hero fleeing the law down in old Mexico and hooking up with a new side kick named Bridge. Somehow I got the idea that bridge was an older man who been a hobo for a long time. It wasn't until well into the second half of the book that I realized he and Billy Byrne (AKA, The Mucker) were pretty much the same age. Bridge was a lot more interesting to me when I though he was an old duck -- I pictured Walter Huston from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" in the role.

Billy and Bridge fall in with a bandit general named Pesita who fighting to liberate "poor bleeding Mexico" with all the zeal of a Donald Trump making America great again and lining his pockets. Billy's pledge to go straight for love of Barbara Harding ironically cause him to rob a bank and find himself caught by the Villas (sure, why not throw in Poncho while we're down there) and who should show up to rescue him? Why it's Barbara Harding. Lot's of back and forth horse riding ensues -- think Clint Eastwood in for "For a Few Dollars More" -- setting up the various factions against each other .

Burroughs really does a good job keeping all the balls in the air, I have to give him credit. Another book I bought in early 70's for the Frazetta cover and never read. Here's the wonderful Frazetta covers for the series.

The Mucker Series in 3 Vintage Paperbacks.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

The continuing saga of Billy Byrne, the one-time Mucker, and his quest to be worthy of the lovely Barbara, even tho' he knows he can never have her, because he's a Mucker and she's of the wealthy Socialite class. He instead, tries to save her for one of her class, and save her he does; from a savage WWII Samurai warrior forgotten upon a primitive & isolated Pacific island, and the other inhabitants there, along with the "civilized" white men who are responsible for her being there in the first place.

[Yibbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hung on by sheer stubbornness till about 4/3 of the way through, and then only because I wanted to read a novel set in Mexico. I didn't like any of the characters, their actions, their dialog, or the situations the author put them in. They were just really boring and inexplicable at the same time. It was just flat. Then at the 3/4 point, the language became quite foul.
Wouldn't recommend this one.

[Kirk Dobihal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but dated and as to today's politics this would be deemed politically incorrect in respect to the treatment of Mexicans. It is a story taking place during or about the time of the Mexican War.

[R. Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

The action moves from the early 1900 Chicago/New York to Mexico were every bandito chief calls himself a general and wants to take over Mexico. A new character makes an appearance. A poem loving hobo who has an unexpected history. Well worth reading.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as The Mucker but this is still quite good with the hero escaping prison and becoming homeless and then becoming a mercenary in Mexico. He gets the girl at the end though, which is disappointing. Just so typical after the genre-breaking The Mucker.

[Tim Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this story has been re written many times but ill bet this is the original version.

[John Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off as a midwest crime novel then turns into a Zapata western. Compared to the first Mucker novel, it misses the mark.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

picks up where "the mucker" left off....billy byrne returns to chicago, changed by the woman he met in the other story, determined to clear his name--he'd boogied out-of-chicago cause someone was trying to blame him for a murder he didn't commit...the plot thickens.

up to page 70. this is a great story! i like it more than "the mucker". there's plot elements like something outta kerouac, one the road and all that....folly a guy down an alley. this one dude, bridge, he's quoting poetry to billy, who has changed, and would have smashed the guy in the face, before, before he met the skirt. in the other story, the mucker.

billy is on the run and meets up with bridge, short for unabridged. HA! i've known an unabridged in my time, brothers who worked for me. one was the most reticent of men. his bro was definitely unabridged.

so, they're on the lam, right? hoping trains, walking up to farmhouses for food...chop the wood. and this was written in like 1916, like i said, way before kerouac and the despondent generation in a blue funk over the world war numbered 2 shoot man, this was before the war to end all wars.

good stuff!

finished...10/17...the story heads to mexico...

enjoyed the first part of this story more so than the second, though billy's time in mexico is okay. in both mucker stories trust matters, friendship/trust...trust,too, among others, how far does it go...is it real or not and time tells.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mucker was essentially a Lost Civilization story, with the bulk of the tale set on a remote Pacific island populated by a hybrid Samurai/headhunter tribe. The main character, Billy Byrne, is a criminal who's personal story arc is one of redemption, as he goes from thug to hero over the course of the novel.

The Return of the Mucker, though, drops the Lost Civilization motiff and turns into a modern-day Western. The story follows Billy, who has given up the girl he loves because of the societal gap between them, in his further adventures. He's falsely convicted of murder; he escapes from the train taking him to the death house; he meets and befriends an erudite, poetry-quoting hobo named Bridge. The two end up in Mexico, with Billy becoming an officer in one of the many bandit/revolutionary bands that roamed that country in 1916. A theme of loyalty runs through the book, with various characters sticking by one another through adversary. There's plenty of great action, culminating in not one, but TWO, "last stand" style battles against overwhelming forces. Great stuff from start to finish.

[John Lawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Convicted for a murder he didn't commit, the Mucker escapes confinement and the long arm of the law. Gun slinging and casual racism ensue.

Picking up where the first book, THE MUCKER, leaves off, it immediately drops everything and shifts gears. Well, that was unexpected. Instead of pursuing the story of an urban thug becoming a boxing legend, he heads west and does battle with Villa's banditos.

Not sure how convincing the big lug is as a cowboy, but whatever. I guess Burroughs just wanted to take the story in places Tarzan or John Carter couldn't/wouldn't venture. Love wins out in the end.

[Rob Roy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember reading The Mucker many years ago, and enjoying it. This is a sad continuation. It starts out in the slums of Chicago, and ends up across the border in Mexico in the days of Poncho Villa. It rapidly becomes a shoot'em up western, and not a good one. The book is seriously marred by the racism towards Mexicans and Indians. Yes, that is the way folk thought in 1916, the year of its publication, but that does not make it palatable. I love Burroughs, but suggest that this book not be bothered with.

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the first Mucker novel was derivative it had its merits. I'm not sure why the lead character was even used in the follow-up, it clearly falls into the Western genre. This discrepancy, coupled with the fact the book hasn't aged well, prevents me from recommending to all but Burroughs completists.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

read between fall 1974 & spring 1975