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Heart of the Country
If the vast buffalo herds that still roamed Kansas in the mid-19th century were in some sense the heart of the country, then the white pioneers committed some kind of spiritual suicide by wiping them out. So suggests this sprawling and doggedly fanciful tale by the Australian author of The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The central figure in a cast of energized puppets, of whom most are either insane or malicious, is Joe Cobdenillegitimate, half-Indian, fated both by his birth and the buffalo-like hump on his back to be a social outcast. Joe starts his working life as a hunter of buffalo, then regrets his role in their destruction and turns to making cigar-store Indians, while rearing the ingrate son of a pious lunatic. The story includes incest, murder, whoring, drunkenness, opium taking, ghoulish burial and shovelfuls of insanity, as well as a spectral white buffalo, among other echoes of Moby-Dick. Dickens (with whom Matthews has been capriciously compared) could treat reality in a fanciful manner; Matthews treats fancy as though it were reality. His story is enjoyable by dint of its vitality, but also exasperating because of its lack of clarity and substance. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
703 pages, Paperback
First published April 17, 1986
125 people are currently reading
418 people want to read
About the author
Greg Matthews
23 books33 followersGreg Matthews is the author of eleven books, including The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, heralded by the Christian Science Monitor as “the true sequel to Mark Twain’s masterpiece,” and two acclaimed sagas of the Old West, Heart of the Country and Power in the Blood. He has published three books—Callisto, The Dolphin People, and The Secret Book of Sacred Things—under the nom de plume Torsten Krol. The author describes himself as “a guy in a room, writing, writing.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
March 16, 2018
On the washstand by his bed lay a small shaving mirror. Joe picked it up and examined his face. I'm only fifteen, he told himself. I've got years and years of life ahead of me. He wondered how it was possible to endure life until old age and death. What kept people sane for so long? How did others manage it? The answer, of course, was simple: other people were not hunchbacks.
In the mid-1800s, a prominent St. Louis doctor brings home a half-breed infant who was left in a churchyard, and his life begins a "descending spiral." The doctor's wife refuses to have anything to do with the child, and a permanent wedge is driven between the couple. As the boy, Joseph, grows, his malformation becomes evident, yet he resists all of the doctor's efforts to correct the situation. Joe does not do well at school, but has educated himself by reading every book in the doctor's library.
The boy was a freak; worse, he appeared to take pride in his freakishness. The long hair had been clumsily braided, the blanket now a permanent fixture across hump and shoulders. The doctor ground his teeth weakly, kept his voice at a reasonable level. 'What manner of creature do you take yourself for?'
'A hunchback Indian,' said Joseph, equally determined not to provoke a disturbance between them.
'You did not continue with your exercises.'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'They did no good.'
'You should have persevered.'
'A maple can't be an oak, no matter how hard it tries.'
'Most poetic, Joseph, and utterly nonsensical. You are not a tree.'
'No, I'm a hunchback Indian.'
'Is your impertinence deliberate?'
'I'm not being impertinent, Father. Possibly facetious.'
The doctor regarded Joseph with alarm; the child was not only deformed, but precocious. 'I take it your education has proceeded along satisfactory lines.'
'Yes. I stopped going to school.'
'Explain yourself.'
'I stabbed a teacher on the first day and didn't go back. They kept the fee.'
(That may just be my favorite literary conversation - EVER!)
Eventually the doctor proclaims, 'My boy, if you are not hanged in the meantime, you may someday be a remarkable man.'
Joseph heads west at age fifteen. His goal is to become a buffalo hunter. After a brief stint as a whorehouse bouncer, he finds himself looking down a rifle barrel at an ungainly creature with a hump on its back - the American Buffalo.
The accounts of buffalo slaughter are horrifying and astounding. Unfathomable numbers were shot simply for sport, or their skins alone.
The old Americans saw their herds, sacred gift of the Great Spirit who brought them into the world of men from a hole in the earth, dwindle in the space of twenty moons from abundance to paucity. A man could walk from sunrise to sundown on the naked, rotting bodies of buffalo without once setting foot on the ground.
Joseph becomes known for his hunting prowess, and earns the name Joe Buffalo. He also comes under the scrutiny of twitchy, weaselly Calvin Puckett, a mentally unhinged man who believes God has commanded him to "kill the crooked man."
Somehow, Joe stands strong, if not tall, and even manages to assemble a strange family of his own.
The book is crammed with fascinating, unforgettable characters - the furnace attendant at the whorehouse who longs to open a school for black children, an elderly woman who fakes an injury to torment her daughter-in-law, a mute girl who believes she bleeds for Jesus... I don't remember the last time I was so completely drawn into a book.
He was what he had wanted to be, a hunter of buffalo, a man (for remarkably few ever guessed his true age) with a reputation. That reputations west of the Missouri were generally purchased with the aid of gunpowder and lead and gaping flesh, either animal or human, was not a fact that Joe allowed to fill him with misgiving. The newly opened territories were a man's world, and contained within their westering boundaries a stage so vast, so impervious to normal emotion as to demand of its actors a minimum of dialogue and a preponderance of action, the most exalted (and opposing) forms of which are creation and destruction.
This is indeed a book about creation and destruction. And the story of a remarkable man.
In the mid-1800s, a prominent St. Louis doctor brings home a half-breed infant who was left in a churchyard, and his life begins a "descending spiral." The doctor's wife refuses to have anything to do with the child, and a permanent wedge is driven between the couple. As the boy, Joseph, grows, his malformation becomes evident, yet he resists all of the doctor's efforts to correct the situation. Joe does not do well at school, but has educated himself by reading every book in the doctor's library.
The boy was a freak; worse, he appeared to take pride in his freakishness. The long hair had been clumsily braided, the blanket now a permanent fixture across hump and shoulders. The doctor ground his teeth weakly, kept his voice at a reasonable level. 'What manner of creature do you take yourself for?'
'A hunchback Indian,' said Joseph, equally determined not to provoke a disturbance between them.
'You did not continue with your exercises.'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'They did no good.'
'You should have persevered.'
'A maple can't be an oak, no matter how hard it tries.'
'Most poetic, Joseph, and utterly nonsensical. You are not a tree.'
'No, I'm a hunchback Indian.'
'Is your impertinence deliberate?'
'I'm not being impertinent, Father. Possibly facetious.'
The doctor regarded Joseph with alarm; the child was not only deformed, but precocious. 'I take it your education has proceeded along satisfactory lines.'
'Yes. I stopped going to school.'
'Explain yourself.'
'I stabbed a teacher on the first day and didn't go back. They kept the fee.'
(That may just be my favorite literary conversation - EVER!)
Eventually the doctor proclaims, 'My boy, if you are not hanged in the meantime, you may someday be a remarkable man.'
Joseph heads west at age fifteen. His goal is to become a buffalo hunter. After a brief stint as a whorehouse bouncer, he finds himself looking down a rifle barrel at an ungainly creature with a hump on its back - the American Buffalo.
The accounts of buffalo slaughter are horrifying and astounding. Unfathomable numbers were shot simply for sport, or their skins alone.
The old Americans saw their herds, sacred gift of the Great Spirit who brought them into the world of men from a hole in the earth, dwindle in the space of twenty moons from abundance to paucity. A man could walk from sunrise to sundown on the naked, rotting bodies of buffalo without once setting foot on the ground.
Joseph becomes known for his hunting prowess, and earns the name Joe Buffalo. He also comes under the scrutiny of twitchy, weaselly Calvin Puckett, a mentally unhinged man who believes God has commanded him to "kill the crooked man."
Somehow, Joe stands strong, if not tall, and even manages to assemble a strange family of his own.
The book is crammed with fascinating, unforgettable characters - the furnace attendant at the whorehouse who longs to open a school for black children, an elderly woman who fakes an injury to torment her daughter-in-law, a mute girl who believes she bleeds for Jesus... I don't remember the last time I was so completely drawn into a book.
He was what he had wanted to be, a hunter of buffalo, a man (for remarkably few ever guessed his true age) with a reputation. That reputations west of the Missouri were generally purchased with the aid of gunpowder and lead and gaping flesh, either animal or human, was not a fact that Joe allowed to fill him with misgiving. The newly opened territories were a man's world, and contained within their westering boundaries a stage so vast, so impervious to normal emotion as to demand of its actors a minimum of dialogue and a preponderance of action, the most exalted (and opposing) forms of which are creation and destruction.
This is indeed a book about creation and destruction. And the story of a remarkable man.
May 22, 2012
Waiting impatiently for this wonderful, amazing, sorrowful, fateful book to be on kindle. Loved it when I read it years ago. Not a light-hearted read or for those who expect a fairy tale. Greg Matthews writes as clean as Larry McMurtry with the nostalgia of Robert McCammon. This book is possibly the most underrated book EVER.
December 3, 2013
A melancholy book focusing on tragic loss and missed opportunities. This book is not for the faint of heart. It's not a book of "happily ever afters" but is masterfully written and really drives at the heart of human nature with stories of avarice, jealousy, and hubris. This is a book very much written in the classical style of a well done tragedy.
The main story is about Joe Cobden, half-Native American, hunchback who is spurned by society despite his incredible intellect and need for empathy despite his rock hard façade. The story follows his life and the poor choices he makes as well as the stories of other equally ill-fated characters in Kansas. It begins prior to the Civil War and proceeds to the turn of the 20th century. The book mirrors the changes the frontier witnessed with the wiping out of the buffalo, the expansion of small towns, the rise of the railroad, and the wanderlust that was pioneer America.
This is a book worth savoring. It moves quickly through its 700 pages and has many memorable lines sprinkled throughout. I had not heard of Greg Matthews prior to picking up this book, but will definitely be checking out his other offerings. Highly recommended.
The main story is about Joe Cobden, half-Native American, hunchback who is spurned by society despite his incredible intellect and need for empathy despite his rock hard façade. The story follows his life and the poor choices he makes as well as the stories of other equally ill-fated characters in Kansas. It begins prior to the Civil War and proceeds to the turn of the 20th century. The book mirrors the changes the frontier witnessed with the wiping out of the buffalo, the expansion of small towns, the rise of the railroad, and the wanderlust that was pioneer America.
This is a book worth savoring. It moves quickly through its 700 pages and has many memorable lines sprinkled throughout. I had not heard of Greg Matthews prior to picking up this book, but will definitely be checking out his other offerings. Highly recommended.
September 17, 2012
This could have been a better book if there would have been one decent likeable character. The hero of the story is a deeply resentful and troubled man who I could not warm to. He carries a deep and bitter resentment though life due to becoming a hunchback as a child and he can never rise to a place of acceptance. He hurts too many people throughout his life to feel sorry for him in the end. The writing is excellent and it was an easy read. I enjoyed the references to classic literature sprinkled throughout. I enjoyed the story but would caution anyone wanting to discover an admirable literary character in its pages. There are none to be found in this book.
November 7, 2015
Extremely well written. Matthews can write of the intricate details of thoughts of everyday human interaction. Though this story is a tragic commentary of the dark side of these situations and their unfortunate (no character in this story is fortunate) outcomes.
Read
September 22, 2011This story showed so much heart ache and struggle for this young man who didn't look like everyone else. His life was rough. It wasn't a happy book but I couldn't put it down. I'm glad I read it. People sure struggled back then and a life could be snuffed out easily.
April 27, 2011
A most unique western adventure with a totally unusual anti-hero an orphaned, hunchbacked, half-breed buffalo killer. It's a don't miss.
November 12, 2016
Tragic, dark, gritty, harsh—but very well written and compelling all the same. I need a fix of wholesome good cheer now, but I'm not sorry I read it.
October 3, 2018
A thoroughly entertaining read. Half white, half Indian, Joe Cobden is abandoned in a church porch and taken in by a childless doctor. The doctor adopts him, but it is not a successful relationship and Joe, who grows up a hunchback, escapes as soon as he can. We follow his life as he struggles with poverty, ostracism and prejudice in the American West, forging a life for himself against all the odds, re-inventing himself as many times as necessary with ingenuity and determination at every step. His world is peopled by other misfits and outcasts, all struggling in an unkind world. Against a backdrop of the harsh and unforgiving pioneer states, it’s a bleak and often harrowing yarn, with little redemption for any of the characters, an epic tale told with verve and pacing, an imaginative and original tale that I found compelling and which drew me in right through the 700 pages. Normally I shudder at the idea of a picaresque novel, but that’s probably the most apt word to use here, a soap opera of a novel but one told with humanity and empathy at its core. This is great historical writing, well-researched and atmospheric. Highly recommended.
September 28, 2009
Excellent, authentic, American history of the West.
January 2, 2011
A hunchbacked buffalo hunter conquers the American west. One of the few books I reread every two or three years.
January 29, 2013
I read this book off a reading list in high school. While it is depressing it is also amazing. I highly recommend it. Once it's available via Kindle I'll be reading it again.
March 6, 2023
This book was so well-written, with a lyrical prose I fell in love with---but I only read the first hundred pages.
(A word about WorldCat here: This was a WorldCat copy borrowed from Portland University, a paperback published in the 1980s with a smooth, intact spine---so it appeared to have never been read. Think of stitching and glue on a paperback left untouched for over 30 years: it's going to be friable. [I'm a library volunteer helping to sort donations worth keeping or recycling.] So I carefully opened the book just enough to read each yellowed page, up to nearly a hundred pages, before the spine snapped and pages broke loose of their glue. If I kept reading the book it would completely fall apart, so I returned it after our library's book expert examined it and said that it was unreadable and needed to be recycled. So much for my contact with WorldCat, since participants such as Portland U might offer unreadable books and the service threatens readers with exorbitant fines for late fees, let alone supposed damage.)
While conflicted about continuing with the book (if you've made it to page 100 you'll know why, despite the author's wonderful writing style) I found two copies of this book---hardbacks---for sale online for under $5. Was it worth the money to continue to read this? I turned to Goodreads to find my answer. As usual, y'all had a lot to say, and helped me make a decision. Thanks, guys!
The author was a highly intelligent, gifted writer, with a prose style that broke my heart with its eloquence. Based on many reviews of his books, he also had a very dark, tortured view of the characters in his version of the American West---and he shared this dark vision in his books. Do I want to have a book in my library that is frequently sadistic and even pornographic? I was tolerant of the grisly descriptions of buffalo slaughtering because that is an honest inclusion of the history of the post-Civil War's rape of our country---but I suspect that using animals for sexual abuse was not an historically accurate norm, and anyone finding it entertaining is a sick puppy indeed. I found the horrific suffering and abuse inflicted on the protagonist by society endurable because of its historical likelihood, but it was painful reading, not entertaining at all. Did I want to wallow through almost 600 pages of fictional suffering?
My deepest thanks to all you readers who post reviews. Your opinions, information, and thoughts are invaluable. You gave me the information I needed to make an informed decision. Even though the writer was exceptionally talented... Did. Not. Finish. I am at peace with that.
(A word about WorldCat here: This was a WorldCat copy borrowed from Portland University, a paperback published in the 1980s with a smooth, intact spine---so it appeared to have never been read. Think of stitching and glue on a paperback left untouched for over 30 years: it's going to be friable. [I'm a library volunteer helping to sort donations worth keeping or recycling.] So I carefully opened the book just enough to read each yellowed page, up to nearly a hundred pages, before the spine snapped and pages broke loose of their glue. If I kept reading the book it would completely fall apart, so I returned it after our library's book expert examined it and said that it was unreadable and needed to be recycled. So much for my contact with WorldCat, since participants such as Portland U might offer unreadable books and the service threatens readers with exorbitant fines for late fees, let alone supposed damage.)
While conflicted about continuing with the book (if you've made it to page 100 you'll know why, despite the author's wonderful writing style) I found two copies of this book---hardbacks---for sale online for under $5. Was it worth the money to continue to read this? I turned to Goodreads to find my answer. As usual, y'all had a lot to say, and helped me make a decision. Thanks, guys!
The author was a highly intelligent, gifted writer, with a prose style that broke my heart with its eloquence. Based on many reviews of his books, he also had a very dark, tortured view of the characters in his version of the American West---and he shared this dark vision in his books. Do I want to have a book in my library that is frequently sadistic and even pornographic? I was tolerant of the grisly descriptions of buffalo slaughtering because that is an honest inclusion of the history of the post-Civil War's rape of our country---but I suspect that using animals for sexual abuse was not an historically accurate norm, and anyone finding it entertaining is a sick puppy indeed. I found the horrific suffering and abuse inflicted on the protagonist by society endurable because of its historical likelihood, but it was painful reading, not entertaining at all. Did I want to wallow through almost 600 pages of fictional suffering?
My deepest thanks to all you readers who post reviews. Your opinions, information, and thoughts are invaluable. You gave me the information I needed to make an informed decision. Even though the writer was exceptionally talented... Did. Not. Finish. I am at peace with that.
September 7, 2025
If you look up "Slice of Life" in the dictionary, you'll likely see a picture of this book.
Very well-written yet without much plot, I mostly enjoyed this beast of a book. It's the same author who wrote my second favorite read of 2023, Power in the Blood. For as much as that one felt very Stephen King-ish, this one had more of a Robert McCammon/Larry McMurtry vibe. The setting similar to that of the Lonesome Dove books, Heart of the Country takes place in Kansas (not Texas) on the endless grassy plains once populated by millions of buffalo. The characters and the writing style had a very realistic, human touch that made you feel sympathetic towards them. This was a very moving, and tragic story. Our main POV character, Joe, experiences one fail after the next and when he seems like he gets one leg up, the rug gets pulled from beneath him again.
Had there been more of a conflict or a clear goal, this would have no doubt earned a full five stars. I went into this with a higher expectation because of how great was Power in the Blood, and was hoping for a similar experience. It was essentially about a drifter trying to find his way in life, and the narrative wasn't so much as "this happened because of that" but was more like "this happened, then that happened, and so on". Don't get me wrong, this was epic in its own way. The world felt huge, the landscape vast, and covers about 50 years. But the narrative was dense with very long paragraphs and streams of consciousness that made the book feel a little more bloated than it should have been.
All around, I'm very glad I read this. The author (though I know next to nothing about him or what happened to him) is a gifted writer. I wish there were more of his works available.
Very well-written yet without much plot, I mostly enjoyed this beast of a book. It's the same author who wrote my second favorite read of 2023, Power in the Blood. For as much as that one felt very Stephen King-ish, this one had more of a Robert McCammon/Larry McMurtry vibe. The setting similar to that of the Lonesome Dove books, Heart of the Country takes place in Kansas (not Texas) on the endless grassy plains once populated by millions of buffalo. The characters and the writing style had a very realistic, human touch that made you feel sympathetic towards them. This was a very moving, and tragic story. Our main POV character, Joe, experiences one fail after the next and when he seems like he gets one leg up, the rug gets pulled from beneath him again.
Had there been more of a conflict or a clear goal, this would have no doubt earned a full five stars. I went into this with a higher expectation because of how great was Power in the Blood, and was hoping for a similar experience. It was essentially about a drifter trying to find his way in life, and the narrative wasn't so much as "this happened because of that" but was more like "this happened, then that happened, and so on". Don't get me wrong, this was epic in its own way. The world felt huge, the landscape vast, and covers about 50 years. But the narrative was dense with very long paragraphs and streams of consciousness that made the book feel a little more bloated than it should have been.
All around, I'm very glad I read this. The author (though I know next to nothing about him or what happened to him) is a gifted writer. I wish there were more of his works available.
March 31, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. Because it is 700 pages, I kept putting it off. Once I started reading it, I was hooked and read it whenever I had some free time. Extremely well written and easy to read. The author does a great job bring us back to life in the late 1800’s. This book is more about people’s differences, getting along, and not getting along. Much more than a western, which I originally thought I was going to be reading. You will get invested in many of the characters and pride yourself in being a person that discovered a gem of a novel you may never forget.
Sometimes I read a book that a consider a gem because nobody I know will probably read it, I don’t think a movie was made of it,
yet is has an impact that only a person that reads the book will appreciate. This is one of those books - an American Classic, in my view.
Sometimes I read a book that a consider a gem because nobody I know will probably read it, I don’t think a movie was made of it,
yet is has an impact that only a person that reads the book will appreciate. This is one of those books - an American Classic, in my view.
September 19, 2019
Stay the course
Early on, I almost gave up on this book. Characters are introduced at random, plot lines wander off aimlessly (it seems) and the whole enterprise feels like some vanity project for a professor of English Lit. But, Mr. Mathews is a crafty soul; his characters worm their way into your sympathies and the plot lines begin intersecting. A very good, involving story about deeply flawed humans. Neither an easy nor comfortable read, this is most decidedly a rewarding read.
Early on, I almost gave up on this book. Characters are introduced at random, plot lines wander off aimlessly (it seems) and the whole enterprise feels like some vanity project for a professor of English Lit. But, Mr. Mathews is a crafty soul; his characters worm their way into your sympathies and the plot lines begin intersecting. A very good, involving story about deeply flawed humans. Neither an easy nor comfortable read, this is most decidedly a rewarding read.
May 9, 2017
A very depressing tale about the life of Joe Cobden, a half breed Indian hunchback born in the mid 1800's. He just can't seem to catch a break and when he finally does it seems short-lived or ends very badly. If the point of writing this book was to illustrate how bad "half breeds" and disabled people were treated during this period then I guess it was successful. The writing style was very slow going; very descriptive.
March 17, 2021
Wow. Really well written kind of drawn in immediately to the characters where I was wishing the best for Joe. It’s not a happily ever after story by no means. Seemed like joe was just an ordinary guy in the west just trying to get by. No different than anybody else except him being a half breed Indian with a hunch back. I knew this book would be great cause I simply loved power in the blood one of the best books I ever read and Greg Matthews wrote that one. Thanks 1st review I ever did.
July 24, 2025
Had to stop halfway through as it was just not an enjoyable experience. This author clearly knows how to write, with some very beautiful passages. But his characters are so non-compelling in any way. This reviewer really sums it up for me.
“ On every page of this rather long book, unattractive caricatures involve themselves in unpleasant, grotesque misadventures.”
Not my deal.
“ On every page of this rather long book, unattractive caricatures involve themselves in unpleasant, grotesque misadventures.”
Not my deal.
May 2, 2025
This was a very long book. I persisted because I liked the author's writing, but not the author's cast of misfit characters. All of the characters had maladies or worse without a positive note at all. I suppose it would be labeled a tragedy.
October 13, 2017
Would have been a 5 star book if it was 400 pages. However, Mr. Matthews never met a paragraph that he couldn't expand to 12-15 pages long.
January 28, 2019
A beautiful novel with great storytelling. This one will stay with me for a long time.
May 3, 2019
Awesome, a good read that may just require a 2nd reading.
October 13, 2020
Wonderful book. The writing is superb.
September 18, 2022
I read this book over 20 years ago and loved it. I have been trying to find it over the past few years to see if it holds up. I just figured it out.
August 2, 2023
One of THE BEST westerns I’ve read — not to say I’ve read many. I picked this up years ago in an airport, and loved it. Unlike any other western. Hope to read it again, or perhaps listen to it.
September 27, 2023
I read this book after it came out in the 80's and it has always stuck in my head. One of my favorite all time reads. Probably will read again~
March 30, 2024
Not a happy story but it was a good story.
January 26, 2025
So Good
The crazy descriptions in this book sometimes felt like endless chapters, but the picture that was presented was so mesmerizing. Loved every second of it.
The crazy descriptions in this book sometimes felt like endless chapters, but the picture that was presented was so mesmerizing. Loved every second of it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews