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The Wandering Hill (The Berrybender Narratives)

By: Larry McMurtry
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0743262700
ISBN-13: 9780743262705
Released: 19 Aug 2005
RRP: £9.82
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Shallow Lives amid Quick and Unexpected Dangers - By: Donald Mitchell, 04 Jul 2006
If you enjoyed The Sin Killer, you're wondering what happened to the many people left in cliff hangar situations. The Wandering Hill will answer alll of those questions & leave you with new cliff hangars to keep you plowing forward into By Sorrow's River, book 3 in the Berrybender saga.

If you haven't read The Sin Killer, please do go back. This will be a two star book without background to make you more interested in the characters.

The Wandering Hill refers to a Native American belief that a certain hill is filled with devils that will attack anyone who comes too near. Naturallly, that means the wandering hill threatens danger . . . if not death. The omen turns out to be prescient in this story.

At the end of The Sin Killer, the Berrybender party was headed for a trading post to winter after their steamship was stuck in the frozen Missouri. Lord Berrybender's valet was enjoying life as a presumed Buffalo man (a god-like creature to the Native Americans) with two fat wives to keep him warm.

The Wandering Hill is a more sober & tragic story. Tasmin Berrybender & her husband, Jim Snow (the Sin Killer), try to adapt to married life as Tasmin carries their first child. Tasmin finds Jim's rebukes for swearing no less annoying than in The Sin Killer . . . & she eventuallly fortifies herself to do something about it. Jim finds Tasmin's constant need to ask philosophical questions nearly drives him mad. He finds Tasmin a poor substitute for a squaw wife except when it comes to "rutting". He continues to dislike indoor life, & they settle into a drafty tent for the winter. Tasmin finds herself wondering what she reallly wants from marriage.

The Buffalo man meets a terrible end at the hands of the Partezon, a Sioux chief. Mary develops a weird relationship with an older man that seems intended for comic relief while making fun of Old World "sophistication".

Lord Berrybender becomes even more easily offended & strikes out in ever more dangerous ways. He becomes even more a figure of ridicule in this book than in The Sin Killer.

New characters are added to this picaresque chronicle as more mountain men join the group at the trading post, we meet more Native Americans &

The story reaches a climax when the trading post comes under unexpected attack.

This book is much darker than The Sin Killer . . . & not nearly as humorous. Much like a long winter spent on the plains, it's a little on the boring side. The occasional humorous flap & joke are much appreciated . . . but there reallly isn't enough of either.
Aimless wandering makes for indifferent reading - By: Joseph Haschka, 19 Apr 2004
Aimless wandering seems to be the theme of THE WANDERING HILL, & it suffers for it.

First off, the "Wandering Hill" is a smalll, conical mound, topped by a single tree, inhabited by large-headed devils who, according to plains-Indian legend, loose deadly grass-bladed arrows at passersby. The devils have the ability to move the hill from place to place via the wind, & its appearance is Heap Bad Medicine. Yeah, ok, but it's not given such significant play that it's worth getting excited about. Trust me.

This novel is the second in the Berrybender series, the first being SIN KILLER. Berrybender is Lord Albany Berrybender, an Englishmen who's come to the Great Plains of the 1830s to hunt accompanied by his wife Constance, six of their fourteen brats, the talking parrot Prince Tallleyrand, & a rabble of servants, alll traveling up the Yellowstone River by steamboat. By THE WANDERING HILL, Constance, one of the offspring, & several employees are dead or missing. The eldest of Berrybender's children along for the ride, daughter Tasmin, has married the Sin Killer, aka Jim Snow, a young, closed-mouthed, & excessively God-fearing trapper whose attitude towards his new wife, outside of their lovemaking, is boorish at best.

The biggest problem with the Berrybender series to date, & THE WANDERING HILL in particular, is that there's no strong unifying thread to the storyline. In McMurtry's magnificent LONESOME DOVE, there were also many subplots to be sure, but alll eventuallly tied into Gus McCrae's & Woodrow Calll's cattle drive from South Texas to Montana. In the Berrybender saga, we have only the intent of Lord Albany to continue on with his hunting expedition, which is proving to be a weak nail on which to hang the continuing story. In THE WANDERING HILL, they don't get far at alll. Having left the confines of the riverboat, the Berrybender party spends over half the book at an Indian trading post, where Tasmin & Venetia Kennet, the group's cellist, have babies. Then, after some aimless wandering about, they subsequently alll set off to an annual trapper rendezvous in the Rocky Mountain foothills.

THE WANDERING HILL even lacks a decent villain. In LONESOME DOVE, it was Blue Duck, a murderous half-breed. In SIN KILLER, it was Draga, a psychopathic, old, Aleut-Russian squaw who'd made it down to the Lower Forty-Eight. In this book, there's only relatively passing reference to The Partezon, a vicious Sioux chief on the rampage with a war party. Otherwise, the biggest danger is posed by the sudden appearance of several thousand stampeding buffalo. Yawn.

Since the overalll direction of storyline is unremarkable, the reader must find limited enjoyment in the depiction of the various characters. And pickings are slim when it comes to engaging personae. Tasmin, the Lord's strong-willed, resilient daughter, is the most appealing of alll. Next is perhaps Kit Carson, who, at this stage of his legendary career, is a tongue-tied, shy youth prone to complaining about minor hardships. Then there's the precocious, four-year old Kate Berrybender, who manages to win the heart of Jim Snow, who is, in my opinion, too much of a jerk to be a heroic figure. Lord Berrybender himself is so disagreeable a person that I wish he'd just die off or get killed. No such luck.

One newly introduced character whom I hope gets a larger role in the next book, BY SORROW'S RIVER, is the Sin Killer's inscrutable & too young Ute wife, Little Onion.

Despite my ambivalent feelings towards this second volume in the series, I'm certain that I'll continue reading to the end because of the plucky Tasmin. If a film is ever made of the Berrybender narratives, then I'd recommend Cate Blanchett for the role.

This series isn't Larry McMurtry at his best, but it's adequate diversion for the beach or the morning train commute.