An Accidental Novelist (Softcover)
by Richard S. Wheeler
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Book Summary Information
Author: Richard S. WheelerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-03-15
ISBN: 0865345635
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Book Reviews of An Accidental Novelist (Softcover)
Book Review: A Much Needed Contribution to the Literature of the West
Summary: 4 Stars
Richard S. Wheeler's literary memoir, _An Accidental Novelist_, is an unassuming book by an unassuming author, who has thought deeply about the state of literature of the West. It is also an engrossing story of a modern life lived by the stroke of the pen and the click of the keyboard, all the while writing an increasingly unpopular brand of fiction.
Unpopular, that is, except with some of us. Enough of us to have kept Mr. Wheeler afloat as a professional novelist throughout his 40-year career. While he never won a Pulitzer, he has won five Spur Awards, and an Owen Wister award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West.
I've read quite a few of Mr. Wheeler's books, and own some, too. I like his work because he writes about the real, historical West. He does not write what passes for "Westerns" among people who don't know any better, books that could be dressed up in other costumes and the horses replaced by other modes of transportation such as space ships.
In his own quiet way, Mr. Wheeler breaks the rules laid down by the "Western," which he defines as being about two men at war and having nothing to do with the actual West. In his Skye's West series, the hero is an Irish sailor who jumped ship on this continent, made his way West, and has two Indian wives. This was not uncommon among Native American cultures, and such families might stay together faithfully all their lives. Skye's favorite weapon is not the six-gun but the belaying pin, and each of the novels is a journey into unknown places.
_The Buffalo Commons_, Mr. Wheeler's only modern novel of the West, pits environmentalists against ranchers in a novel about establishing a buffalo reserve in Montana on land already owned by a rancher. This novel breaks the mold, too, and purposefully so. Mr. Wheeler does not believe a novel must have conflict, defined most of the time as pitting one character against another, but dilemma. He shows how the characters in this novel resolve their dilemmas. In my view, there is plenty of conflict, but not of the variety to be found in "thrillers."
_An Accidental Novelist_ is a wonderful memoir of the writing life. One of the book's major contributions is to the debate surrounding the term, "Western." He rightly points out that there is a true literature of the West that has nothing to do with the "Western," the "shoot-'em-up" as I term it. True Western literature looks honestly and clearly at our history and aims to tell the truth. My pioneer ancestors in Montana faced poverty and achingly hard work to settle this country, and these are the people whom most writers of the "Western" have ignored.
This is the true historical fiction of the West. And Mr. Wheeler does not ignore it in his novels or in the call he makes in his memoir for a true literature of the West.
The book deserves 5 stars, but once again, the publisher's carelessness with editing and typographical errors that interrupt the reading experience bring it to the 4 stars I gave it.
Summary of An Accidental Novelist (Softcover)
In his early forties, Richard Wheeler had never given a thought to writing fiction. By his early seventies, he had written sixty novels. And these were being published while he was climbing the masts of a sinking ship. This late-in-life novelist didn't tackle high literature, but the sweaty world of genre fiction, where the publishers' advances barely paid the rent. He wrote western fiction, and when that genre began to ship water, he leapt over to historical novels, and finally biographical novels, where he found himself in an odd literary corner, without competition. This is a memoir of literary struggle, of agents and editors, of jackets and publicity and book tours. This is also a story about the astonishing help he received along the way from friends, best-selling novelists, agents, editors, and publishers. Writing may be a lonely profession, but Wheeler discovered that the world of genre fiction writers is populated with caring and wise colleagues. Here, Wheeler evokes his early struggles, which somehow prepared him for a life as a successful novelist. He discusses shattered dreams and sudden joys. And running through his narrative is his passion to write about the West in new ways.Authors Books
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