Folly and Glory by Larry McMurtry

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In this brilliant saga -- the final volume of The Berrybender Narratives and an epic in its own right -- Larry McMurtry lives up to his reputation for delivering novels with "wit, grace, and more than a hint of what might be called muscular nostalgia, fit together to create a panoramic portrait of the American West" (The New York Times Book Review).

As this finale opens, Tasmin and her family are under irksome, though comfortable, arrest in Mexican Santa Fe. Her father, the eccentric Lord Berrybender, is planning to head for Texas with his whole family and his retainers, English, American, and Native American. Tasmin, who would once have followed her husband, Jim Snow, anywhere, is no longer even sure she likes him, or knows where to go to next. Neither does anyone else -- even Captain Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, is puzzled by the great changes sweeping over the West, replacing red men and buffalo with towns and farms.

In the meantime, Jim Snow, accompanied by Kit Carson, journeys to New Orleans, where he meets up with a muscular black giant named Juppy, who turns out to be one of Lord Berrybender's many illegitimate offspring, and in whose company they make their way back to Santa Fe. But even they are unable to prevent the Mexicans from carrying the Berrybender family on a long and terrible journey across the desert to Vera Cruz.

Starving, dying of thirst, and in constant, bloody battle with slavers pursuing them, the Berrybenders finally make their way to civilization -- if New Orleans of the time can be called that -- where Jim Snow has to choose between Tasmin and the great American plains, on which he has lived all his life in freedom, and where, after all her adventures, Tasmin must finally decide where her future lies.

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recent publishing history

First Edition

Hardcover

May-2004

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0743233050

ISBN13: 9780743233057

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Audio Cassette

May-2004

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0743527852

ISBN13: 9780743527859

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Hardcover

Jul-2004

Large Print

ISBN: 1587246937

ISBN13: 9781587246937

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Paperback

Mar-2005

Pocket

ISBN: 0743451449

ISBN13: 9780743451444

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Trade Paperback

Aug-2005

Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0743262727

ISBN13: 9780743262729

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book info

Larry McMurtry Book List

published

May-2004 (hardcover)

Mar-2005 (paperback)

author series

The Berrybender Narratives - 4

genres

Western

Western

time period

American West

featured author

Harlan Coben

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