Buffalo Girls

Larry McMurtry

10/19/2000

This book opens with a letter Calamity Jane is writing to her daughter, Janey. Calamity talks about her friends and the Old American West. The glory days are past. Wild Bill Hickock, Janey's father, is dead. Buffalo Bill Cody has started his Wild West Show. The beaver and buffalo are gone. Many of the major wars with the Indians have been fought.

This fictional book focuses on the later life of Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Cannery) and her friends Dora, Jim Raggs, Bartle, Pancake Johnny, and the Sioux native No Ears. Their high time has past. Yet they still yearn for the open, free life in the West. This book follows them as they finish their lives, following fulfilled dreams and unfulfilled dreams. Some of them join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show when he takes it to England.

I found this book quite poignant. These are the wilder characters of the Old West. Their dreams from earlier days can no longer be fulfilled. The American West has changed that much during their lifetimes. Letters from Calamity to Janey are interspersed throughout the book giving the reader insight into her thoughts, hopes, fears, and knowledge of herself.

Since this is fiction I have no idea how much Mr. McMurtry made up and how much is based on fact other than the obvious facts - Calamity's tendency to drink, the Wild West Show, the wars with the American Indians, the disappearance of the West, etc. Some of the specific characters mentioned may not have lived, but I'm sure people like them did. Calamity Jane has a secret that she hints at to Janey, but is not revealed until the end of the book. Even then, the reader is left to wonder.

You can find this book at both in print or on audiocassette.