Anything for Billy

Anything for Billy
AuthorLarry McMurtry
LanguageEnglish
SubjectBilly the Kid
Publication date
1988
Publication placeUSA

Anything for Billy is a 1988 American novel by Larry McMurtry about Billy the Kid.

It was one of a series of what McMutry called his "frontier yarns", others including Boone's Lick and Buffalo Girls. He said Anything for Billy was a parody of dime novels.[1] He also wrote that Anything for Billy and Buffalo Girls "I tried to subvert the Western myth with irony and parody."[2]

Reception

Kirkus Reviews wrote, "Stuffed with excitement, humor, tragedy, and leathery Western lore; centerpieced by McMurtry's vibrant portrait of Billy, scary, pathetic, yet darkly if oddly sympathetic; told in a warm, wise voice that you wish would never cease: this is a golden, always surprising yarn, and a welcome return by McMurtry to the high-stepping form of Lonesome Dove."[3]

Publisher's Weekly said "This tale of random violence, unlikely romance and quicksilver friendships in the old West is a rip-roaring gamble with a tear in its eye, and it pays off in spades."[4]

References

  1. ^ McMurtry, Larry (2009). Literary Life: A Second Memoir. Simon & Schuster. p. 152.
  2. ^ McMurtry, Larry (2001). Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen : reflections at sixty and beyond. p. 55.
  3. ^ Anything for Billy review at Kirkus
  4. ^ Anything for Billy review at Publishers Weekly


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