The Wandering Hill: The Berrybender Narratives, Book 2 (Mass Market Paperback)

First off, the "Wandering Hill" is a small, 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, and 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 Talleyrand, and a rabble of servants, all traveling up the Yellowstone River by steamboat. By THE WANDERING HILL, Constance, one of the offspring, and 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, and 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, and 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 all eventually tied into Gus McCrae's and Woodrow Call'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 all. Having left the confines of the riverboat, the Berrybender party spends over half the book at an Indian trading post, where Tasmin and Venetia Kennet, the group's cellist, have babies. Then, after some aimless wandering about, they subsequently all 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 overall 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 all. 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 and 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.

A Child of prvilege, Tasmin Berrybender, finds herself married to a dark and sometimes violent mountain man, and traveling across the American west with her family and their entourage in search of game for her often drunk and half mad father, Lord Berrybender, to shoot.

Although the purpose of their journey is to hunt game, the real story revolves around all of the conflicts that arise when these wonderfully drawn characters are put together. Can Tasmin tame her dark husband, the Sin Killer, or will the harsh life of the plains tame her? Will Lord Berrybender ever get the servants and women to stop being so american and start following his orders again? Will any of them make it out of the west alive? These questions kept me turning the pages of this book 2 of the Berrybender Narratives even though I never read Book 1.

This story is not about cowboys and indians. It is about wildly diffeent people trying to survive in a brutal environment together.