Gunslinger by Ed Gorman

 

No lead-off quote; more about that in a moment.

This is an anthology of Western Stories, the full title being Gunslinger and Nine Other Action-Packed Stories of the Wild West.

In this volume we are treated to nine stories ranging from the late-80s thru the 90s and two non-fiction essays: “On Roy Rogers” and “Writing the Modern Western.”

Gorman is an author I have read much of and yet, and be advised this is the reader’s fault, he leaves very little impression on me.

Don’t get me wrong, the craft is there. There is a smoothness of tale that is undeniable.

There is simply some disconnection between this smoothness of a journeyman’s offerings and this reader that simply does not click.

I would easily rate the stories here as solid B’s top to bottom and yet, as I finished each one, I had to rouse myself to move on to the next.

All the elements are there but there is a remove there [to my eye], something that says, “Hmm, this is a skilled craftsman concocting what a good Western story should be” as opposed to the lived-in crispness of air from an author who has lived outdoors.

Gorman writes with a correctness to the genre that raises it above formula, but it strikes me that it is an “expertness” borne of research. There is an authenticity lacking as we find when Frank O’Rourke causally mentions the tang in the air after a brief rain, or Frank Bonham gets the naturalness of men sizing each other up no matter the encounter.

Gorman has craft. Gorman has skill.

If you have a fondness for Gorman, jump all over this volume and you will find much to enjoy.

Any fault in the volume here is likely on my end.