Review The Sin Killer

The Sin Killer by McMurtry

         If you don't mind blood, guts, amputation, killing animals, cruelty, vomit, etc., this book might be for you. It is visceral for sure. Even sex is treated as an animal act. It is not pornographic, but it is not for the under 16 crowd.

         After Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show, I was expecting something with a little more empathy and characters you could love. There was no character that appealed to me. The Sin Killer, the main character, is an odd mixture of morality, savagery and rugged survival. Jim Snow has violent reactions to remarks he considers sinful. The Indians call him Sin Killer because he is so volatile and murderous. The Indians and trappers claim he preaches, but he does not do so in this story. He has 3 wives before the book is done. He comes into the story late and disappears for a while. He is not even in the ending.

         Central to the story and present throughout is a rich, spoiled English family who cannot adjust to America, where they are not finding life or service like they had at home, especially on the frontier. Their steamer gets stuck several times on the shallow Missouri River. Lives are expendable. In fact, Lord B got tired of naming children after the first four and just numbered the next ten. They sought little privacy and had no secrets. Even the youngest children knew of Papa's mistresses and Mama's boyfriends. The daughters shared some of the boyfriends. Their pleasure was all that mattered to them. The servants, hunting guides, etc,, didn't matter. Cold and adverse conditions were not a consideration if they wanted something.

         the character we follow the most is the 18 -year-old daughter who falls in love with Jim Snow. She is not a likeable person at all. She is selfish, demanding, and aloof, but bold and adventurous. The story ends and you feel like this girl will never be happy. She is in for a lifestyle so unlike anything she has ever known. But she is headstrong and there is no turning back.

         the natives, the frontiersmen, and ship captain all deal with reality and frustration. The Europeans, primarily English, but also French and Italian, are unprepared for this adventure and Mother Nature, nor the Lord's ludicrous demands and ill temper. It's a little slice of geography and historical fiction. Names like Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea are thrown in as having interacted with various guides. I kept wanting a happy ending, but it didn't happen.