Last Go Round: A Real Western

Summoning up the bare bones of Oregon lore, a rip-snorting tale of the true Old West pits three good friends against one another for the World Championship Broncbusting title during the first Pendleton Round-Up of 1911. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo.

The year is 1911, the occasion is the Pendleton, Oregon, Round-Up, and the cast of characters in Kesey's weak new novel (after Sailor Song ) mixes historical and imagined personages in a manner less reminiscent of E. L. Doctorow than of Jack Higgins. In this homage to a vanished genre of pulp fiction, young Tennessean Jonathan E. Lee Spain is on his way to Pendleton with his trusty horse, Stonewall, when he meets Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perce of few words, and George Fletcher, a dapper and wildly talented black cowboy. Sundown and Fletcher are the world's top bronc-riders; falling in with them, Spain is given a view of life on the rodeo circuit as experienced by its most talented but ultimately disenfranchised participants. A heavy-drinking Buffalo Bill Cody and his evil sidekick Frank Gotch, the world-champion wrestler whose body and mind mysteriously ran amok after a trip to Mexico, are the story's chief villains, but con men and cheats are not hard to come by in the high-stakes world of show-biz rodeo. Told via flashback by a much older and wiser Spain, who has since lost a hand in the ring, Kesey's tale portrays rodeo as a show mounted at the cost of both human and animal life. But in the end, his overall comic treatment of this and other tragic themes does not ring true. Despite a wealth of historical information, this latest from the Merry Prankster and his collaborator Babbs ( On the Bus ) is a hodgepodge affair, ill-conceived and poorly crafted. But the 16-page photo insert, featuring the novel's real-life players, might be enough to draw aficionados to the book.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kesey (Sailor Song, 1992, etc.) has written a historical western that amusingly mixes fact and fiction to tell the politically correct story of a multiracial trio of cowboys who achieve a state of spiritual harmony that transcends cultural differences. The author heard the true story of the first Pendleton Round- Up, a world champion rodeo competition, from his father while sitting around a campfire when he was 14. Kesey decided to elaborate on what he had been told by using his imagination rather than any documents he might find combing through ``musty archives.'' Last Go Round, then, tells the story of three men-- local black cowboy George Fletcher, the Nez Perce Indian Jackson Sundown, originally from Idaho, and Johnathan E. Lee Spain, a white teenager from Tennessee--who become close friends during their quest for the championship broncobusting title in 1911. Fletcher and Sundown are considerably older and more experienced than Spain, yet they treat the younger man as a professional and emotional equal, giving this coming-of-age tale a sweet-natured, poignant tone. Basically plotless, the novel tracks the three men through their various--and often comical--rodeo performances, also following their romantic shenanigans and their run-ins with the underhanded Buffalo Bill Cody and their arch-nemesis, the menacingly muscular wrestler Frank Gotch. Although much of the dialogue is written in a charmingly primitive vernacular style, the novel's overall philosophy is a kind of contemporary enlightened humanism, where women and minorities are treated, for the most part, as emancipated equals of their white male counterparts. With co-writer Babbs (On the Bus, not reviewed), Kesey relishes the chance to create a revisionist view of a particular time and place in American history, using the anchor of a real-life event (documented in 16 pages of b&w photos of the actual Pendleton Round-Up) to substantiate his delightfully entertaining vision of goodness triumphing over evil. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Meet Johnathan E. Lee Spain from Tennessee, now a grizzled old-timer who for the first time in a couple of decades visits Pendleton, Oregon, to see the rodeo. He takes the occasion to recall his heyday as winner of the first (1911) Pendleton Round Up when he bested seasoned veterans "Nigger George" Fletcher, a local legend, and Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perc{‚}e Indian. In the tall-tale manner of Mark Twain, merry prankster Kesey and accomplice Babbs embellish a tale about real-life events featuring real-life personalities that Kesey's father told 'round the campfire when Ken was a kid. Ribald and folksy, the book captures the Old West multicultural milieu of a small eastern Oregon town crowded with cowboys, Indians, and tourists. Fletcher and Sundown, colorful and larger than life, take young Spain under their wings, educate him in life, and together go up against the calculating William ("Buffalo Bill") Cody and his henchman, wrestler Frank Gotch, who try to engineer the rodeo's outcome. Plenty of bronco busting, roping, riding, and rambunctious carrying-on flesh out the lively yarn, while cameos by Long Tom (an outlaw sorrel Fletcher rides), Parson Montanic (a renowned hell-raiser turned preacher), Prairie Rose Henderson (a rodeo cowgirl), and naturalist John Muir add local color, as do a pack of period photos. Benjamin Segedin

The genesis of Kesey's latest effort lies in a campfire story, told to him by his father, about the 1911 Pendleton (Oregon) Round-up and the crowning of the "first" world champion "broncbuster," Jonathan E. Lee Spain. Whether Spain actually deserved to win was the subject of some controversy. His chief rivals were a Nez Perce Indian and an African American, both of whom gave memorable performances, but who apparently were not, in the minds of some, "suitable" exemplars of the cowboy myth. The fuzziness of the acutal historical record allows Kesey and Babbs "to conjure our three spectral riders out of the old tall tales" and to present the event from the perspective of Spain as he comes head to head with questions of race, power, and values. Their story is full of memorable characters and entertains in a way that should appeal to a much broader audience than most of Kesey's recent work. This vintage Kesey-his best effort since Sometimes a Great Notion (1964)-will likely engender much interest. A worthy addition to any academic, public, or even high school library.
--David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.