I have never read a book like this one before. For one thing, it's a western, a genre I have not yet learned to appreciate. For another thing, I think it's totally unique. It's subtitled: "The First Vegetarian Western" and that is the reader's first clue that this is not your ordinary tale.
17-year-old Wylie Jackson, orphan son of a mild-mannered cotton broker (a tragedy he feels obliged to live down), joins his first cattle drive as an assistant cook. Before he leaves, his strong-minded friend Alice Beck assigns him to watch over her pet cattalo, Roselle, and make sure the animal gets safely to her aunt in Enid, Oaklahoma. Wylie Jackson eagerly leaves Odessa Texas and begins a series of VERY unexpected adventures that make a man of him.
This book is full of laugh-out-loud descriptions and one-liners. And recipes. And villains. And heroes. And Indians and cowboys and horses and doctors and wisdom and maturity. I'm having trouble describing it because it took me by surprise. It was charming and quirky. I loved it.
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