Mesilla

Read 1/4/16 - 1/8/165 Stars - Highly Recommended / The Next Best BookPage: 113Publisher: Dock Street PressReleased: September 2015Confession: I've had this book downloaded to my Kindle for quite some time and for reasons that are not completely clear to me, I left it sitting in the good ole TBR pile. After seeing The Hateful Eight a few weeks ago, I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to read a gritty western that wasn't too concerned with the fact that it was a Western and turns out, Robert Jam [...]

Rob's published my work in the past, so it's unlikely that I'll be reviewing this for any publications, which was my intention. But this book does a lot of good with the Western genre. The book takes tropes (the solitary, conflicted hero, a woman in distress, loss, destinations, a pursuing villain) and acknowledges their potential for cliche, but also their potential for new stories. There's a lot gotten out of the terse dialogue, and the descriptions are consistently beautiful. Perhaps I'll wri [...]

Tight little western that you can knock out in a single sitting or a weekend. All the classic elements of the western are there, filtered through Russell's honed literary voice. Treasure and riches? Check. Grizzled gunslingers? Check. A stark landscape for the villain to chase the hero across? Check. Thoroughly enjoyed this novella.

MESILLA is a Western. It says so right on the cover. It makes no apologies for being a Western but doesn’t make a show of it, either. By this, I mean that it isn’t “celebrating the genre” by self-consciously evoking classic tropes and referencing every John Wayne movie. Rather, MESILLA gives us a story and that story happens to be a Western.The plot of this 113 page novella is, in fact, fairly simple. It’s 1863, and Confederate deserter Everett Root traverses a desert in New Mexico Ter [...]

It is clear to me that I am becoming more and more of a fan of Robert James Russell. His novellas are wonderfully written and spark so much intrigue. Russell takes your typical western backdrop and turns in into something more. His poetic pens flows and delivers us a rugged gunslinger, woman in distress, and hostile Indians. This book is a fast read and packed full of adventure. The backdrop of this book is set in a rough world and you root for our main hero as he races against his opponent. Thi [...]

I'm generally not drawn to Westerns for no real reason really. But Robert's novella was a short, sweet, and impactful entry into the genre for me. Awesome to read and support someone has been so supportive of my own work along the way. Plus, mine has an original drawing of an ostrich inside. Does yours?

I picked up this book mostly due to the title. Mesilla is a town very close to where I live, and reading this book, I was able to imagine the landscape. Although, I had a hard time figuring out in what direction the main characters were traveling, but I recognized all the named landmarks. Definitely a western in the vein of Larry McMurty and Lonesome Dove.

This book is bold in its simplicity. The entire story follows one character as he struggles through one event with a sense of ever present dread that never lets you or him forget that it's coming. It's fun and immersive. Russell also deftly handles patois and character details that suck you into the environment naturally, without trying to push you overboard.

This is a very bland story. Things happen. Westerny words are used. Wafer-thin characters exist as stereotypes exhausted in Clint Eastwood films of yesteryear. Murky flashbacks muck about the main character's mind to break up the mostly insipid descriptions of the landscape. On occasion, the author writes something interesting, but mostly he doesn't. The grammar works. That's about it.

Simple short western that evoked memories of a real place in an imagined time. This is my country and people

Fucking gripping.More - changeyourlifethiswill

A great short novel that will totally captivate you. I am so glad I won this as a giveaway on . It is a quick read but worthwhile nonetheless. I thoroughly loved the authors abrupt style.

Excellent Western with a man on the run from an unrelenting enemy done almost in the style of Carpenter's "Halloween". Great tension throughout. Hoping for a follow-up!

Excellent western novel. Unflinching and relentless. A panoramic view of the southwest, and a slow (painful) revealing of one man's heart.