Pony boys / Richard Prosch.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781432899103
- ISBN: 1432899104
- Physical Description: 243 pages ; 23 cm.
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: Waterville, Maine : Five Star, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, [2022]
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Middleton, Doc, 1851-1913 > Fiction. Horse stealing > Fiction. Outlaws > Fiction. Law enforcement > Fiction. Friendship > Fiction. Loyalty > Fiction. |
Genre: | Historical fiction. Western fiction. Novels. |
Search for related items by series
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Festus Public Library | Fic Prosch Western (Text) | 32017000083625 | Adult Fiction | Available | - |
BookList Review
Pony Boys
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Pony Boys is a loosely fictionalized telling of the story of Doc Middleton, Kid Wade, and the Pony Boys outlaw gang, tearing it up as horse rustlers and ne'er-do-wells in 1870s Nebraska. Prosch uses protagonist August John to describe de facto gang leader Doc Middleton with great affection: a man simultaneously gentle and ruthless, loyal and self-interested. The exploits are typical: horse theft under cover of night, suspicion and betrayal as the lawmen close in, vigilantes roaming the countryside and waiting in ambush. It's the setting that makes this novel a pleasure. Rarely are Westerns set in Niobrara River country; when Prosch leaves the Pony Boys world behind to romanticize the picturesque scenery or mundane farm chores, the novel meanders with an easy charm. Moreover, it allows Prosch to describe gunslinging outlaws nearly lost to time. As the book draws to a close, Prosch allows August John to find some semblance of peace, hopefully away from the gang. Although staged as the first book in a trilogy, Pony Boys could easily be read as a stand-alone novel.