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Zeke and Ned
Full of adventure, grace, and tragedy, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana tell the story of two powerful Cherokee warriors searching for the future of Indian Territory.
Zeke and Ned is the story of Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, the last Cherokee warriors—two proud, passionate men whose remarkable quest to carve a future out of Indian Territory east of the Arkansas River after the Civil War is not only history, but legend. Played out against an American West governed by a brutal brand of frontier justice, this intensely moving saga brims with a rich cast of indomitable and utterly unforgettable characters such as Becca, Zeke's gallant Cherokee wife, and Jewel Sixkiller Proctor, whose love for Ned makes her a tragic heroine.
At once exuberant and poignant, bittersweet and brilliant, Zeke and Ned takes us deep into the hearts of two extraordinary men who were willing to go the distance for the bold vision they shared—and for the women they loved.
Zeke and Ned is the story of Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, the last Cherokee warriors—two proud, passionate men whose remarkable quest to carve a future out of Indian Territory east of the Arkansas River after the Civil War is not only history, but legend. Played out against an American West governed by a brutal brand of frontier justice, this intensely moving saga brims with a rich cast of indomitable and utterly unforgettable characters such as Becca, Zeke's gallant Cherokee wife, and Jewel Sixkiller Proctor, whose love for Ned makes her a tragic heroine.
At once exuberant and poignant, bittersweet and brilliant, Zeke and Ned takes us deep into the hearts of two extraordinary men who were willing to go the distance for the bold vision they shared—and for the women they loved.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
96 people are currently reading
1538 people want to read
About the author
Larry McMurtry
204 books3,914 followersLarry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller.
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.
In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 147 reviews
January 16, 2014
Larry McMurtry is my new discovery. For years I've looked at his many books on the shelves of bookstores with their pictures of cowboys on the covers and passed them over thinking that someone who wrote so many books and so many popular ones could not have written them well. I know. I'm ashamed to have thought this way. But with age sometimes comes wisdom and better yet humility. This is my second McMurtry book and the thought of all those other of his books of his yet to read fills me with hope. I'll get through many long winter days, many commutes to and from work, with his stories keeping me happy. Zeke and Ned is part yarn, part history, part memoir of two Cherokee men living in the territory assigned to them by the U.S. government. A very realistic western that reads as if you're sitting by a fire on a starry night and an old man is telling you a story. The style of writing is unique. As someone who loves to write and wants to do it carefully and well, I am learning so much from Larry McMurtry's books
December 22, 2018
10/2/18
Chanced upon a video about Ned that has interesting photos. ("Our Geronimo. Our Sitting Bull. He represented the Cherokee People.")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNPy...
***
3/20/18
Read McMurtry's famous one, and multiple others by him. Annoyed by his South Pacific piece. Zeke and Ned pleasantly surprised me, curious about co-author.
In Zeke, there are memorable characters, some reminding me of the outlaws in Douglas Jones' HF, set in the Territory. Think Douglas deserves more attention than Larry.
A Spider for Loco Shoat
**
And the customary Kirkus:
"KIRKUS REVIEW
Pulitzer Prize winner McMurtry (Dead Man's Walk, 1995, etc.) and his collaborator on Pretty Boy Floyd (1994) attempt to bestow mythic stature on a maverick American Indian in this for-want-of-a-nail yarn set in 1870s Oklahoma. A half-breed member of the Cherokee Nation, Zeke Proctor is a hard-drinking, happy-go-lucky smallholder. Although married and the father of five, he is surreptitiously bedding the local miller's wife. When her aggrieved husband, a white man, takes revenge by shoveling weevils into Zeke's ground corn, the Civil War vet accidentally shoots and kills his paramour while gunning for the cuckold. Afraid of being hauled before a white judge and swiftly condemned, Zeke takes shelter with his Cherokee son-in-law Ned Christie, claiming the right to be judged by his own people. On the day of his trial in an Indian tribunal, the departed's vindictive brothers precipitate a massacre that leaves 12 more dead. Acquitted in a sham proceeding, Zeke is eventually granted amnesty by President Ulysses S. Grant. By contrast, Ned (unjustly blamed by white officials for the courthouse bloodbath and subsequent murder of a federal marshal) is forced to take to the hills. At the cost of an eye and his young wife's unborn child, he repulses the first posse sent to bring him in. After this violent, embittering brush with the law, the wanted man takes a warrior's vow, refuses to speak English, and digs in for a long siege. Ned holds out for years until a crew of outlaws with badges manages to blast him from his mountain redoubt, albeit not before he becomes an immortal legend among his fatalistic people and in the wider world. A mock-heroic tale of culture shock and sudden death along our westering frontier in which the principals (whether red or white) are portrayed as simple-minded primitives."
My favorite by McMurtry
Chanced upon a video about Ned that has interesting photos. ("Our Geronimo. Our Sitting Bull. He represented the Cherokee People.")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBNPy...
***
3/20/18
Read McMurtry's famous one, and multiple others by him. Annoyed by his South Pacific piece. Zeke and Ned pleasantly surprised me, curious about co-author.
In Zeke, there are memorable characters, some reminding me of the outlaws in Douglas Jones' HF, set in the Territory. Think Douglas deserves more attention than Larry.
A Spider for Loco Shoat
**
And the customary Kirkus:
"KIRKUS REVIEW
Pulitzer Prize winner McMurtry (Dead Man's Walk, 1995, etc.) and his collaborator on Pretty Boy Floyd (1994) attempt to bestow mythic stature on a maverick American Indian in this for-want-of-a-nail yarn set in 1870s Oklahoma. A half-breed member of the Cherokee Nation, Zeke Proctor is a hard-drinking, happy-go-lucky smallholder. Although married and the father of five, he is surreptitiously bedding the local miller's wife. When her aggrieved husband, a white man, takes revenge by shoveling weevils into Zeke's ground corn, the Civil War vet accidentally shoots and kills his paramour while gunning for the cuckold. Afraid of being hauled before a white judge and swiftly condemned, Zeke takes shelter with his Cherokee son-in-law Ned Christie, claiming the right to be judged by his own people. On the day of his trial in an Indian tribunal, the departed's vindictive brothers precipitate a massacre that leaves 12 more dead. Acquitted in a sham proceeding, Zeke is eventually granted amnesty by President Ulysses S. Grant. By contrast, Ned (unjustly blamed by white officials for the courthouse bloodbath and subsequent murder of a federal marshal) is forced to take to the hills. At the cost of an eye and his young wife's unborn child, he repulses the first posse sent to bring him in. After this violent, embittering brush with the law, the wanted man takes a warrior's vow, refuses to speak English, and digs in for a long siege. Ned holds out for years until a crew of outlaws with badges manages to blast him from his mountain redoubt, albeit not before he becomes an immortal legend among his fatalistic people and in the wider world. A mock-heroic tale of culture shock and sudden death along our westering frontier in which the principals (whether red or white) are portrayed as simple-minded primitives."
My favorite by McMurtry
September 4, 2016
In real life, Ezekiel Proctor (1831-1907) was a mixed blood Cherokee who survived The Trail of Tears at age 7, fought for the Union in the Civil War, was a district sheriff and a federal marshal, served the Cherokee Nation as a respected senator, and made a living being a farmer and a cattleman. He had two children before he married, and 5 more by his first wife who died a few months after she delivered triplets. He married twice more before he died.
Ned Christie (1852-1892) was the son of Trail of Tears survivors, became a blacksmith and a gunsmith, and was elected to the tribal senate at age 33. He was married 4 times. In 1887, he was falsely accused of murdering a federal marshal and spent the last 5 years of his life trying to prove his innocence, and causing his would-be captors more trouble than anyone ever imagined.
Zeke and Ned is a novel based on the experiences of these two men. As fiction, it’s an embellished yarn that doesn’t set well with some readers. Still, there are many more positive reviews than negative, and I agree with the most positive of the positive. It’s “enjoyable,” and “richly entertaining,” with “Dickensian characters” that “provide an abundance of comic, tragic, vicious, pathetic, and colorful accents.”
In other words, it’s a hoot! I loved it!
Ned Christie (1852-1892) was the son of Trail of Tears survivors, became a blacksmith and a gunsmith, and was elected to the tribal senate at age 33. He was married 4 times. In 1887, he was falsely accused of murdering a federal marshal and spent the last 5 years of his life trying to prove his innocence, and causing his would-be captors more trouble than anyone ever imagined.
Zeke and Ned is a novel based on the experiences of these two men. As fiction, it’s an embellished yarn that doesn’t set well with some readers. Still, there are many more positive reviews than negative, and I agree with the most positive of the positive. It’s “enjoyable,” and “richly entertaining,” with “Dickensian characters” that “provide an abundance of comic, tragic, vicious, pathetic, and colorful accents.”
In other words, it’s a hoot! I loved it!
January 31, 2023
I strongly recommend Larry McMurtry's very fine Zeke and Ned, set in mid-19th century Oklahoma, after the Cherokee tribe's forced resettlement to Indian Territory (now eastern Oklahoma). A crackerjack, underrated historical novel. On my to-be-reread list.
For more details, read Toni's informative review. "Based on a true story", as you might have guessed. I did, but never pursued it. Thanks, Toni! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
NB: I tried re-reading this one in late 2015 (copy at BG), but DNF. No notes why. Likely I'll give it another go sometime. It's not like we're getting more from him!
For more details, read Toni's informative review. "Based on a true story", as you might have guessed. I did, but never pursued it. Thanks, Toni! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
NB: I tried re-reading this one in late 2015 (copy at BG), but DNF. No notes why. Likely I'll give it another go sometime. It's not like we're getting more from him!
July 24, 2014
Going into "Zeke and Ned" I didn't realize both Zeke Proctor and Ned (Edward) Christie were real people. As I got into the story, however, I did some research and lo and behold: what kind of mixed bag storytelling were McMurtry and Ossana doing here? This is a fine novel, but it's troubling that the writers have taken real people from the Cherokee Nation and then have proceeded with the fictionalization. Why not just either try and flesh out these men and their neighbors, or create fictional names for all? Either that or let the reader know what's true and what's not. The section about "Ned's War" as told in the novel -- well, too much that the writers do to the so called fictional characters also named Zeke and Ned, actually happened, from what I can tell. Shades of Wild Bill Anderson in death ...While nobody does a Western better, including the dialogue, in the end, Larry McMurtry, I will have to say that Ned Christie deserves better.
July 24, 2012
Lonesome Dove is one of my all-time favorite books so I had to try this one. I really enjoyed Zeke and Ned, although the ending seemed a bit abrupt. Perhaps I was just sorry to see the book end. McMurtry combines description and dialogue so beautifully. His characters live on in my memory as if I had really known them.
January 11, 2023
Zeke and Ned takes its time getting going, but after a courtroom shootout about 150 pages in, it never slows down. It’s also got heavy themes, focusing on the conflict inherent in white America’s attempts to interfere (usually violently) with the post-Trail of Tears Cherokee nation. The titular friends are flawed but basically good men who want to be able to live their lives without being bothered. But when Zeke accidentally kills a former lover, it sets off a chain of events that ends, after a LOT of bloodshed and violation, with a military siege on a nearly impenetrable fort built by one man who refuses to back down. The book’s cycles of violence grow more painful to observe as the book spirals towards its climax, both because of the inevitable outcome for the characters involved and because you know it represents the beginning of a new era in American history, one of aggressive and concerted westward expansion. I was curious to see how the McMurtry/Ossana writing team would function together, but this is a seamless reading experience that fits right in with McMurtry’s other strong books.
July 15, 2020
McMurtry's Zeke and Ned is an interesting look at true events that occurred in western Arkansas and Indian Territory (Oklahoma) during the early 1870's and the era of Judge Parker. The events of the Going Snake Massacre in the court located in Talequah with Zeke Proctor's trial leads to the events that become Ned Christie's War. The novel does reflect some truths about the hardship of the times, the prejudice against the Natives, and the fact that many deputies (and even some Marshals) were worse criminals than the men they were hired to hunt down.
McMurtry keeps the names of some famous and infamous characters involved. The names of a few people on both sides have been changed. McMurtry and co-author Diana Ossana definitely take a few creative liberties with the history and left a major detail or two out, including a witness who would come forth years later to reveal who the real killer of Marshal Dan Maples happened to be.
The biggest problem is the constant repetition. There are things a variety of characters say, do, or think that get repeated three or five times, as if the authors were writing each chapter separately and forgot what they had written, or were releasing each chapter as a short story unto itself and explaining a situation all over again.
Beyond that, the dialogue, pacing, and action are well done. Most of the story takes place from either Ned or Zeke's point of view, with the occasional look from their friends, enemies, or the Judge and his court.
Worth the read and an interesting peek into history so much so that it'll probably encourage people to look up what facts they can or visit the U.S. Marshal Museum in Fort Smith once it opens to the general public.
McMurtry keeps the names of some famous and infamous characters involved. The names of a few people on both sides have been changed. McMurtry and co-author Diana Ossana definitely take a few creative liberties with the history and left a major detail or two out, including a witness who would come forth years later to reveal who the real killer of Marshal Dan Maples happened to be.
The biggest problem is the constant repetition. There are things a variety of characters say, do, or think that get repeated three or five times, as if the authors were writing each chapter separately and forgot what they had written, or were releasing each chapter as a short story unto itself and explaining a situation all over again.
Beyond that, the dialogue, pacing, and action are well done. Most of the story takes place from either Ned or Zeke's point of view, with the occasional look from their friends, enemies, or the Judge and his court.
Worth the read and an interesting peek into history so much so that it'll probably encourage people to look up what facts they can or visit the U.S. Marshal Museum in Fort Smith once it opens to the general public.
June 19, 2012
WHAT an INCREDIBLY entertaining read! The many eccentric characters and unanticipated antics remind me of a classic Greek morality tragedy by Sophocles or Homer.
That "Hanging" Judge Isaac Parker (of Fort Smith, Arkansas) is presented as a really likable and harried civil servant!
I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the hard copy book and KNOW that the audible version by my favorite Barrett Whitener would be outstanding!
That "Hanging" Judge Isaac Parker (of Fort Smith, Arkansas) is presented as a really likable and harried civil servant!
I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the hard copy book and KNOW that the audible version by my favorite Barrett Whitener would be outstanding!
books-abandoned
February 21, 2019I quite like some of Larry McMurtry's books, so I puzzle over why this one bored me so much that I gave up after reading about 15% of it. Perhaps he has lost a step, perhaps his collaborator watered down the McMurty style, and perhaps it is something else. All I can be sure about is that I will not read more to find out.
August 8, 2019
Felt like I was waiting for something big to happen the whole book, and it never really did. I didn't see much difference between the Indian characters and white characters in the way they spoke or were portrayed. Everyone is pretty much an idiot in this book. Nonetheless, McMurty still a great writer and I read the whole damn thing!
Read
May 22, 2023No review available--but essentially I prefer "big city" or "contemporary" McMurtry to
"western" McMurtry.
"western" McMurtry.
September 2, 2021
This book is like a Lyle Lovett song... quirky with odd characters that you learn to like in spite of their oddities.
I like all of McMurtrys books. This is not the best of his books. Lonesome Dove is.
But you feel the soul and history of the time...1885 Arkansas after the The Trail of Tears. Set in the Cherokee Nation it is the story of Zeke Proctor and Ned Christie the last of the Cherokee warriors real men who have to live and whose fates are decided under the brutal policies that caused the Trail of Tears.
I like all of McMurtrys books. This is not the best of his books. Lonesome Dove is.
But you feel the soul and history of the time...1885 Arkansas after the The Trail of Tears. Set in the Cherokee Nation it is the story of Zeke Proctor and Ned Christie the last of the Cherokee warriors real men who have to live and whose fates are decided under the brutal policies that caused the Trail of Tears.
March 11, 2017
History and legend join together in the story of Zeke and Ned. Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, are the last Cherokee warriors on a journey to the Indian Territory near the Arkansas River. Larry McMurtry writes wonderful novels that bring the past alive.
August 8, 2018
Yes! some really excellent story telling of historical fiction and drama. The story jumps around between a host of characters, but I loved the neat way their intertwined lives were explained. By the time you get to the end, it's very easy to forget WHY their lives concluded as they did given all the details in between, but ugh Zeke. He really was the cause of so much pain and death, all because he wanted a second wife.
I haven't read a lot about Native Americans, so this was a very educational source of info from this time period as well. Death, the causes of death, how someone's actions influence a whole chain of events, law and order, and the relationships of man and wife in the Cherokee nation after the Civil War - that's what you'll learn about from Zeke and Ned. There's no happy ending here, but some wonderful passages that make you think about your own modern-day life.
"The thing Chilly liked to think about most was the law, a force he only dimly understood. The law did not exist in any one place or any one time, like the catfish his father had caught, or the mist that lay on the Arkansas River in the mornings. [...] The law was everywhere, like air, but on court days it collected itself inside the courthouse, as mist collected itself on the surface of the river."
"White people, in their way, might be smart about some things -- but very few of them were good about taking things in their time. They seemed to think that time itself was like a sheep, or a cow -- a thing they could own, and herd around at their whim. Sheriff Bobtail knew better. Nobody could own time, or herd it around like cattle or sheep. He had tried, over the years, to discuss the matter with some of the more intelligent whites, so that they might be more relaxed and not use up their lives so quickly."
As always, I caught some errors created in the course of editing, I suppose. A few incorrect words, but mainly I was confused when at one point Zeke said Jewel was his step daughter. It was only referenced once, and shortly after Zeke said how he and Becca has discussed what to name her when she was born, so it doesn't add up that Becca would have had a daughter with a previous husband, but not name her till she married Zeke - which must have happened right away if Jewel was still a baby. I'm not sure why that was in there, but I'll assume someone made a mistake.
I haven't read a lot about Native Americans, so this was a very educational source of info from this time period as well. Death, the causes of death, how someone's actions influence a whole chain of events, law and order, and the relationships of man and wife in the Cherokee nation after the Civil War - that's what you'll learn about from Zeke and Ned. There's no happy ending here, but some wonderful passages that make you think about your own modern-day life.
"The thing Chilly liked to think about most was the law, a force he only dimly understood. The law did not exist in any one place or any one time, like the catfish his father had caught, or the mist that lay on the Arkansas River in the mornings. [...] The law was everywhere, like air, but on court days it collected itself inside the courthouse, as mist collected itself on the surface of the river."
"White people, in their way, might be smart about some things -- but very few of them were good about taking things in their time. They seemed to think that time itself was like a sheep, or a cow -- a thing they could own, and herd around at their whim. Sheriff Bobtail knew better. Nobody could own time, or herd it around like cattle or sheep. He had tried, over the years, to discuss the matter with some of the more intelligent whites, so that they might be more relaxed and not use up their lives so quickly."
As always, I caught some errors created in the course of editing, I suppose. A few incorrect words, but mainly I was confused when at one point Zeke said Jewel was his step daughter. It was only referenced once, and shortly after Zeke said how he and Becca has discussed what to name her when she was born, so it doesn't add up that Becca would have had a daughter with a previous husband, but not name her till she married Zeke - which must have happened right away if Jewel was still a baby. I'm not sure why that was in there, but I'll assume someone made a mistake.
October 16, 2021
Page 395
When finally it was time for me to go home to Becca, Ned walked up to my horse and told me he had taken a vow never to speak the English language again. The bullet had left Ned’s nose twisted a little to the side, and he wasn’t quite as handsome as he used to be. But he was still a great warrior in the eyes of the Cherokee Nation. He had survived attack, and so had my Jewel, his wife; he wanted me to spread the word among our people. He wanted them to know that he would never speak the enemy’s tongue again. Becca was fluent in Cherokee and English. Being that the Cherokees were the only Indians with a written alphabet, Becca had made certain Jewel learned how to speak and write in both languages, too. She had crooned all our babies to sleep by singing hymns to them in Cherokee, and Jewel knew most of the words to those songs herself. I figured, rightly, that Jewel would be able to keep up with Ned in the language department. To my knowledge, Ned Christie kept his word: he only spoke the Cherokee tongue for the rest of his life.
When finally it was time for me to go home to Becca, Ned walked up to my horse and told me he had taken a vow never to speak the English language again. The bullet had left Ned’s nose twisted a little to the side, and he wasn’t quite as handsome as he used to be. But he was still a great warrior in the eyes of the Cherokee Nation. He had survived attack, and so had my Jewel, his wife; he wanted me to spread the word among our people. He wanted them to know that he would never speak the enemy’s tongue again. Becca was fluent in Cherokee and English. Being that the Cherokees were the only Indians with a written alphabet, Becca had made certain Jewel learned how to speak and write in both languages, too. She had crooned all our babies to sleep by singing hymns to them in Cherokee, and Jewel knew most of the words to those songs herself. I figured, rightly, that Jewel would be able to keep up with Ned in the language department. To my knowledge, Ned Christie kept his word: he only spoke the Cherokee tongue for the rest of his life.
September 9, 2022
I've been feeling lackluster about my review writing as of late and I really hope I can fix that for this review because... this book deserves it. I'll come out and say it right now: this is the best non-speculative-fiction book I've ever read. I'm glad it was so good because this is the first book that someone close to me put in my hand and said I should buy (it was an a library sale in... May of 2022). If it was a turd, I'd feel bad... but I'd still call it a turd. Thankfully, Zeke + Ned is the western I never knew I needed.
I'll break this review into the different elements of writing: the prose, the plot, the characters, the perspective, the themes, emotional impact and whatever else I think of along the way. It's the only review structure I can think of where I'll remember everything I want to say.
The prose: It's really, really good. It took me a bit to get into it, but it's quite fun when you get into it. Let me skip to perspective here: Omniscient third-person point-of-view is hard to pull off. I've recognized it in my own writing and have stopped using it because it's hard to follow when written by most people. I just read a technothriller (Micro) that suffered immensely because of this tense. On the other hand, McCurtry + co played it like a fiddle. You get into almost every character's head at some point in the book (and there are a lot of characters) and he just makes the Wild West... funny. Everyone's thoughts are dry and blunt and I laughed more reading this brutal tragedy that I usual do during a comedy movie. The writing isn't poetic or purple, but it more than did the job for me. I didn't love the shift to first-person for the last fifth of the book, and that's probably the only reason it's rated only four stars. I see why they did it, and they did pull it off in the end, but I think the story could've been a hundred pages longer so we could just soak in the final act of the story like we did the first two acts.
The plot is built around the fact that one of our main characters (Zeke) couldn't keep it in his pants and just had to go off and get another wife. In the process of trying to shoot her husband (kind of in self defense...), he accidently shot her. Meanwhile, Ned marries Zeke's sixteen-year-old daughter Jewel and they try to start a family. Their exercise in homemaking is cut into by Zeke's various disputes with the Bek brothers (the dead woman's husband was a Bek) and the overarching conflict between between Indian and white law (although both judges are fine and decent people who get along with each other) and the dozens of other wrinkles in the plot. It really is all over the place, and you hear everyone's perspectives in these scenes, but I never found it too much; I always remembered who each character was and their role was, it and was just an epic western adventure like none other I've read.
We'll have to talk about theme a lot to properly talk about the characters, but let's just talk about the people themselves quick. Most of them are somewhat gray: everyone screws up, but some people recognize that they screwed up and try to fix themselves; some don't. I think most of the characters are really good. Sometimes motivations can be a bit fuzzy and flim-flam depending on the situation, but I don't think that's really unrealistic just stupid on their fictional parts. You really do learn to love the screw-ups that are Zeke + Ned, and rightfully so. A lot of the characters and their motivations and their internal monologues orbit around marriage. Most people are married, and they have different thoughts on marriage. A lot of the men are a bit unsavory and neglectful toward their marriage. A lot of the women feel their marriages are their reason for being. Some gender roles (in both ways) are quite dated while some are quite unique. I compared these relationships to my own relationship and it made me think about just how we treat each other. The theme of this book lies somewhere in the way cowboys and their wives loved each other. Just how can you define this kind of love? I can't say I'm any closer to answering that because I'm sure as Hell not a thematic reader, but I did find it rich and thought-provoking.
Zeke and Ned also provoked something else: emotion. I read a lot of books, and most of them don't inspire me to feel much, even some of my favorites. But this book... well, one scene in particular (), while not the thing that usually affects me, made me tear up. The authors did a great job framing the aftermath and effects rather than the deed itself (), and it was really smart. I honest-to-God teared up during that passage, and I can still count on one hand the amount of books that have threatened to force liquids out of me. A great feat by McCurtry here. Also, a short note on impact, I actually took to his style to write part of a story I'm writing about the War of 1812. I love the dry spin he puts on everything and I'd like to put a little bit of it into my work without commiting to all his stylistic choices.
All in all, this is one of the best books I've read... this year, I think. I've firmly come out of a reading slump, and if I hadn't had such a crappy weekend while I read this, I think it could've gotten close to five stars. But, alas, it *only* gets a 9 out of 10, which means it was really, really good. Best western I've read (and I've almost read two hands' full!) and probably the best non-sci-fi/fantasy fiction book I've read. I'll have to read more McCurtry... I do have Lonesome Dove from a different library sale, but that's a huge book, so maybe I'll pick something else up before diving into that. We'll see. Until then... back to the science fiction. Don't worry, Ned; I'll always remember you.
I'll break this review into the different elements of writing: the prose, the plot, the characters, the perspective, the themes, emotional impact and whatever else I think of along the way. It's the only review structure I can think of where I'll remember everything I want to say.
The prose: It's really, really good. It took me a bit to get into it, but it's quite fun when you get into it. Let me skip to perspective here: Omniscient third-person point-of-view is hard to pull off. I've recognized it in my own writing and have stopped using it because it's hard to follow when written by most people. I just read a technothriller (Micro) that suffered immensely because of this tense. On the other hand, McCurtry + co played it like a fiddle. You get into almost every character's head at some point in the book (and there are a lot of characters) and he just makes the Wild West... funny. Everyone's thoughts are dry and blunt and I laughed more reading this brutal tragedy that I usual do during a comedy movie. The writing isn't poetic or purple, but it more than did the job for me. I didn't love the shift to first-person for the last fifth of the book, and that's probably the only reason it's rated only four stars. I see why they did it, and they did pull it off in the end, but I think the story could've been a hundred pages longer so we could just soak in the final act of the story like we did the first two acts.
The plot is built around the fact that one of our main characters (Zeke) couldn't keep it in his pants and just had to go off and get another wife. In the process of trying to shoot her husband (kind of in self defense...), he accidently shot her. Meanwhile, Ned marries Zeke's sixteen-year-old daughter Jewel and they try to start a family. Their exercise in homemaking is cut into by Zeke's various disputes with the Bek brothers (the dead woman's husband was a Bek) and the overarching conflict between between Indian and white law (although both judges are fine and decent people who get along with each other) and the dozens of other wrinkles in the plot. It really is all over the place, and you hear everyone's perspectives in these scenes, but I never found it too much; I always remembered who each character was and their role was, it and was just an epic western adventure like none other I've read.
We'll have to talk about theme a lot to properly talk about the characters, but let's just talk about the people themselves quick. Most of them are somewhat gray: everyone screws up, but some people recognize that they screwed up and try to fix themselves; some don't. I think most of the characters are really good. Sometimes motivations can be a bit fuzzy and flim-flam depending on the situation, but I don't think that's really unrealistic just stupid on their fictional parts. You really do learn to love the screw-ups that are Zeke + Ned, and rightfully so. A lot of the characters and their motivations and their internal monologues orbit around marriage. Most people are married, and they have different thoughts on marriage. A lot of the men are a bit unsavory and neglectful toward their marriage. A lot of the women feel their marriages are their reason for being. Some gender roles (in both ways) are quite dated while some are quite unique. I compared these relationships to my own relationship and it made me think about just how we treat each other. The theme of this book lies somewhere in the way cowboys and their wives loved each other. Just how can you define this kind of love? I can't say I'm any closer to answering that because I'm sure as Hell not a thematic reader, but I did find it rich and thought-provoking.
Zeke and Ned also provoked something else: emotion. I read a lot of books, and most of them don't inspire me to feel much, even some of my favorites. But this book... well, one scene in particular (), while not the thing that usually affects me, made me tear up. The authors did a great job framing the aftermath and effects rather than the deed itself (), and it was really smart. I honest-to-God teared up during that passage, and I can still count on one hand the amount of books that have threatened to force liquids out of me. A great feat by McCurtry here. Also, a short note on impact, I actually took to his style to write part of a story I'm writing about the War of 1812. I love the dry spin he puts on everything and I'd like to put a little bit of it into my work without commiting to all his stylistic choices.
All in all, this is one of the best books I've read... this year, I think. I've firmly come out of a reading slump, and if I hadn't had such a crappy weekend while I read this, I think it could've gotten close to five stars. But, alas, it *only* gets a 9 out of 10, which means it was really, really good. Best western I've read (and I've almost read two hands' full!) and probably the best non-sci-fi/fantasy fiction book I've read. I'll have to read more McCurtry... I do have Lonesome Dove from a different library sale, but that's a huge book, so maybe I'll pick something else up before diving into that. We'll see. Until then... back to the science fiction. Don't worry, Ned; I'll always remember you.
October 6, 2016
Three quarters of this was a page turner for me. There was violence and sickness and foreboding yet told with a humorous tinge. I'm not sure it could be called dark humor but it wasn't super depressing or hard to read until the last quarter or so of the story. At that point I almost gave up. Four stars turned into three. There are two authors, maybe that explains the switch?
I read a little background on Ned and Zeke. This is fiction so don't look for historical accuracy.
I read a little background on Ned and Zeke. This is fiction so don't look for historical accuracy.
December 9, 2008
Aside from Lonesome Dove, Zeke and Ned was the most amazing book I've read by Larry McMurtry. I both laughed out loud (and still do) and cried for the character's loss. The tragedy of the Cherokee nation is not fully understood by Americans today. Larry brings us an unforgettable group of characters to give us and up close look at this moment of American history.
September 10, 2017
When I started this book, I thought it was going to be silly, but as I got into it found it to be interesting. The novel is based on actual occurrences and the characters should be researched prior to reading. It once again makes the case that the Indian, particularly the Cherokee were treated poorly by the government and the establishment.
Want to read
March 17, 2011Stephen King recommended author and book.
Author noted in Chapter 9 of Berkley's 1983 paperback edition of Danse Macabre.
Author noted in Chapter 9 of Berkley's 1983 paperback edition of Danse Macabre.
October 24, 2013
Awesome. McMurtry does it again. From the first line I was hooked. This time a western from the point of view of reservation Indians.
August 2, 2012
I like McMurtry’s work, but I was pretty disappointed with this book. If you’re looking for a historical novel about these two men I would recommend Robert Conley’s books.
October 27, 2021
I admit I'm probably not the right audience for this book, so I'm sure that plays into my lackluster review... but at the same time, I was excited to give this a go, and on all counts, it fell pretty far short--most of all in the writing.
McMurtry is so well-known that I expected this to be a worthwhile foray into the genre even if it ended up not quite being for me, but instead, I couldn't help feeling the book was over-written. Rarely did a scene go by without there being needless repetitions, and it too often felt like backstory was being included simply because the author happened to think of including it--not for any purpose that moved plot or developed character/story. I suspect I would have found the book to be far more dynamic and enjoyable if it had been about 20% shorter, and that has nothing to do with the genre.
At the same time, while I have no problem with a simple story, I needed something more to compel me to come back to the book. Finishing it was more an act of will than an act of interest (for me) simply because I found the characters to be so unsympathetic in the way McMurtry and Ossana drew them. Even where I could understand them, I really couldn't appreciate or root for them, and that went for even the characters who should have been completely sympathetic (but weren't). The flatness of the characters was a big part of the problem, but it sometimes felt like McMurtry and Ossana were going out of their way to make the characters unlikeable, and while I'm guessing it may often have been in attempts to bring in humor, any such effect didn't work for me. Passages that I think were meant to be found funny just rang as either cruel or pathetic, over and over again, and I too often felt as if the writers were making fun of the characters or belittling them more than engaging readers or them.
So, all told, I wasn't impressed. I'll certainly give some more Westerns a try... but it won't be from these authors.
McMurtry is so well-known that I expected this to be a worthwhile foray into the genre even if it ended up not quite being for me, but instead, I couldn't help feeling the book was over-written. Rarely did a scene go by without there being needless repetitions, and it too often felt like backstory was being included simply because the author happened to think of including it--not for any purpose that moved plot or developed character/story. I suspect I would have found the book to be far more dynamic and enjoyable if it had been about 20% shorter, and that has nothing to do with the genre.
At the same time, while I have no problem with a simple story, I needed something more to compel me to come back to the book. Finishing it was more an act of will than an act of interest (for me) simply because I found the characters to be so unsympathetic in the way McMurtry and Ossana drew them. Even where I could understand them, I really couldn't appreciate or root for them, and that went for even the characters who should have been completely sympathetic (but weren't). The flatness of the characters was a big part of the problem, but it sometimes felt like McMurtry and Ossana were going out of their way to make the characters unlikeable, and while I'm guessing it may often have been in attempts to bring in humor, any such effect didn't work for me. Passages that I think were meant to be found funny just rang as either cruel or pathetic, over and over again, and I too often felt as if the writers were making fun of the characters or belittling them more than engaging readers or them.
So, all told, I wasn't impressed. I'll certainly give some more Westerns a try... but it won't be from these authors.
November 7, 2024
Zeke and Ned is a western in which Larry McMurtry works his magic, as he did in his magnificent, Pulitzer-Prize-winning Lonesome Dove series, in capturing the essence of life during America's more rustic years. In this case, he and his co-author fictionalize true events that occurred the early 1870's in western Arkansas and Oklahoma’s Indian Territory, specifically events centered around two Native American men. Ezekiel Proctor (1831-1907), is a mixed blood Cherokee who, as a child, survived the brutal Trail of Tears. He is a distinguished man who fought on the Union side during the Civil War, then served as a marshal, sheriff, and senator of the Cherokee Nation. Edward (Ned) Christie (1852-1892) is the son of Trail of Tears survivors. A gunsmith and gunsmith, he too served as a senator of the Cherokee Nation. Both are flawed, though essentially good men, devoted fathers, and loving husbands.
Zeke and Ned follows these two men and their intertwined lives (Ned marries Jewel, Zeke's eldest daughter) beginning when Zeke accidentally kills his latest extra-marital lover, Polly Beck, the wife of a White man. This is the inciting incident for a string of events that ranges from tragic to comic, noble to pathetic, tender to vicious as the Beck brothers demand justice and the US Government gets involved. The novel deals with heavy themes such as bigotry against Native Americans including burning of their homesteads, rape, and murder by US marshals who are far worse criminals than those they are deputized to hunt down as well as the US's attitude that Native Americans need to be governed by Whites, and the inevitable pursuit of America's Manifest Destiny. The violence grows in intensity from the initial accidental killing to a full-fledged military siege of a fort Ned builds to protect his family after his wife is beaten and raped.
Zeke and Ned follows these two men and their intertwined lives (Ned marries Jewel, Zeke's eldest daughter) beginning when Zeke accidentally kills his latest extra-marital lover, Polly Beck, the wife of a White man. This is the inciting incident for a string of events that ranges from tragic to comic, noble to pathetic, tender to vicious as the Beck brothers demand justice and the US Government gets involved. The novel deals with heavy themes such as bigotry against Native Americans including burning of their homesteads, rape, and murder by US marshals who are far worse criminals than those they are deputized to hunt down as well as the US's attitude that Native Americans need to be governed by Whites, and the inevitable pursuit of America's Manifest Destiny. The violence grows in intensity from the initial accidental killing to a full-fledged military siege of a fort Ned builds to protect his family after his wife is beaten and raped.
April 11, 2020
5+ McMurtry and Ossana take us into the very heart of the Cherokee nation - literally. 1875, give or take, in the beautiful country around Talequah, Oklahoma, Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and points up and down the Arkansas River to Fort Smith. Zeke Proctor and Ned Christie are close friends. Ned is a member of the Cherokee Senate, well over six feet tall, handsome, with black hair that reaches to his waist. Zeke is somewhat older, married to Becca, father of beautiful Jewel, talkative Liza, and very young triplets, is a bit of a rounder. Zeke’s affair with the wife of the brother of one of the meanest families in the territory sets off a chain of events that leads to some tragic events. Their close friend Tuxie Miller and his wife Dane, with their brood of twelve children, provide frontier strength to this story in ways you must read to understand Humorous in places, very true to the times, McMurtry and Ossana pick you up and set you down on those Ozark trails. You can hear the owls in the trees at night; the thick, boot-sucking mud grabs your boots and won’t let go, you can rock by the hearth and smell fatback and corn pine cooking as you drink your coffee. Descriptive writing at its dest. They take us to the soul of the survivors of the Trail of Tears.
February 4, 2025
I've been reading through McMurtry's work since last year, and this book, for many reasons, was a real slug fest. I kept walking away from it and forcing myself to finish it, just to say I've read it, which is pathetic on my end.
Zeke and Ned, though engaging - is an unresolved novel, which I'm sure is the point. Larry to Diana: "Let's write a realistic-ish account of life post civil war for a group of first nation peoples." Diana to Larry: "Sho 'nuff." It's a blow-by-blow of rough n' tumble days. Lots of whiskey, lots of blood, lots of moments where you're like 'oh crap my entire country is founded on the genocide of one peoples, and the enslavement of another.' And the journeys. Ned has to get to Zeke's house. It's 70 miles away. Zeke has to go to a neighbor's house. It's 35 miles away. A lot of time (and plots and scenes) on horseback (or mule,) and you think "Not again! Where are the editors?"
If like me, you are reading all of the author's work, you will find better writing within, but this book was pure drudgery and it was with great relief when I finished it. Thank Gawd.
Zeke and Ned, though engaging - is an unresolved novel, which I'm sure is the point. Larry to Diana: "Let's write a realistic-ish account of life post civil war for a group of first nation peoples." Diana to Larry: "Sho 'nuff." It's a blow-by-blow of rough n' tumble days. Lots of whiskey, lots of blood, lots of moments where you're like 'oh crap my entire country is founded on the genocide of one peoples, and the enslavement of another.' And the journeys. Ned has to get to Zeke's house. It's 70 miles away. Zeke has to go to a neighbor's house. It's 35 miles away. A lot of time (and plots and scenes) on horseback (or mule,) and you think "Not again! Where are the editors?"
If like me, you are reading all of the author's work, you will find better writing within, but this book was pure drudgery and it was with great relief when I finished it. Thank Gawd.
November 18, 2024
Larry McMurtry is one of my favorite writers, but he's not without flaws. (For instance: constant head-hopping and a deep cynicism about human nature that can flatten out the differences between characters and make everyone kind of a ****). Perhaps by adding a new collaborator here, he managed to add new flaws. There are more cliches in the language, for instance, in addition to a steady stream of repetitions in both phrasings and exposition that should have been edited out. In fact, after the first third the book starts to feel pretty sloppy -- so much so that the last act features a sudden switch from third to first person that makes it feel like McMurtry threw in the towel on a rewrite and said, "Whatever. They can take it or leave it." As a result, the ending fizzles. This would have been tremendously disappointing on its own, but it's all the more a letdown because the book tackles a fascinating and dramatic real-life chapter in the history of the American West -- a chapter that, IMHO, deserved better than this.
June 21, 2023
Real photos are on the cover of this novel, because it is based on real people, two former Cherokee Warriors who’ve been forced into new territories of Arkansas and Oklahoma after the Trail of Tears. The men are Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, men who’ve married white women, men who’ve become disliked by white families in the area. The authors have used humor and tragic realism to account for the Goingsnake massacre in a western Arkansas courthouse when Zeke is on trial for shooting and killing Polly Beck, a romantic partner of his. Court appointed posses are a joke because they were not trained, but follow up attempts were made to arrest both men after the massacre. The story is historical fiction based on the lives of both men, perhaps continuing a bit too long. I honestly would have preferred a shorter story.
July 29, 2018
Authors Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana play fast and loose with history here, in this tale of the clash between U.S. law and Cherokee Nation law in the late 1800s.
Historical characters include Zeke Proctor, Ned Christie, and "the hanging judge" Isaac Parker; real-life incidents include the Goingsnake massacre and Ned Christie's war. Other than that, timelines are mixed, fictional characters ride alongside historical ones, and many of the relationships -- particularly the father-in-law / son-in-law standing of Proctor and Christie -- appear to be made up whole cloth.
As usual with McMurtry, the book's strength comes in its characterizations and their dialogue, along with oddball vignettes peculiar to the time and place.
Historical characters include Zeke Proctor, Ned Christie, and "the hanging judge" Isaac Parker; real-life incidents include the Goingsnake massacre and Ned Christie's war. Other than that, timelines are mixed, fictional characters ride alongside historical ones, and many of the relationships -- particularly the father-in-law / son-in-law standing of Proctor and Christie -- appear to be made up whole cloth.
As usual with McMurtry, the book's strength comes in its characterizations and their dialogue, along with oddball vignettes peculiar to the time and place.
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