Review: Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana

This Book Is About

My Thoughts On This Book

Zeke and Ned is, essentially, the story of how one man’s lust sets in motion a spiral of violence that ultimately destroys his friends and neighbors and threatens the very sovereignty of Cherokee law. Zeke’s wife, Becca, has been poorly since the birth of their triplets. So he’s been having an affair with Polly Beck, the half-Cherokee wife of his white neighbor, T. Spade Beck, whose family are known throughout the Going Snake District as a bunch of vicious, half-deranged men. When T. Spade fill’s Zeke’s ground corn with weevils in revenge for sleeping with his wife, Zeke rides out to T. Spade’s house to kill him and bring the pretty Polly home as a second wife.

The book is well written and the prose has a folksy, conversational style that makes the story read quickly for such a long book (the hardcover is 1 ½” thick). The reason the novel is so big is that the authors give brief point-of-view chapters to pretty much EVERY person the reader ‘meets’ in an effort to give an understanding of how events lead up to Ned Christie’s War. There are a few too many people that they give brief chapters too, but overall the author’s do a good job of following a vast array of characters.

Still, if ensemble cast novels make your head spin then you should avoid Zeke and Ned.

One of the things that I found interesting about the book is that much of it follows the thoughts of the women involved in the story. That’s pretty unusual, in my experience, for historical fiction that covers major events. The result is an undercurrent of thought about the work of being a woman in the 1800s and how men don’t understand women because they don’t want wives so much as they want to be able to have sex and eat on a regular basis.

The only thing that really annoyed me about the book is that the last third of the book, when the tale actually reaches the events of Ned Christie’s War, goes from third person to first person point-of-view with Zeke telling the story. I understand why the authors switched the narrative voice but it was really jarring and didn’t read that well; it was like they pasted in the end of some other book.

Rating & Levels For This Book

I Give This Book 3 Vikings out of five	Violence Level 2 Burning Huts out of five	Romance Level 0 Hearts out of five
# of actual vikings in book: 0 What do these levels mean? »	Humor Level 0 Smiles out of five	Lust Level 1 Kisses out of five

Author and Publishing Information For This Book

Author & Book Details Title: Zeke and Ned Author(s): Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana ISBN#: 9780684811529 Genre(s): Historical fiction Edition Reviewed: Hardcover Illustrations: N/A Page Count: 480 Part of a Series: No

Publishing & Copyright Details Publisher(s): Simon & Schuster Copyright: 1997 In Print: Yes Original Language: English Published in Other Languages: No Find a Local Book Store »

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2 Responses to “Review: Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana”

1. Mari says:

   May 28, 2010 at 5:42 pm

   I’m rather in awe that you were able to do this! I’m now allowing myself two challenges to begin January 2011–(A) to read my way through the Gigantic Box of Books I’ve amassed this year and (B) to read all the books on this review. Amazing job. Thanks!
   • Chriss Cornish says:

     May 30, 2010 at 6:41 pm

     Thanks! Sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you with those two challenges, reading through your Gigantic Box of Books AND reading all the books on the ABC of Historical Fiction review project. Let me know how you make out.