A Gent From Bear Creek (Howard, R., E., 1934, 1937)

I tried. Not hard, I guess, but I still tried to read Howard's A Gent From Bear Creek. After one and a half chapters, I came to the conclusion, that it just wasn't a tale for me. The main reason for me abandoning it was the language, as it's written as a first-person narrative of an unschooled Nevadan hillbilly, who writes with a thick, rustic dialect. Now I grant that there were some amusing bits on those pages I read, but as a whole, it felt too much of a struggle to read through the comedic misadventures of this young lad aiming to impress the gal of his dreams.

Yes, it is a comedy. Not really a style I know Howard for and definitely written in a very uncharacteristic manner from his side. I'm guessing the overly thick dialect was a direct way of making the narrative feel even more comedic, but for me personally, it was a tad too much, especially because there are just so many words in there that I don't really understand, even in the given context.

So, what's it all about then? As I said, it's a tale of a hillbilly named Breckenridge Elkins, who comes out almost like a parody of Howard's own manly characters, who live in a harsh world, trusting only in the might of their own hands. Breckenridge is more good-natured, yet also strong and stubborn.

His tale begins, when he goes to see the woman he loves, Glory, but ends up getting her mad on grounds of giving a beating to her dad and brothers. Glory promises to never lay her eyes on him again unless Breck makes something of himself, so this leads him and his mule to a series of misadventures, when he's trying to make his mark in the world.

Originally the stories presented in A Gent From Bear Creek were published as short stories. As they were popular on their day, Howard edited them together in order to make a book out of them, but he never did see the collected edition in published form, as that came out a year after his suicide.

And that's that. I reckon. Not really my kind of a thing. There's also a webcomic adaptation of one of the tales, Mountain Man, by Gary Chaloner.