Name: The Ploughmen
ISBN: 9780805099515

Kim Zupan

A young sheriff and a hardened killer form an uneasy and complicated bond in a novel set on the plains of Montana.

A Novel

The Ploughmen

A. D. Knapp

I.m. ruzz

Someone said he reminds them of Cormac when Cormac is at his best. The problem there is Cormac at his best has more than one meaning. Some people think it's when he's difficult and painfully beautiful like faulkner, some think it's when he's terse and direct, barren but giving exactly just enough. I'd say that Zupan is walking the line right down the middle. Some of his prose is so overly ornate and begs you keep a dictionary handy (even if you have a fantastic vocabulary) and some of it is simple, honest and real. He blends the two together and the strength of the book is characters and their conversations, a place Cormac was brought to his arguable best as well. The talk. When these authors have to come down from their lofty heights to write dialogue that must be believed to come from a human being they have to pare things down. Simplify and become more honest and since so much of this book is conversation between two men, Zupan is rescued from his own cleverness, and own barely hidden fantasies of being Montana's Faulkner.

I enjoyed the book quite a little.

The Ploughmen A Novel

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