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Warlock

Book 1 in the series:Legends West

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'Warlock' by Oakley Hall is an epic Western novel that delves into the complexities of law and order in the fictional town of Warlock. The story follows the hired sheriff, Clay Blaisedell, as he navigates through conflicts between the citizens' committee, townspeople, and outlaws. The narrative weaves together multiple Western themes intricately, with a focus on character development and moral ambiguity. The writing style is dense, with every sentence carrying significant meaning, similar to the works of Frank Norris and Thomas Pynchon.

Characters:

Characters are well-developed with unique motivations, showcasing a range of moral complexities and interpersonal conflicts.

Writing/Prose:

The writing style is dense and meaningful, with strong character development and a mix of action and introspective themes.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot revolves around a gunslinger-turned-marshall dealing with a morally complex situation in a lawless town, leading to conflicts with both citizens and criminals.

Setting:

The setting is a fictional western mining town reflecting the complexities and lawlessness of the historical American West.

Pacing:

The pacing is engaging, gradually building tension and leading to significant confrontations without feeling rushed.
DEPUTY CANNING had been Warlock’s hope. During his regime we had come to think, in man’s eternal optimism, that progress was being made toward at least some mild form of Law & Order in Warlock. Certai...

Notes:

The novel 'Warlock' by Oakley Hall is set in a fictional town in Arizona.
It features a large cast of characters, similar to Charles Dickens and Pete Dexter.
The main plot revolves around a gunslinger, Clay Blaisedell, who is based loosely on Wyatt Earp.
Blaisedell is hired as the town's marshal by a citizen's committee to maintain order.
The citizens want Blaisedell to remove people they deem undesirable, despite no legal justification.
The story explores complex moral issues in a lawless town.
There is a subplot involving miners trying to form a union, which is met with resistance.
The novel has been praised for its character development and depth.
It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the 1950s and has received acclaim from authors like Thomas Pynchon.
The book features themes of honor, justice, and the gray morality of its characters.
It includes a unique and unexpected final shootout.
The narrative critiques early Cold War era politics through its western lens.
Hall's style is noted for being intricate yet accessible, engaging the reader throughout.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Contains themes of violence, death, and moral ambiguity, which may be distressing for some readers.

Has Romance?

There are romantic elements in the story, particularly involving the two main gunslingers, but they are not the primary focus.

From The Publisher:

Oakley Hall's legendary Warlock revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction.

"Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in the Earps, and the opposite evils in the Clanton gang; where the confrontation at the OK Corral takes on some of the dry purity of the Arthurian joust. Oakley Hall, in his very fine novel Warlock has restored to the myth of Tombstone its full, mortal, blooded humanity. Wyatt Earp is transmogrified into a gunfighter named Blaisdell who . . . is summoned to the embattled town of Warlock by a committee of nervous citizens expressly to be a hero, but finds that he cannot, at last, live up to his image; that there is a flaw not only in him, but also, we feel, in the entire set of assumptions that have allowed the image to exist. . . . Before the agonized epic of Warlock is over with-the rebellion of the proto-Wobblies working in the mines, the struggling for political control of the area, the gunfighting, mob violence, the personal crises of those in power-the collective awareness that is Warlock must face its own inescapable Horror: that what is called society, with its law and order, is as frail, as precarious, as flesh and can be snuffed out and assimilated back into the desert as easily as a corpse can. It is the deep sensitivity to abysses that makes Warlock one of our best American novels. For we are a nation that can, many of us, toss with all aplomb our candy wrapper into the Grand Canyon itself, snap a color shot and drive away; and we need voices like Oakley Hall's to remind us how far that piece of paper, still fluttering brightly behind us, has to fall." -Thomas Pynchon

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