If you like a road trip companion that will put no strain on the brain and become, at times, so wacky that you look at your traveling companion in wide-eyed astonishment, then you will enjoy Larry McMurty’s Telegraph Days. It’s a 9.5 hour romp through the Old West. You’ll meet every Wild West character you’ve ever heard of, and you’ll get a kick out of them and their shenanigans.
Telegraph Days is read—no, performed—by Annie Potts who is an endearing Nellie Courtright (her name is actually a pun and a bit perverse as you will learn). Nellie is a lusty lass bent on “copulating” (her term) with every male she can seduce! Her conquests are quite extensive. So is her descriptive vocabulary—but it’s all in good fun, and you’ll be forced to laugh.
Larry McMurty’s attempt at using a female voice is sometimes funny, but the overall effect is a light-hearted enjoyable tale.
Twenty-two year old Nellie Courtright and her 17 year old brother, Jackson, arrive in the little town of Rita Blanca after their father’s death. They had migrated west from Virginia where she had already romanced Wild Bill Hickcock. She secures Jackson the job of deputy sheriff and she becomes the town’s telegrapher. Witnessing a gunfight where Jackson is the unlikely hero, she writes the story and her fame begins.
She becomes friends with Buffalo Bill Cody, who saw Rita Blanco as the quintessential Old West town and Nellie as the preeminent organizer, the James Brothers, and various bad guys like Billy the Kid. She travels throughout the West, finally settling in Santa Monica, CA where she even meets Louis B. Mayer, Lillian Gish and many of Hollywood’s early celebrities although she declines to see the movie made from her books.
Rob and I enjoyed the silliness, the exaggerations and the whimsical quality of the narrative. We thought Larry McMurty was having a good time with his characters and with us. And we did too. This audio book is a great traveling companion!
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