Blessed McGill by Edwin Shrake

I've been searching for good books about Texas lately for a series of book reviews I am doing for TexasLive magazine. This one was mentioned on some web sites as a "masterpiece of Texas literature," and one site even compared Shrake to McMurtry and McCarthy. (I don't believe that McMurtry is in the same league as McCarthy, but anyway.) Unfortunately, I do not share those favorable opinions, and I don't think I can even recommend this book. Here's why.

Blessed McGill recounts the episodic adventures of the title character during the Reconstruction era in Texas, mostly concerning his dealings with various Indian bands. It is structured as a reminiscence, as McGill awaits a presumed death at the hands of his worst enemy, who was once his best friend.

The set-up is intriguing , the many historical details about Austin and the Texas Hill Country are interesting, the conclusion (when a twist of circumstance leads to McGill being the first North American to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church) is clever. But Shrake's failure to write effectively in the tone he has elected to use destroys everything.

This is supposed to be a "dark comedy," which means that terrible events happen, but they are recounted in such a way as to be ironic and humorous. Joseph Heller did it in Catch 22, and it worked. Kurt Vonnegut did it in Slaughterhouse 5, and it worked. Shrake has tried to do this, and it doesn't work. He is ironic, but not humorous, so that his vivid descriptions of brutalities come across as distasteful and horribly discordant with the tone.

In addition, I believe that Shrake owed more than a nod to Thomas Berger, who published Little Big Man four years before this novel was published. In Berger's account of Indian life, he accomplishes what Shrake tried for, also using the same general structure and the black comedy tone. And his book is very, very funny.

I recommend that readers pass this by. If someone out there has a differing opinion, I would be glad to hear it.