Friday, May 22, 2009

Forgotten Books: THE CHISHOLMS -- Evan Hunter

I wrote about this one on the blog around 5 years ago, but I figure you might have forgotten (heh heh).  Sure, it's a western, but it's by Evan Hunter.  I was in a thrift store the other day, saw a copy of the paperback, and picked it up.  I figure you can never have too many copies of Evan Hunter books.

The Chisholms appeared in hardcover in 1979, and it was the basis for a TV mini-series that year, screenplay by Hunter.  (Maybe you recognize Robert Preston there on the book's cover as the Chisholm patriarch.)  The mini-series led to a short-lived TV series (13 episodes) in 1980.  The book is a family saga and "way west" epic.  It has a little bit of everything, and it's all good.  The Chisholm family leaves Virginia to travel to Oregon and make a new start.  Here's what I had to say in the original review:  "They leave at the wrong time of year and so have to travel virtually alone rather than with a wagon train.  They run into scamsters [crime element!], Indians, bad weather, and plenty of other problems."  

As far as I know, Hunter never wrote another book like this one.  It's quite a change of pace from his crime novels, and I recommend it highly if you're looking for something a little different.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

And yet I've been unable to find a paperback of LAST SUMMER for the last year.

Jeff

mybillcrider said...

That's because you don't order from abebooks.

George said...

THE CHISHOLMS shows that Evan Hunter (aka "Ed McBain") could write just about anything well. He even wrote some science fiction I recall.

Anonymous said...

I do order from abe, Bill, but lately I've been getting most of my secondhand stuff from paperbackswap.com. Gotta use up those credits.

Jeff

Deb said...

Evan Hunter wrote the first “adult” book I ever read, MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. I still have the beat-up paperback copy I first read 40 years ago this summer. I view the book with so much nostalgia that about once every five years or so, I read it again. Although not technically a mystery, the book does have a slowly-revealed “shocking revelation” that is a hallmark of a certain type of mystery. As a result of this book, I have always enjoyed that type of fiction. I had no idea he was Ed McBain until many years (and many books) later.

Todd Mason said...

I still haven't read a Hunter/McBain/Lombino/et al. I'm fully satisfied with, so should probably try THE CHISOLMS sometime...I very faintly recall the tv adaptations. But LAST SUMMER the novel was certainly better than LAST SUMMER the film, which I finally caught up with, and despite Barbara Hershey being as good as she could in it. Yep, as Lombino and as Hunter, George, most notably "Malice in Wonderland" (drugged future a bit grittier and no happier than BRAVE NEW WORLD, in IF magazine in 1954 and later novelized).

Juri said...

He also did some western short stories, I think it was as Lombino. And some air stories, too. There's a collection to be made...

pattinase (abbott) said...

He wrote one of my favorites under his name: LAST SUMMER. Pretty scary movie too. Whatever happened to those four teenagers? Oh, there our age now.

sonny said...

Todd, have you read "Every Little Crook and Nanny"?

I remember it being hilarious.

Todd Mason said...

No, Sonny, not yet. I'll see about digging that out sometime. Thanks for the tip.

Barbara Hershey still good when one gets to see her, too, Patti.

RosieP said...

I had read Hunter's novel, "THE CHISHOLMS" years ago. It was okay. But if I must be honest, I preferred the miniseries adaptation, which featured Robert Preston, Rosemary Harris and Ben Murphy.

I have the entire miniseries on VHS . . . somewhere in the house.

mybillcrider said...

The miniseries has a great cast, for sure.