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A Novel Account of Four Desperate Brothers
Random House
June 2008
On Sale: June 17, 2008
288 pages
ISBN: 0345470788
EAN: 9780345470782
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A provocative and strikingly original new voice in fiction
reinvents the historical novel–along with American history
itself–in this wry “what if?” that merges and mashes up
four of our most famous and infamous national icons.
Historian Otis Pease once remarked that the story of
nineteenth-century America could be encompassed in the
lives of the two sets of James brothers–William and Henry
in the East, Frank and Jesse in the West. The James Boys
goes further by making all four of them the fruit of the
same family tree and showing how it shakes out. In 1876, the No. 4 Missouri Pacific Express pulls out of
Kansas City for Saint Louis. Among those on board is Henry
James, the erudite and esteemed novelist and brother of the
brilliant philosopher William James. Trying his hand at
travel writing, Henry is beset, as ever, by hypochondria–in
the form, this case, of dire digestive woes. Suddenly, the train is stopped and robbed–and not by just
any bandits but by the legendary James Gang. Taken hostage
by the brigands, Henry realizes to his unspeakable horror
that Jesse and Frank are in fact “Rob” and “Wilky,” his
long-lost brothers, who had disappeared during the Civil
War and been presumed dead for more than a decade. From there the ride only gets wilder, careening through
underbrush and ivory towers, throwing together America’s
greatest intellectuals and most notorious outlaws in a saga
of six-guns and sherry that is peopled by a fascinating
roster of passengers, both historical and imagined. Most
prominent among them are Elena Hite, a feisty young
feminist deeply aroused by the down-and-dirty charisma of
the criminal Jesse; Alice Gibbens, the eminently sensible
schoolteacher engaged to the sexually inexperienced
William, who tempts him to stay put rather than joining
Henry out West; and William Pinkerton, the renowned
detective hot on all of their trails–especially Elena’s. Based on and incorporating actual events, The James Boys is
a through-the-looking-glass romp that boldly blends both
sides of the American character–the brilliant and the
barbaric–in one unforgettable family and one seriously
entertaining story.
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