Hi Lo Country, The, Cover may vary Paperback – June 15, 2014

Love it. Signed by Max. Thank you.

The Hi-Lo Country, by Max Evans; published 1962I was attracted to this book after seeing only part of the movie on the Independent Film Channel a few years ago. Of what I saw, I liked the job Woody Harrelson did and the story was about one of my favorite subjects - cowboys. I found the book by researching the movie. I was even more intrigued when I learned that Sam Peckinpah had tried and tried to make this story into a film for over 20 years. Due to multiple battles with studios, ownership of film rights, money, and lawyers, he couldn't get it done. Evans said: "The book was batted around like a rock `n' roll groupie." In the end, Scorsese was one of the producers of the 1998 film.The out-of-print book is only 180 pages long and it tells the story of Big Boy Matson, the protagonist, from the voice of his best pal Pete West. The problem presented to the reader comes early and isn't resolved until the end - they both fall in love and are obsessed with the same woman on the same day - and she's married. An underlying theme, however, is the nature of the land and the character of the people who inhabit it. Hi-Lo country refers to an area covering the northeastern half of New Mexico, much of southern Colorado, and extends into West Texas. There is constant wind "about 300 days a year" and descriptions of the severe cycles of drought and debt with the occasional year of prosperity.It's also about the transition of the old ways taught by the real cowboys of 1870 to 1900 to another generation still living in the 30's and 40's - from the use of horses and wagons to the increasing use of pickup trucks after the war. In the 1988 introduction, Evens said: "The younger cowboys I worked, sweated, fought, and played with are aging now. They will soon disappear just as most of the old-timers who have influenced them. Just the same I will always remember a few things. On a real working ranch the rope and `cow savvy' were always more important than the gun. Another thing... I cannot recall a single cowhand sitting in a bar feeling sorry for himself. He was there to drink, try to find a woman, dance, gamble, have fun, and for a spell, get in out of the wind." This idea permeates the entire book - nobody feels sorry for himself.It struck me again that it helps greatly if a book tells a really compelling tale. The themes, the setting, the richness of the characters are part of what makes a good book, but it's particularly pleasant if it's also a good yarn. And this surely was!______________________

The Hi-Lo Country by Author Max EvansThis is the first book that I have read and reviewed by Author Max Evans and it definitely is a good read. Although slow moving and methodical, it is spell-binding as it follows the lives of Pete and his best friend Big Boy Matson. Set in the wild west, these two cowboys struggle with the rigors of farm life and raising cattle as well as horses in the rugged dry land of New Mexico. Hardship is a fact of daily life but they do manage to have their share of fun with rodeos, bronco riding, boozing it up and women. Perhaps, I should say that in the singular tense, as both Pete and Big Boy find themselves in love with the same woman, Mona Birk. Although, she is married, it doesn't appear to be a deterrent for either one of them.This is a dangerous game and Pete, as he writes their story in the first person and from his perspective, stresses over and over again that Big Boy is going to get gunned down...Inspirational Author ~ Dolores Ayotte I'm Not Perfect and It's Okay: Thirteen Steps to a Happier Self

This little book is nearly on par with Steinbeck's masterpiece, Cannery Row. It may be hard to believe, as with Cannery Row's Mack and the Boys, that these people were real. Evans had the good fortune to spend time in these wild places where people of the same spirit somehow came together and as individuals were doing battle every bit as much with the coming of the reign of accountants and bankers as they were the harsh elements of the land they inhabited. They could fend off years of drought, blizzards and coyotes, but in the end were undone by the stealthier predator, finance.It is a dull man who can not understand Pete's infatuation with Mona and how he could risk everything of value to have her. I feel sorry for anyone who has not known that feeling certain women can bring on, and would not care to drink with the man who would act more sensiblyThe clash of an era quickly dying with the onslaught of modern ranching makes for not only a good story, but an important one. Max Evans does a good job of telling that story.

Two alcoholic cowboys Big Boy and Pete with the morals of a tomcat and one of which (Pete) betrays is best friend by raping Big Boys married girlfriend Mona. The book begins with the funeral of Big Boy and foreshadows the murder of Big Boy. Big Boy is a true and loyal friend of Pete and keeps Pete from loss of his cattle one winter by buying feed when Pete's cattle would have starved to death. Mona's husband tries to shoot Big Boy and Pete knocks the gun out his hand just as the gun fires and no one is hurt. Big Boy is in love with Mona and Pete is in lust with Mona and obsessed with her. Even after Pete is informed that Mona was a high priced hooker from Denver and was tricked into marrying her husband because Mona was lied to that her husband was a rich rancher, Pete rapes her a few minutes later. Pete is angry with Mona because she didn't resist the rape. Pete never tells Bib boy about the rape.The conclusion is a major disappointment and made me angry with the author. Big Boy is not shot to death by the husband of Mona or any of the other enemies that Big Boy has made over the years,but rather by lazy younger brother who takes up very little space in the pages of the book or the story plot.Hi Lo Country doesn't exist in New Mexico other than the fact that the author dubs the North East New Mexico as the area. The author does state that he made up the name for a fictional small town.If you have ever lived with the agony of an alcoholic family member or an alcoholic and promiscuous spouse and want to reopen the wounds and pain then you may enjoy this book

This classic (and filmed) book chronicles, on one level, a story of male friendship and rivalry over a beautiful woman, and, on another level, set in Hi Lo, New Mexico, with its vast cattle ranches, and derelict town with two saloons, the ways of the cowboy in the mid-twentieth century. Pete tells the story of the life and death of his friend, Big Boy Matson, with the traditional, rousing ingredients of rodeos, fist-fights, games of poker, the stubborn bonds of friendship between men, the powerful emotions and passions between men and women, the integral inter-dependence of horse and man, and the terrain and its cowboys, all told in a restrained, yet authentic voice, as quiet and firm as the features of the haunting landscape. This graphically-written novel reads like an elegiac farewell to a cherished way of life, with its loyalties, loves, excitements and diversions, etched in such clearly-defined lines that its filmic possibilities--dark figures drawn across a haunting landscape--stand out a mile. Superb.

I was delighted to get this to compliment the movie (one of my favorites).Great price, quick delivery and arrived in very good condition