Since joining the Western Writers of America, I have been looking at their reading lists to see what they define as good western genre writing. I have read many of them , but some of them I have not, and I am enjoying them now. Something I think is very interesting is that some of these stories are quite short, either in the novella form or the short story form. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean and Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison are both written as novellas. A woman writer, Dorothy M. Johnson, wrote short stories with very familiar titles that earned lots of respect: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, and A Man Called Horse. Another famliar short novella is Brokeback Mountain.An interesting point is that an excellent full-length movie has been made from each of these short works of literature. Put a solid story in the hands of a screen writer and he can work wonders. The Liberty Valence story is quite short, but there is so much packed into it, and in re-reading it I see where the screen writers got their inspiration.
Reading stories based on western themes, both old-time and contemporary, feels very comfortable for me. Too much of the "good stuff" as determined by critics comes from the east coast where all the intellectual snobs congregate.
