Great book. It's much more gritty than the movie, "Lonely are the Brave" with Kirk Douglas that I've seen a couple of times and which always impressed me. Nice scenery and nature descriptions. Some parts are kind of earthy though. Details slightly different than the movie. Quite sarcastic about modern society and war, etc. compared to nature. Very worthwhile. ( )

Throughout the book, I was thinking I would award it two stars. But the ending, it broke my heart, and I changed it to three stars.

It's so dated: the best friend of the protagonist is in jail for draft dodging, and not for Vietnam. I think it's for Korea.
The thing I like most about this book was it's setting, which was Albuquerque New Mexico. I grew up in New Mexico, Las Cruces and Albuquerque, and when my parents moved back there to retire, I went back there every year until my older brother died from covid in 2020.
Because of covid I haven't been able to have his memorial yet, nor have I been able to return. This greatly saddens me.
Edward Abby does a lovely job of describing the flora of the beautiful desert and mountains around what he calls the Duke City. Many of the names are changed, for example he says Kirk Air Base, instead of kirtland Air Force base.
There's a parallel storyline running alongside of the cowboy's in this book. It's that of Hinton, a truck driver progressing from Missouri to New Mexico, carrying bathroom fixtures. He kills Jack Burns and his horse in the end. The whole book I was wondering what the f*** his story was doing in there.
He's a nasty character, witness this scene, where he's passing through Tulsa, Oklahoma:
"Hinton stopped for the red light and watched the Suburban traffic roll by. Sweat dripped down from his ribs; the air was hot in the cab when the truck was not in motion, despite the buzzing electric fan mounted on the dashboard. Around him the traffic clashed and roared, the smell of hot tar, rubber, oil and metal permeated the air and the blue smoke from the cars and the black smoke from the diesel trucks mounted toward the sky. He watched the women crossing the street - middle-aged domesticated cows, long legged School girls, fat pigs from the reservations - and found nothing worthy of his attention. He Puffed nervously and irritably on a cigarette, letting the ashes fall on his t-shirt."
He himself is an overweight, bald, 30 something man. But karma will get this character in the end because besides the guilt he'll feel from killing the cowboy and his horse, he probably has some kind of stomach cancer. He's always talking to himself about how he feels something is not right in his stomach, and how he promises himself he'll see a doctor after he delivers his load in Albuquerque. If he doesn't have stomach cancer, he'll probably get lung cancer; he's constantly smoking cigarettes. He has an ugly diet consisting of coffee, and cholesterol from animals: eggs, sausage, bacon.
The story is basically that Jack Burns, whose last job was sheep herding somewhere west of Albuquerque, comes on his horse to Albuquerque to spring his best friend, John Bundi, from jail. He rides his horse to the house of the draft-Dodger's wife and son, leaves his horse there and hoofs it to the county courthouse in Albuquerque where the jail is. On the way he stops at a bar and gets in a fight, and is picked up by sheriff deputies and taken to the jail. The next day he meets up with his best friend in the same cell block. He has two metal files hidden in his boots, and it being 1950 or something, they don't have metal detectors. He actually files away a bar in the cell block, and he and two Navajo Indians squeeze through the small space, and remove the screen from the window in the hallway, and using blankets tied together, jump down from the second story and escape. The navajos are unfortunately picked up, dressed as women, and one of them is shot, the other one is returned to jail. Jack Burns gets away for a while, and Edward Abby leads us to believe that he's actually going to make it to Mexico after an arduous climb up and through the Sandia mountains over to the other side. He is hit and killed on highway 40 by Hinton the truck driver. His back is broken, and his horse is hurt. Jack Burns expires, and a sheriff's deputy shoots the horse.

This conversation taking place in the jail cell block cracks me up, because here it is only 1950 something, right before I was born, and John Bondi is telling Jack why there's no hope for this country, despite Jack telling John how they could go anywhere they like - Canada, the Rockies, Sonora, Baja California. But John tells him:
" 'of course this is a nightmare; I loathe every minute of it. I'm sick to the heart of it - but I can't run away. I've got too many commitments to keep, too many weaknesses, too many hopeful ideas.' He paused; Burns was silent. 'Hopeful?' Bondi continued; 'well, not really. I don't see the world getting any better; like you I see it getting worse. I see Liberty being strangled like a dog everywhere I look, I see my own country overwhelmed by ugliness and mediocrity and overcrowding, the land smothered under airstrips and super highways, the natural wealth of a million years squandered on atomic bombs and tin automobiles and television sets and ballpoint fountain pens. It's a sorry sight indeed; I can't blame you for wanting no part of it. But I'm not yet ready to withdraw, despite the horror of it. Even if withdrawal is possible, which I doubt.' "
I feel like Edward Abby is turning over in his grave, seeing how things are in 2022, if he was so distressed at how things were mid-century the 1900s. He's lucky he's not around to witness this country turning to fascism, and taking so many countries with it. Climate change, climate refugees. cartel refugees being turned back with tear gas. I'm not going to be here too much longer myself, being born so very long ago. I guess I'll escape a lot of the bad stuff too, but I never should have brought two daughters into this world to suffer after I'm gone. Who knows what they'll have to struggle with to survive?

There's a character in the book, Sheriff Morey Johnson. At first I hate him, because he is a nasty man, but later I realize he has some humanity inside of him:
" 'Gutierrez,' Johnson said; 'gutierrez.. ' his mouth tightened after he rolled out the name. 'That muscle-bound half-wit,' he muttered; he spoke to the operator again, not looking at him. 'He notified the city police?'
'yes.'
'the state police and the military police and the reservation police and all the rest?'
'sure.'
'Okay...' Johnson masticated his wad of gum. He shoved a hand down inside the front of his sagging trousers and scratched his pubic hair. 'Two navajos and a white man, huh?' "
TMI! ( )

In this novel of the modern west, an old fashioned cowboy finds himself at odds with modern society. This book is a stark look at the decisions people make, and how those decisions lead to tragedy. ( )

Abbey, Edward (1992). Brave Cowboy. Harper Perennial.
Cowboy Jack Burns travels to Albuquerque to aid his best friend, Paul Bondi. Bondi is in the County lockup and will soon be sent to a federal penitentiary. Burns plans to help Bondi escape and takes steps to also get arrested and sent to the same jail. Burns finds that his friend does not want to run from his sentence, but the cowboy cannot spend another day in lockup. Jack Burns breaks out and lawmen take up pursuit.

The second of Abbey's novels, this is a tale of a dying breed - - the wandering cowboy of the West. It's about resistance to modern regulations, changing technology, and growth and development. It's about a looming collision between law, lawmen and fierce individual independence. It's about a possible escape - freedom. It's heading toward a wreck; it's a western classic. Served as the basis of the Kirk Douglas movie, 'Lonely are the Brave.' lj (Mar 2011) ( )

One of the few Abbey books made into a movie: "Lonely are the Brave," this is indeed, a parable of the cowboy in the American west today. Sold by ELBOE along with the movie on tape. ( )