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    Zeke And Ned
    Zeke And Ned
    Zeke And Ned
    Audiobook15 hours

    Zeke And Ned

    Written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana

    Narrated by Barrett Whitener

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Full of adventure, grace, and tragedy, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana tell the story of two powerful Cherokee warriors searching for the future of Indian Territory.

    Zeke and Ned is the story of Ezekiel Proctor and Ned Christie, the last Cherokee warriors—two proud, passionate men whose remarkable quest to carve a future out of Indian Territory east of the Arkansas River after the Civil War is not only history, but legend. Played out against an American West governed by a brutal brand of frontier justice, this intensely moving saga brims with a rich cast of indomitable and utterly unforgettable characters such as Becca, Zeke's gallant Cherokee wife, and Jewel Sixkiller Proctor, whose love for Ned makes her a tragic heroine.

    At once exuberant and poignant, bittersweet and brilliant, Zeke and Ned takes us deep into the hearts of two extraordinary men who were willing to go the distance for the bold vision they shared—and for the women they loved.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 1997
    ISBN9780743573078
    Author

    Larry McMurtry

    Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) was the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove, three memoirs, two collections of essays, and more than thirty screenplays. He lived in Archer City, Texas.

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    Reviews for Zeke And Ned

    3.5/5

    86 ratings4 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Zeke and Ned is a work of historical fiction. (I think). It tells the story of two friends living in the Cherokee Indian Territory close to the Arkansas border a few years after the Civil War.

      It is a really good story, and about three-quarters of it is hilariously funny. But beneath the humor is a sad underlayer. And the ending is extremely sad.

      To begin with, both Zeke Proctor and Ned Christy are interested in getting married. Ned, whose former wife died within the previous year, is now interested in Zeke’s teenage daughter, Jewel. Zeke, who is already married to Becca, is interested in the miller’s wife, Polly Beck.

      Ned is a kind and intelligent man who also happens to be a crack shot with a rifle. He has no problem convincing Jewel to come home with him. They have some trouble finding a preacher to marry them, but otherwise, they would have had a happy married life had it not been for the comedy of errors arising from Zeke’s interest in Polly Beck.

      Ned, as a good and responsible friend and citizen, comes to town and attempts to help the judge keep order at Zeke’s trial for accidentally killing Polly Beck (you need to listen to this convoluted part of the tale yourself – it is too complicated to explain in a review).

      This is where things begin to go wrong very quickly. The entire clan of Becks has taken against Zeke and hired some sort of outlaw to shoot him in the courtroom. Zeke ducks and the Indian judge is killed instead. From there complete chaos breaks out, and at the end of the day, eleven people are dead and several others wounded.

      I felt especially bad about what happened to Judge Sixkiller, and what later happened to Ned, as both of these men seemed to be decent and responsible people – which couldn’t necessarily be said about some of the other characters.
    • 2/5
      I admit I'm probably not the right audience for this book, so I'm sure that plays into my lackluster review... but at the same time, I was excited to give this a go, and on all counts, it fell pretty far short--most of all in the writing.McMurtry is so well-known that I expected this to be a worthwhile foray into the genre even if it ended up not quite being for me, but instead, I couldn't help feeling the book was over-written. Rarely did a scene go by without there being needless repetitions, and it too often felt like backstory was being included simply because the author happened to think of including it--not for any purpose that moved plot or developed character/story. I suspect I would have found the book to be far more dynamic and enjoyable if it had been about 20% shorter, and that has nothing to do with the genre.At the same time, while I have no problem with a simple story, I needed something more to compel me to come back to the book. Finishing it was more an act of will than an act of interest (for me) simply because I found the characters to be so unsympathetic in the way McMurtry and Ossana drew them. Even where I could understand them, I really couldn't appreciate or root for them, and that went for even the characters who should have been completely sympathetic (but weren't). The flatness of the characters was a big part of the problem, but it sometimes felt like McMurtry and Ossana were going out of their way to make the characters unlikeable, and while I'm guessing it may often have been in attempts to bring in humor, any such effect didn't work for me. Passages that I think were meant to be found funny just rang as either cruel or pathetic, over and over again, and I too often felt as if the writers were making fun of the characters or belittling them more than engaging readers or them.So, all told, I wasn't impressed. I'll certainly give some more Westerns a try... but it won't be from these authors.
    • 3/5
      Authors Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana play fast and loose with history here, in this tale of the clash between U.S. law and Cherokee Nation law in the late 1800s.

      Historical characters include Zeke Proctor, Ned Christie, and "the hanging judge" Isaac Parker; real-life incidents include the Goingsnake massacre and Ned Christie's war. Other than that, timelines are mixed, fictional characters ride alongside historical ones, and many of the relationships -- particularly the father-in-law / son-in-law standing of Proctor and Christie -- appear to be made up whole cloth.

      As usual with McMurtry, the book's strength comes in its characterizations and their dialogue, along with oddball vignettes peculiar to the time and place.
    • 4/5
      This is just good, old fashioned story telling about two real Cherokee warriors and good friends, Ezekiel Proctor and Edward "Ned" Christie (and their families, friends and adversaries), in the years after the Civil War and the Trail of Tears. There is actually quite a bit of history packed into this novel, about the white/Indian courts and judicial systems and how they had an uneasy relationship on how to handle crimes of the day, which were rampant. Overall, it is just an incredibly sad look at the demise of the Cherokee Nation. But as readers, we see the situations from many perspectives and many characters. A very engrossing read and one that was very hard to put down. I have only read McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" for comparison and I would say they are both great novels, just incredibly different. Highly recommended, especially if you have any interest in Native American history or Ezekiel Procotor/Ned Christie.