Dull, predictable, and written with a distinct lack of inspiration and care, Harry Maywood’s western Outlaws Outside of Town is an effort to read. The only
entertainment a reader will receive will be the jolts of laughter when they recognize yet another historical inaccuracy. Although Maywood’s previous novel
had some charming moments and adequate descriptive passages, this one is a must miss.
A reader will need to rely on their memory of Western towns as depicted on television shows and movies to visualize the setting of this story, because
Maywood provides only the most basic and perfunctory of descriptions. The reader is informed that the hay stored in a barn is “straw-colored” and that the
noise of an incoming train’s signal sounds “whistle-y.” None of the characters are described in much depth, although Maywood does mention that Sheriff
Wyatt “smiled a wide smile” two or three hundred times.
The plot of the story, such as it is, follows the characters’ attempts to fight off Weston Wayne and his gang of criminals who live in the hills nearby and prey
on the daily stagecoach. Because Sheriff Wyatt is established in the opening pages of the story as universally loved by everyone, there is no suspense
involved in wondering whether the townspeople will rally behind him to face the criminals. And because Maywood describes both the outlaw Weston Wayne
and Sheriff Wyatt with the words “smiled a wide smile” over and over, it is not the plot twist Maywood thinks it is twelve chapters later when he reveals that
Weston Wayne and Sheriff Wyatt are twin brothers.
Throughout the novel, sloppy errors pop up to pull the reader out of the fictional world Maywood is laboring to create. One character arrives by train in the
neighboring town ten years before the first railroads were built in the West. Another character is described as reading Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur’s Court years before this book was published. Readers who love the genre will be disappointed with Maywood’s book.
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which quotation from the passage is presented as evidence that the book is poorly written?
(1 point)
“The plot of the story, such as it is, follows the characters’
attempts to fight off Weston Wayne and his gang of criminals
who live in the hills nearby and prey on the daily stagecoach.”
“Dull, predictable, and written with a distinct lack of inspiration
and care, Harry Maywood’s western Outlaws Outside of
Town is an effort to read.”
“The reader is informed that the hay stored in a barn is
‘straw-colored’ and that the noise of an incoming train’s signal
sounds ‘whistle-y.’”
“Another character is described as reading Mark Twain’s A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court years before this
book was published.”
“Another character is described as reading Mark Twain’s A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court years before this
book was published.”