Bret Harte (1837–1902)

Read on openlibrary.org.
Sentimental, yes, but more. I'm sure there are literary references & allusions galore.

I can think about a couple. For example, the babe is birthed, baptized, and drowned... all in such a short period of time that it seems like he spent most of his life in water. The miners, as a rule, never bathed... until Stumpy said they had to or else they'd not be permitted to hold the infant Luck.

And that's another example: the prostitute is blamed for her sins, though of course the question was always, how else could a woman make a living in those days in that kind of place? Harte seems sympathetic towards her, despite using words like 'irredeemable' to describe her... and she is the one who brings Luck to these men who choose to lie, steal, fight, and kill... and her babe is the one who 'saves' them.

In any case, the thing that impressed me the most about the story is how concise it is. There are a lot of novels out there that cover the same amount of ground but take 20 times as many pages to do so.

This is short. Read it.… (more)

I picked this title solely because one of the narrators is Robert Forester and I am obsessed with anything he narrates. The Outcasts of Poker Flats is a collection of short stories and poems set in the wild west. An unlucky party caught in a mountain blizzard, an orphaned baby in an all male camp, Tennessee's partner and more. I was not overly impressed with any of the stories glamorizing, miners, gamblers, and lawless men. This collection was written in the nineteenth century which explains the machismo and degradation of women, but doesn't excuse it. Some of the narrators did no favors to this audiobook. I honestly may have enjoyed it more had I actually read it.… (more)