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Desperadoes Paperback – January 16, 1997

by Ron Hansen (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 217 ratings
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At age 65, Emmett Dalton, the sole survivor of the infamous Dalton gang makes a living by selling his outrageous adventure stories to Hollywood. Desperadoes details his memories of the murders, bootlegging and thievery he and his posse committed. The grit and excitement of these violent times are expertly evoked by the sharp pen and authentic voice of HarperCollins' bestselling author Ron Hansen.
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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Harper Perennial
  4. Publication date
    January 16, 1997
  5. Dimensions
    8.04 x 5.34 x 0.7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0060976985
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0060976989
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is one terrific book..."Gunsmoke for literate adults.""--New York""The writing is so accomplished and the book has such an authoritative tone that one finds it difficult to think of this as a first novel."--Jerome Charyn, "New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

Ron Hansen is the bestselling author of the novel Atticus (a finalist for the National Book Award), Hitler's Niece, Mariette in Ecstasy, Desperadoes, and Isn't It Romantic?, as well as a collection of short stories, a collection of essays, and a book for children. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Ron Hansen lives in northern California, where he teaches at Santa Clara University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (January 16, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060976985
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060976989
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.04 x 5.34 x 0.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 217 ratings

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Ron Hansen

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
217 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Linda Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating portrayal of the Old West without the fantasy.
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024
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Well written, always held my interest. The Dalton Gang committed many atrocious crimes and yet the principals are portrayed as multi-faceted. Knowing their background and personalities almost makes their crimes seem forgivable.
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R. Jones
4.0 out of 5 stars Outlaws The Way They Really Were
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2020
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Presented as a memoir by the last of the Dalton gang, Desperados isn't a tightly plotted novel of outlaws in the old west. Instead, it rambles along from incident to incident until the gang's big climactic shootout while robbing two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas. Since the story is told through the eyes of Emmett Dalton, we find out a lot about what he's thinking during the gang's years of robbing trains and banks, but only his conversations with his brothers give us some insight into who they are and why they do what they do. What we do find out is how hard and often downright miserable it was to live in the old west, especially when you were on the run. This book should destroy anyone's romantic ideas of what being a famous desperado was like. One problem I had with the book was the sheer number of different characters who come and go in the course of the story, some sticking around but others just making one appearance. For me the names all seem to run together at a certain point. That said, it's an interesting read that is, I assume, historically accurate in its details. If you're looking for a novel that depicts the life of an outlaw in all its dingy glory, this is about as good as you'll get.
5 people found this helpful
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moviegoer
5.0 out of 5 stars A revelation of a corrupt and grimy territory and country EXCELLENT
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2021
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Unexpected in every way. A BIG DIGRESSION BUT THERE"S POINT TO IT: My mother had told me that her father was invited to "join the Dalton's". She always said it the same way, and she hated her brothers when they told tall tales. So I pondered this idea and could make no sense of it. Until I read this book. In the simplest way, these Dalton fellows may have found shelter with my grandfather and, as a way of repaying him?, asked him if he'd like to join them in one of their train hold-ups. I suppose. And my grandfather must have been a bachelor then, or a widower, waiting to find and marry my grandmother. But, oh how terrible was Oklahoma! All my kin come from Oklahoma. Many made their way there, gradually, from Maryland. My grandfather was born in 1862, the only one of his large Irish family to be born in America. I can now see how rough this territory was, including Shawnee where he and my grandmother brought up the last of their 12 children -- lived in that house for fifty years? He was in Texas, too. And the state of Washington. Cattle poisoned; bankrupted twice. Saw to it that there was a Catholic church and a school wherever he settled, so the eldest of his children told me.
This is a tantalizing book, hard to put down and hard to put up with. Vivid and slow-paced but holds your feet to the floor, not letting you turn away.
6 people found this helpful
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Michael W. Kennedy
3.0 out of 5 stars UNFLINCHING REALISM STILL ROMANTIC
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2007
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Ron's Hansen's first novel, DESPERADOS, is the story of the Dalton gang as related by Emmett Dalton, the lone survivor. Written in gritty Western noir style, Mr Hansen's unflinching realism attempts to tell the tale without romanticism. Yet, strangely, the reader is left rooting for these pathological killers as they shoot down men trying to protect their property and their lives. This empathy, intended or not, may be the product of Mr Hansen's skill as a writer, which is evident in DESPERADOS. Still, I found myself manipulated by the cardboard, unflattering portraits of honest citizens who were shot down by this band of thieves and murderers. Your call. Three and one-half stars.
8 people found this helpful
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matahpi
5.0 out of 5 stars Dalton Gang, short &sweet
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020
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Really liked the book. Emmett does not shy away from anything - giving you the real thing. Surprising how young they were Bob 22, Emmett 20. All their crimes (including homicides) is just a busy month for the drug gangs of today! Grat was the Worst Bank Robber Ever & caused all their deaths. Eugenia was the smart one-All the planning & getting things done. I would love to sit down & have a beer & Bob. He needed money but all he really wanted was Fame. How bad was the Railroad? Wow.
5 people found this helpful
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Gridley
4.0 out of 5 stars A Family on Fire
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2018
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Hard times are upon those of us who traffic in literary fiction writing, and it’s been that way for quite a while. Readers don’t seem to trust us when we tell them that literary fiction is more real than real, and they turn to genre fiction, where story rules, or to non-fiction. Part of the mistrust is because of that damnable American postmodernism, which eschews story for cultural views and characterization, which stands in for story.
Ron Hansen is one who apparently read the literary tea leaves long ago and cast his lot - for a while, anyway - with the literary western. Which is where this book has its origin.
The American public has always had a complicated love affair with outlaws. In modern times, there’s been Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, Gary Gilmore, and the plethora of serial killers, who are caught or killed, or ‘fess up after a long examination of conscience.
But it’s the Daltons who have been on Hansen’s mind and their escalating crime sprees that turn them not only into bank robbers but unrepentant killers. Their boldness turns them into the most feared robbers of their era, and then their boldness turns into foolhardiness.
Fame goes to their heads, and they decide to rob two banks simultaneously in the town of Coffeyville, Kansas, unaware that scores of lawmen await them. The final shootout depiction is as bloody as the real thing surely was, but Hansen’s gift for detail enlightens in this scene where it fails him in less violent scenarios in his westerns.

My rating: 16 of 20 stars.
6 people found this helpful
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lonetraveler
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best Westerns I have ever read. Beautifully captured the concept of living past one's time, and the crossing of one era into another. It also perfectly captured the irony and hypocrisy ; infamy morphing into celebrity. More broadly, all of us mourn the passing of times and places that were wilder and more dangerous than now. We need that feeling to understand how far we have come, but we also then mourn the passing of authenticity.
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2018
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We all need some wildness to long for if for nothing else but contrast. This book glaringly illustrates both the wildness and the folly of letting it loose to lead you where it will. But Emmet still longs for the past, when he and his brothers were wild, and life was difficult, dirty, cruel, and, often, "sudden". Is it because it was more free? Is that the basis for his nostalgia?
This a great novel and I highly recommend it.
3 people found this helpful
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John Bertrand
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book!
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2020
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Desparados is simply one of the most well crafted works of historical fiction I have ever read! The author sucks you into the life of the Dalton family and then the Dalton gang for a nonstop ride towards their ultimate fate in Coffeeville, KS. A great read from start to finish.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ed Duplissie
5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD STORY OF THE DALTON GANG
Reviewed in Canada on March 13, 2021
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Interesting historical fiction of the years of the Dalton gang and their infamous end in the streets of Coffeyville, Kansas. The story is told by Emmett Dalton the sole survivor of the failed bank robbery in Coffeeville. After serving a prison sentence Emmett goes to Hollywood and becomes a famous actor and screen writer. The only Dalton to die with his boots off.
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john
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2014
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Bought it for a relative, but read it myself years ago and always remember it as a stand-out read.
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wordparty
4.0 out of 5 stars a fine grimness
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2009
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ron hansen is a most excellent writer. in his western novels, he builds on documentary fact with his deep and poetic imagination to create a credible, almost tangible world.
his protagonists, often drifting aimlessly or forced into criminality by poverty, endure the roles of outcast or outsider with occasional moments of success, but little joy, which is probably how it was.
the masterly "assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford" has a little more impetus and tension than "desperadoes," but both books have a ring of authenticity about them, thanks to hansen's detailed imaginative empathy with those who live on the edge of society, looking in.
the book is full of rain and mud and bad weather and is far from the conventional world of the western, while retaining some of that excitement.victims of shootings, for example, in hansen's books do not often die cleanly, and i'm sure that's how it was also.
a fine book, by a first rate writer.
7 people found this helpful
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Chuck Howitt
3.0 out of 5 stars Setting, character exceptional
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2020
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For the most part I enjoyed this book, but it's not as good as Hansen's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, one of my all-time favorite western novels. Hansen does more than just focus on plot. His description of setting and character are exceptional.
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L Buffini Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2018
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thank you
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