THE MODERN COWBOY

Put away any image of the cowboy as the strong, silent type. Erikson is as loquacious as they come. In an informal, chatty, but by no means unlettered style, he tells us everything we ever wanted to know about the present-day life of the cowboy, and then some. For optimum fun, we'd really want an illustrated print edition, but Norman Dietz goes a long way toward making us forget the lack. Early on he falls into the spirit of the thing with gusto. A little more than halfway through, the energy becomes sporadically forced (the author DOES go on and on!), but not so as to spoil the adventure for fans of the open range. Y.R. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 05/ JAN 06]