Sunday 21 May 2017

Borrachón

By Kevin Cullen
Ulysses Media, November 2016

Borrachón is a prequel to the Rio Bravo story, a 1959 film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne as Sherriff John T. Chance, Dean Martin as Dude (Borrachón) and Walter Brennan as Stumpy.

Kevin Cullen first novel fills in the background to the main characters of Rio Bravo in a very entertaining story. John T. Chance doesn’t have a very large role to play in this fast moving tale that revolves around a cattle drive to provide Stumpy with much needed funds to pay his ranch off. Of course someone doesn’t want that to happen and there’s a lot of violent action as hired guns attempt to stop the drive.

The other main thread of the book follows Dude’s fall from grace as a first class deputy and his new dependence on alcohol which leads to his new name of Borrachón.

Cullen also injects some humorous scenes to lighten the darker elements of his story.

If you’re a fan of the film Rio Bravo or just well told western tales then this is certainly a book you should consider reading, and if you do, I think you’ll be joining me in wanting to watch the movie again to remind yourself of what happens next.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Interesting concept! I'm curious to know if the author had to get permission to use the characters? I know John Wayne's daughter, and even the family doesn't own some of the rights to John Wayne films.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the question, Tell Cotton. The original story for Rio Bravo was written by the late B. H.. McCampbell, who I reference in the copyright section. Before publishing, I submitted the manuscript to the US Copyright Office which did the required due diligence and issued a Certificate of Registration (#TXu 2-030-391) in my name.

Legal issues aside, I really enjoyed writing the book. I introduce many other characters beside the ones depicted in the story and film. If you decide to get a copy, I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it.

Thank you again for your comment.

Unknown said...

Already picked up a copy, looking forward to it. Good luck with your sales! Tell Cotten

Unknown said...

Thanks again, Tell Cotton.