I'm reading The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a "historical novel" written by Ron Hansen. I'm enjoying it a great deal – a great deal more than I did the movie of the same name featuring Brad Pitt as Jesse.
The book is "historical" because it works in a lot of the facts and reports about Jesse James, because so much was written about him, both in his day and in the years since. And it's "novel" where the writer puts in information – particularly dialog and what people are thinking – that he has to make up based on his research. He has Jesse as quite an interesting fellow.
I've recently passed the part of the day all of us St. Joseph natives know to be so famous: April 3, 1882. The author starts this part with a real quote by Oscar Wilde, from a letter he posted from St. Joseph April 19, 1882:
"Outside my window about a quarter mile to the west stands a little yellow house and a crowd of people are pulling it all down. It is the house of the great train robber and murderer, Jesse James, who was shot by his pal last week, and the people are relic hunters. … The Americans are certainly great hero worshippers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes."
I think Oscar's got us pegged there.
