The James Boys - a Novel Account of Four disparate Brothers, by Richard Liebmann-Smith, Random House

I'm not accustomed to reading novels - I generally head for the Nonfiction stacks, but I've made an exception here. Four "old guys" on a bicycle, more than tandem.

This story covers a big ground but moves fast - author, Richard Liebmann-Smith more than keeps the momentum rolling.  And it is so funny, even the sex is funny.  Liebman-Smith is extremely witty, an intelligent being; my friends and I are making lists of the words we don't know (soon to be looked up and put into use, I hope).

The author creates a relationship of mutual respect; we admire the author's entertaining writing skills, but almost more than that, we respect how he hasn't dumbed down his verbiage; he keeps us high and running fast - he respects his readers.  And expects us to keep up…we do, of course, but even after the event is finished, we still feel the high.

One last observation…if there are 4 James Boys, you might have imagined that bad boys, Jesse and Frank, may have brought along 2 others for their ride.  The author has connected two families; extrapolated out are the bank robbing duo, genetically combined with their contemporaries, William and Henry.  Two by two, they could never have been more disparate, and all of them desperate (as the author notes)… brought together by one beautiful woman.

This is some trick to pull off - is it believable that the two robber barons could have gone off to the Civil War and then lost their way, while their siblings at home turn into intellectuals (at times pompous elitists).  With an economy of words, Richard Liebman-Smith has pulled off the genetic heist, mastered even better than in real life where the two young ones were dull-sounding and perhaps trivial.  The 4 "James Boys" are the ones you will want to remember, long after the ride is over.