You can take every western movie you've seen and every western book you've read and erase them from your memory. Then read this one book and it will more than make up for the loss.A terse account of a lynching, the Ox-Bow Incident is a man's book. It deals with a man's world where communication by word is spare but communication by gesture, expression and body movement is nuanced; no shrug or glance goes without notice. Egos are sharp-edged, every shoulder carries a chip, every man is either established in the pecking order or looks to move up it. No doubt is left that our species shares with others the strong desire to assert who is who.It is old-western in the contempt the characters show for formal education along with a high regard for practical wisdom. Yes, tracking a man takes practical knowledge, and can be done in the same way an animal can be tracked, but determining guilt or innocence has nothing to do with knowing the prairies or the mountains, how to tie a rope or herd cattle.What is necessary is our unique achievement: the law.The Ox-bow Incident could well be a text in law school, not because it details the law, but because it shows the need for it and the consequences of ignoring it.Far from being some kind of frosting on the cake of justice, the law is a crafted instrument that has come from long observation of human behavior in an attempt to rise above it in principles and procedures that, while not guaranteeing the discovery of truth, give the best chance of doing so. Making it legal is undoubtedly frustrating and time-consuming but there is no way to circumvent it for better results.The Ox-Bow Incident could also be used as a text in human behavior: how do individuals change when exposed to a group of others who show doubt, or conviction? How is the level of respect between people able to move one to action? What is the meaning of character? What does it mean to be a leader of men and how can that characteristic be abused? Can any individual action be received in the same way it was intended? What does it mean to be manly? Is it more courageous to back down than to rise to insult? How is it that each of us places such importance on how others see us? Is looking like you know what you are doing just as important as knowing what you are doing in fact?While a simple, short read, the depth of this novel is profound. The writing style perfectly matches the social and physical environment of the American west of 1885, but that doesn't prevent the lyrical, as in this passage:"I looked for a meadowlark. Usually about sunset you can see them playing, leaping up and fluttering for a moment, and then dropping again, suddenly, as if they'd been hit; then, after they're down again, their singing will come to you, thin and sweet chink-chink-a-link. But there was too much wind. Probably all over the big meadow they were down flat in the grass and ruffled. They could feel the storm coming too. Ahead of us the shadowy mountains, stippled all over by their sparse pelt of trees, and pie-bald with lingering snow, loomed up higher than they were, right against the moving sky."Clifton Fadiman's words are fully justified: "a masterpiece...such a book can never be followed up by another of the same kind. It stands by itself."
In the heat of the 2012 Presidential battle, mired in debates with Libertarian friends, I sought a good read about justice, society, responsibility and humanity. My father recommended this to me when I was very young... too young to appreciate or desire this novel. But as a Nevada district attorney, I suppose he had some very deep connection to the story of Nevada Justice."The Oxbow Incident" is a meditation on the rule of law, the establishment of society, and all the personality types at play in the quest for justice. The specific part of human society that this book picks at until raw, is our motivation to act; our motivation to participate in pack behavior; our lust for power, and the willingness of some individuals to use the pack to attain that power. Circumstances suggest that a man has been murdered and 40 head of cattle rustled. Justice must be served, and not at the slow pace offered by the judicial system. The town-folk of Bridger's Wells Nevada form a posse/lynch mob to find the pre-determined-guilty parties, and exact a rapid frontier justice. The various characters serve as mouthpieces for and against a rush to judgment or action. Davies and young Gerald Tetley offer book-end assessments of human motivations, and it is hard to say who is more accurate, or who pays more for the beliefs he holds, in the end.Some of the locals are "axe-to-grind", power hungry men whose motivations cover the entire spectrum EXCEPT for achieving justice in the case. I could not help but see, in this 1940 Western novel, an eerie parallel to modern times. Members of the vigilante posse hell-bent on lynching anyone for the murder of Kincaid, morphed in my mind to become the GWBush Administration and its cronies pushing America to war in Iraq. Circumstantial evidence; pleas to save society; appeals to machismo. A twist, late in the novel, makes this analogy even more apt in my mind... Without spoiling the novel (I hope) no WMD's were found in the Oxbow valley, either. Elvis Costello writes on his 1988 album "Spike", "One day you're going to have to face a deep dark truthful mirror... and it's going to tell you things that I still love you too much to say..."This novel is a starkly powerful mirror held up to our psyches, reflecting our willingness to stand up and do what's right, to "go along, to get along," to participate in sins of omission or commission. A Western American novel, no doubt, but also a timeless assessment of human nature, and the problems of power, justice, tribalism and fear. No reader can walk away from this novel and claim, in good conscience, looking themselves in the mirror, that they do not know the options facing them when a moral and ethical dilemma invites, nay demands their involvement.
What do You think about The Ox-Bow Incident (2004)?
I guess can cross this one off my list of well known books I never got around to reading in High School. Now that I have finished it seems a little strange that this is such a mainstream classic. I thought it was a good book, but not great. (Though it had to have resonated with contemporary readers of 1940 by making some sort of statement on crowd hysteria against Germans and Communists before and during WWII). However, parts of it seemed as long winded as Atlas Shrugged in terms of certain characters making speeches on morality and justice. It got just a little repetitive. I also thought it was strange that a posse would travel all night in a snow storm after drinking heavily during a card game(to the point where two of them were knocked unconscious in a bar fight).Although it is no secret how it all ends, I found it a little slow going until the last third of the book. It is certainly not a typical Western novel. The dialogue and story more closely resemble Victorian Gothic, which is why the whole thing seemed strange to me.
—Marti
The Ox-Bow Incident is not your standard western. This is an excellent examination of mob justice and its consequences. Clark was a really good writer. He develops the characters and settings much better than many of the westerns I've read. The descriptions of western life sound as if he's writing from experience, as if he were there, which is not the case. Clark was born in 1909 in Maine. In 1917 his father accepted the position of President of the University of Nevada and moved the family west. By that time the west described in The Ox-Bow Incident was well on the way to extinction in the face of 20th century technology and civilization, but I'm sure there were still many remnants visible in the buildings and the landscape and many people still alive willing to tell stories of those times to an eager youngster. Even in the late 1930s, when Clark wrote this novel, he could have still found many people who remembered the west of 1885. Not long after its publication in 1940 The Ox-Bow Incident was made into a movie starring Henry Fonda. The film is good, too, considered by many to be a classic. Read the novel, then see the film, in that order. I recommend both most highly.
—David Kubicek
The inhabitants of a ranching community get up a posse to go after a band of rustlers who are thought to have stolen cattle and committed a murder. The small number of men who try to act reasonably and thoughtfully are easily swept aside by those who are ruled by their passions, leading to disastrous results.Walter Van Tilburg Clark is a wonderful writer who has produced a powerful novel that succeeds in every way. His simple, evocative language brings the Old West to life. His characters speak with distinctive, authentic voices. Most importantly, the novel is very astute about mob psychology as it depicts the ebb and flow of the men's passions through the final tragedy in the pitiless morning sunlight to the aftermath of guilt and regret. This classic story still has much of value to say about the danger of retribution unchecked by law.
—David B
