The Western Lonesome Society

In this hilarious, poignant, over-the-top Western, Jim O’Brien writes the quixotic saga of his ancestors who grew up with a tribe of Comanches. As his grip on reality loosens, O’Brien weaves into the tale modern day stalkers, drug dealers, secret agents, strippers, a mad linguist, an imaginary therapist, Ernest Hemingway, and an RV trip through the soul of the West. Having been displaced, each of the characters must embark on the great American quest for a place to truly call home.

“Robert McBrearty’s stories occupy a fascinating world where the daft becomes heartfelt, the dangerous becomes ordinary, and the ordinary becomes downright odd- and where the act of writing is appropriately worthy of awe. A world, in other words, seen through a pane of absurdist old glass.”
—David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

“The Western Lonesome Society is a thing of beauty, a house with many rooms, all built of humor and pathos. I don’t know what to call it, comic novel or surreal novella, or a genre all its own, a literary tall tale. McBrearty’s work shows an extraordinary imagination and a deeply felt love for the written word.”
—Barry Kitterman, NEA Fellowship Winner, author of The Baker’s Boy and From the San Joaquin

“His writing is always lovely and down-to-earth and his exuberant sense of humor blends beautifully with the very serious human realities underlying his tales….Robert’s stories deliver what I think all great stories do: they illuminate what’s universal in our shared human experience.” —Anthony Powell, Artistic Director, Stories on Stage