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Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 PARKER | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In 1992, Jameson Parker, the former star ofSimon & Simon, was shot and almost killed while living in Los Angeles. The incident drove him into a ten-year struggle with the psychological aftereffects of trauma. It also drove him and his wife into the California mountains, where he stumbled into a world of unruly cattle, uncertain horses, the timeless routines of ranch life, and the solace of the land. An Accidental Cowboyis the story of what it's like to have one's life go spinning out of control and how it is possible to pick up the pieces and begin again in an entirely different sphere. With stunning, crisp writing, remarkable detail, and a flair for description, it's a captivating story of loss, depression, and the beginnings of hope set against the backdrop of the American Southwest.
Author Notes
Jameson Parker was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a working actor for more than a quarter of a century, getting his first paying job while on suspension (girls' dorm, vodka) from Beloit College. While he has appeared in more plays than he can remember, and in numerous television and feature films (some of which he would prefer to forget), Mr. Parker is best remembered for his role as A.J. in the long-running hit series Simon & Simon . At one time or another in his life, Mr. Parker has practiced karate, boxed, played polo, swum competitively, run track and field, and skied, with the result that he now hurts in a lot of places where he shouldn't. Visit him at www.jamesonparker.com.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Parker, star of the 1980s TV series Simon and Simon, was shot by a crazed neighbor in Los Angeles. Although Parker recovered physically from his injuries, the incident left him psychologically crippled, prompting him and his wife, Darlene, to leave Hollywood and run a cattle and horse ranch in the California hills. The change was positive, but Parker found it difficult to return to acting and Los Angeles. He remained haunted by the memories of being shot and suffered bouts of severe depression; he even contemplated suicide. He is blunt and direct as he describes his feelings: "I am walking down the hall to shower before dinner when the panic hits me more suddenly, more unexpectedly, than a bullet. Panic is not fear. It is not an urge to run to or from anything. It is not anything external that I can deal with. It is all-consuming, blinding, maddening." Parker focuses his book primarily on his life as a rancher-how he learns all the necessary aspects of running a ranch from nursing sick animals to taming a calf and putting animals to sleep. While the writing is good overall, Parker tends to rely on quoted conversation in the early chapters. Readers interested in the rugged life of a ranch hand will find this appealing, but whether a larger audience will remember Parker as an actor and want to read about his "demons" is dubious. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A former television star who took to the trail extols a disappearing way of life. Parker, star of '80s detective drama Simon and Simon, has almost nothing to say about his acting career, other than to discuss why it eventually became enervating. Instead, his debut memoir begins when he leaves LA for parts just slightly east and deeper into the American West: the California ranch country of the Sierras. With his horse-loving wife Darleen, the author joins up with local cowboys, seeking to learn just how this quintessentially western job is done today. Whenever possible, he pitches in on cattle drives, helps out at brandings, looks on at auctions, and asks questions of men who excel in giving one- and two-word answers. Deeply enamored of this life rooted in the land, Parker takes the reader along on his beginner's tour of the basics of the cowboy way. He may know little about herding balky cattle, avoiding cantankerous bulls, or heating branding irons, but he's endlessly eager. Local trainers are profiled with deep admiration and respect. Cattlemen and cowboys are drawn with admiring strokes. The economics and politics of ranching, a true morass, are examined with a respectable attempt at evenhandedness. The habits of cows and horses come in for scrutiny, and Parker's mare, Miss Flirt, is a character in her own right. The only digressions are periodic references to the traumatic shooting that resulted in a depression that led, in turn, to the author leaving Hollywood. Most of the limelight, however, is reserved for the cowmen. Perhaps most surprising are Parker's writing chops: the language is expressive and intelligent, despite the author's best efforts to imitate his laconic heroes. Smart, disarming, and forgivably sentimental. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Readers wondering whatever happened toameson Parker, one half of television's Simon & Simon private detective team, will be pleased to know that he is alive and well and living in Southern California. Although, as he tells us in this splendidly written memoir, alive and well was a dicey proposition for a while: a few years after his series was canceled, Parker was shot, and very badly wounded, by a rather unpleasant neighbor. Physical recuperation went relatively smoothly, but the psychological healing is still progressing. Now living with his wife on a cattle ranch, and still taking on the infrequent acting role, Parker writes about his struggle frankly and with abundant good humor. Unlike many triumph-over-adversity books, which play the tragedy for all it's worth, this one doesn't even get around to telling us the specifics of the shooting incident until two-thirds into the book; until that point, the book is the story of an actor who went through a mostly unspecified, life-changing event and decided to chuck the big city for a ranch 5,000 feet above the Sanoaquin Valley. It's a story about a stranger in a strange land, about a man learning an entirely new set of skills, and the colorful people he meets along the way. Thousands of actors have written memoirs, but this one is unlike all the others. It isn't the actor's celebrity that makes it fascinating, but the way he tells his story. --David Pitt Copyright 2003 Booklist
