"Desperadoes" by Ron Hansen
Ron Hansen has written 10 estimable novels with wildly diverse, mostly historical subjects ranging from postulant Mariette Baptiste to Hitler's niece to Billy the Kid. The other day I reread his 1979 debut, "Desperadoes," a wry, elegiac western that doubles as a family saga about the real-life Dalton clan, whose members made a fine living robbing trains in Oklahoma during the 1890s. Their story is told with a flair for the perfect phrase by younger brother Emmett, who survives the gang's comeuppance and grows old and wealthy writing shoot-em-ups for Hollywood.
But I misspoke:  It took me several days to reread "Desperadoes" because I spent so many pleasurable hours rereading what I'd reread, then putting my orange Sharpie to whole paragraphs of Hansen's brilliant, evergreen prose. So what? This is escapism as literary art, and I have the long afternoons to enjoy it.
WILLIAM SWANSON, Minneapolis
Quarantine Reads are reader recommendations of soothing books during fraught times. Send your suggestion, with your name and city, to books@startribune.com.
