Now in his 80s, [Charyn] seems ever more daring ... Charyn has found a path all his own — neither a substitute for biography nor a violation of it ... For fans of Roosevelt, this is tremendous fun. But readers unfamiliar with his life and the political history of the late 19th century should be forewarned: There will be no coddling on this breakneck tour. The five dozen names listed in the novel’s dramatis personae offer a handy guide to who’s who, but those terse descriptions will hardly bring the uninitiated up to speed ... [the front cover] strikes just the right tone, as does this delightful novel.
This fictional biography, as narrated by the subject himself, has the fascinating flavor of those infamous but sought-after 19th century dime novels ... With an included Cast of Characters—and what characters they are!—listing almost everyone mentioned in the novel, and authentic archival photographs, The Perilous Adventures of the Cowboy King would be a rousing tale of adventure even if it wasn’t based on fact.
... the novel’s tongue-in-cheek title and comic-book dust jacket also give fair warning of Mr. Charyn’s intent. The author doesn’t mean to lampoon his subject but to convert him into an action hero worthy of the dime novels and 'Boy’s Own' stories popular during [Roosevelt's] time ... With Cowboy King [Charyn] has done his homework, and his account generally honors the historical record. The novel is also graced with vivid, vigorous writing ... Yet despite the first-person narration, it isn’t always easy to hear Roosevelt’s voice through Mr. Charyn’s phrasings ... [Charyn] has written the rousing yarn advertised in his title and dust jacket, and he has written it well. Maybe it’s unfair to wish that the hero had been rendered in all his three-dimensional glory. But sometimes portraying a figure larger than life serves not to magnify but to diminish.
A picaresque novel, but then T. R. led a picaresque life, marked from beginning to end by restlessness and adventure ... momentum is both the novel’s strength and flaw. It’s a ripping, enjoyable yarn, yet one senses a struggle to add heft and significance; passages about dreadful visions and regrets don’t completely cohere into a fully realized character. Perhaps it’s impossible to reinvent Roosevelt as Charyn did with Emily Dickinson in his remarkable The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson (2010)—but this is a bully read, regardless.
Instead of a travesty, Charyn here gives readers the very first truly terrific [Teddy Roosevelt] novel... It’s a breathless and at times very strange novel, sharing its odd kaleidoscopic quality with Charyn’s The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, for instance ... it’s hard to imagine a reader who could finish this book and not yearn for a Charyn novel about the next decade in his hero’s life.
... a surprisingly poignant assessment of smaller, more universally human moments ... Charyn has a gift for the unexpected, both linguistically and narratively ... Deftly, Charyn interweaves what is real and invented about Roosevelt’s life, and the result is at once surprising and very entertaining.
A rendering of Teddy Roosevelt’s early life that spotlights formative moments in colorful, entertaining episodes ... there’s a sense of the outsize characters of 19th-century dime novels, though without the hagiography ... Charyn makes artful use of historical fact and fiction’s panache to capture the man before he became one of the great U.S. presidents and a face on Mount Rushmore.
