Lost in the new West : reading Williams McCarthy Proulx and McGuane Lost in the New West investigates a group of writers John Williams Cormac McCarthy Annie Proulx and Thomas McGuane who have sought to explore the tensions inherent to the Western where the distinctions between old and new myth and reality authenticity and sentimentality are frequently blurred. Collectively these authors demonstrate a deep seated attachment to the landscape people and values of the West and offer a critical appraisal of the dialogue between the contemporary West and its legacy. Mark Asquith draws attention to the idealistic young men at the center of such works as Williamss Butchers Crossing (1960) McCarthys Blood Meridian (1985) and Border Trilogy Proulxs Wyoming stories and McGuanes Deadrock novels. For each writer these characters struggle to come to terms with the difference between the suspect mythology of the West that shapes their identity and the reality that surrounds them. They are in short lost in the new West