Book Review: Showdown on the Tumbling T
August 25, 2010 – 1:10 am
The story begins with the main character Wat Bell, initially known as the Papago Kid, being where he was told to be, at the Tin Cup ranch. Things were not too healthy there as he shows up he sees a man get shot dead. He tries to even out the odds with a few rifle shots. The murders just run off. Hugh Taylor told him that he was a wanted man and it was for murder. He was told to lay low at the Tin Cup ranch. The sheriff and his posse ride up with the sounds of shots still bouncing off the hills. The first question was why did you shot him? He was in the box again running from one murder that I didn’t commit right into a second one I didn’t do either.
This short story has all kinds of twists and turns with a little true love thrown in to keep the women folk happy. The story has all of the makings of a full western novel all it needed was more details and the complexities of the story to be highlighted and fleshed out.
I have enjoyed reading the short stories of Louis L’Amour and would recommend them to any reader.
Book Review: The Warrior’s Path
August 18, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is a story in the Sackett family series giving the reader a brief initial looking into the early manhood of Kin Sackett the first-born son of Barnabas Sackett. Kin is the oldest and he and Yance the second son are in the west collecting furs and tending to a corn crop that Kin has planted. They receive a summons from a wounded Indian that Yances wife’s sister has been abducted and another young woman with her. The story is that Indians abducted them but that is soon proven to be false.
Diana Macklin is a young woman who knows her own mind and is much admired by Carrie Penny. Diana is a plant collector and she using them to make medicines. She also talks to the Indians and takes their information on plant remedies and increases her ability to cure and heal with these plants and herbs. Being a loner and enamored by the night she is labeled a witch by the people in the settlement. If her father had not been such a scholar they would have probably driven her from their settlement.
Yance and Kin search out their trail and come within sight as the two girls and a slave runaway and hide in the woods as the kidnappers tramp around trying to find them. Things progress and the story has some twists and turns as Kin strikes out for the Indie’s to try and end the traffic in stolen white girls. In this adventure he has many ups and downs. Traps were sprung and murder was attempted but Kin survived and won the hand of Diana.
Heading back to home ground things continue to happen and the newly wed couple strive to write the wrongs and until the last chapter you do not see how they will survive.
This is a typically good book giving the reader more insight and background knowledge into the Sackett family and how they continue to think about the land that they have been born to. I recommend this book to the western readers who desire the characters that have strength of vision and convictions to make things happen.
Book Review: The Man From The Broken Hills
August 11, 2010 – 1:10 am
It never ceases to amaze me how a storywriter of the caliber of Louis L’Amour was able to create stories of the west with so much realism and western lore to immediately get the reader locked into the story and drives the reader to the conclusion of it.
In this book the main character Milo Talon a relative of the Sacketts on his mothers side, had been riding the wild side and enjoying the country but always on the alert for the things that can get an unwatchful man killed. Joining a man’s fire and taking his food was to Milo a commitment only he was able to totally understand. Conflict comes quickly and sides are drawn as the story begins to unfold. Here we have a wealthy rancher in Milo Talon who takes a forty a month job as a cow wrangler for a man who he knows got his start off of the Talon range and stock. The question is he still a rustler or is he now being the person whose cattle are being rustled?
The story moves quickly with some hidden questions and people that he should know but he really can’t place the hidden face with a name. Three women are involved in the story but Milo ends up with only memories and dreams of things that could have been.
I recommend this story not for its expertly worded phrases or plot intricacies but just for the realism of a story told well.
Book Review: The Packsaddle Affair
August 4, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is another short story written by Louis L’Amour about the ways and customs of the west, were they reflected the chivalry exhibited in the writing of Sir Walter Scott. This story is a snapshot of a day or two in the life of Red Clanahan, one of those western characters that Louis L’Amour is able to create that reflects, some of the people of the time who lived and died in the west during the time the country was growing up. Red had become a bad man in terms of words because events had placed him in situations where doing the right thing placed him on the wrong side of the law and the swiftness of his gun hand had allowed him to stay alive and inherit a reputation of being a bad man.
This is a story about a good bad man who comes to the rescue of a young woman. Elaine McClary who is given an inheritance, of a mining claim. She is expecting to see a friend who has this claim. Her father and she both believe the claim is very valuable while the truth is its value is in what the truly bad guys think it is worth.
The whole story revolves around a potential kidnapping and how the good bad man inserts himself into the situation to aid the troubled daughter. The day is saved and the truly bad men get their just deserves.
Movie Review: Hondo
July 31, 2010 – 1:10 am
Here we have a special movie with the story line written by Louis L’Amour and the main character played by John Wayne. What is not to like about this movie. The beginning scene is Hondo Lane walking in from the desert with his saddlebags in one hand and his rifle in the other. How much more western can you get. He is being chased by Apaches and has out foxed them and ends up at Mrs. Lowe’s ranch a lone woman and her son waiting for her husband to return.
Mrs. Lowe tries to conceal the fact that her husband has left and not likely to return. Hondo moves on but is deeply attracted to Mrs. Lowe, played by Geraldine Page. He accidentally meets her husband and they instantly rub each other the wrong way. Mr. Lowe follows Hondo from the fort as he is going to take some supplies and try and convince Angie to come back to the fort. Hondo is about to get ambushed by Apaches and Mr. Lowe and his side kick run into the middle of it. When everything is done and Hondo had saved his life he still tries to kill Hondo but ends up on the short end of a bullet.
The chase begins and Hondo is trapped and over powered. He is waiting his end with defiant courage when the tintype of Angie’s boy is revealed. Hondo doesn’t know that Vittorio has taken him as a son and a strong father is needed to help raise the boy. After a knife fight for honor he is taken to the Lowe’s ranch and dumped in front of Angie and she is ask if this is her man and she slowly but definitely answers yes.
This is a very good western and I would recommend all western fans to revisit this movie and soak up the western essence of John Wayne. The support of Ward Bond as Buffalo Baker is just one of the appearances he is renowned for in Wayne’s movies.
Book Review: Jubal Sakett
July 28, 2010 – 1:10 am
Reading Together: Jubal Sackett by Louis L’Amour
My husband, Jay, and I read this book together – he with his eyes and I with my ears. Jay is a Louis L’Amour fan. He owns all 105 of the books and has read all of them at least three or four times. He’s even met the author twice and has done lots of research on the time period, the books and the author.
I have read only a few of the books. I’m not sure how or why we decided to read Jubal Sackett together but I’m glad we did. I found the story interesting and it led to much conversation. Here is part of our conversation.
Margot: Let’s start with a brief overview of Jubal Sackett.
Jay: These books are so complex, it’s impossible to to tell the story in just a few sentences.
Margot: Okay, here’s a challenge for you: Do a “Six-Sentence Review” the way Staci/Life In The Thumb does. (With no run-on sentences.)
Jay: Louis L’Amour wrote 17 books featuring the Sackett family. Jubal is the third son of Barnabas Sackett who was the first in his family to come to the new world (America). The story takes place somewhere around 1700. The family settled in South Caroline but Barnabas asked Jubal to go west to find new land for a future family settlement. This Jubal did, but his wanderlust took over and he decided to travel even further west. The trip takes him, on foot and canoe, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Sangre de Cristo mountains of what is now southern Colorado.
Margot: Wow – very good! As Jubal traveled west he acquired a sidekick, Keokotah. I really liked this character, although he wasn’t featured a lot. Why do you think Louis L’Amour added him to the story?
Jay: Keokatah gave the author the ability to expand the story. The reader now can see this new world through the eyes of an older Indian in addition to Jubal. With Keokatuah the author could introduce the customs of the Indian world and bring his experiences into the story. Plus it gave the author a way to add dialogue into the story.
Jay: What did you think of all the action in the story? Was it believable?
Margot: For me there was too much fighting. I didn’t like the attitude that all unknown people were enemies determined to kill them.
Jay: That is the reality of the time period. The Indians were very territorial. Each tribe had their own general area but they were always on the move for greener pasture. These people were hunters. Very few tribes grew their own food or stayed in one place very long. So, they didn’t welcome new people. To them, new people meant they were going to take their food. If someone wasn’t in their tribe they were an enemy.
Jay: What did you think of Itchikomi?
Margot: I liked her character. She was definitely a classy woman and was believable as the Indian princess who was destined to play an important part in the lives of her people. Having a romance in the middle of all that “bloody action” helped me like the story more.
Margot: Overall, I thought Louis L’Amour told a good story. What do you think was his underlying theme?
Jay: Louis L’Amour does tell a good story. Some people criticise his writing but you can’t deny he is a good storyteller. I thought the theme was man’s drive and spirit to see the unknown. Also, man’s will to survive. Probably these themes are why men like these books better than women.
Margot: Are you implying that women . . . .
Okay, that’s enough of that conversation. We knew from the start that Jay would enjoy the book more than I would but what made it a better experience was reading it at the same time. I had the book on my ipod (read in a beautiful English accent by John Curliss). As I listened I would shout to him the number of the next chapter. That gave us a chance to stay together and talk about the story as we went along.
Thanks to Tami and Dave (Just One More Thing) for sponsoring this challenge of Reading Together.
Movie Review: The Ballad of Cable Hogue
July 24, 2010 – 1:10 am
This movie opened up with the tough western man who was challenged to die or survive by his old one-time friends when water separated them. Their was water only for two and his partners teamed up against him and left him with nothing in the middle of the desert expecting him to die. In 1908 the west was beginning to change but Cable Hogue, played by Jason Robards, was yet to embrace the changes. In desperate need of water Cable was stumbling along in the sand of the desert in need of water but none was in sight. A muddy boot toe startled him and water was found. He was in the middle of the desert on a stage line and he found water.
Starting a business of selling water he also began his own graveyard when one customer refused to pay. Still unable to change and accept the modern ways he chose to sit and wait for his two ex partners to show up again for a drink of water and he could extract his revenge. Many things happened but the best event seemed to be the introduction of Hildy, played by Stella Stevens. She was an eyeful that attracted Cable into a love story and songs rolled out of this combination.
The director Sam Peckinpah changed his view of the western frontier from violence to one of whimsy odd happenings. I enjoyed this movie but it seemed a little far-fetched and not totally believable in the west that I recognize. I still would recommend this movie a western example of tongue in cheek humor.
Book Review: 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History
July 21, 2010 – 1:10 am
1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History
This book presents to the layperson a scope of Lincoln’s problems and successes that he underwent during the year of 1864 the last full year of his administration with him in charge. Charles Bracelen Flood did a masterful job of telling the events in a way that was both entertaining as well as easy to read with many hidden highlights of things only know by the scholars and academics who search through the dusty confines of old historical notes and journals.
At the beginning of the year the war was far from over and Lincoln had yet to appoint Grant to the head of Army totally in charge of success as well as defeats. Lincoln struggled through the bloody statistics of battles and suffered with Ulysses S. Grant as he continued the fight day after day. The reelection was almost an unrealizable dream. He was laying out his plan for the reunification of the North and South.
While he was confronted with the problems of war and reelection he was dealing with his wife’s erratic behavior and the two year haunting of their minds as they continued to struggle with the sudden death of their eleven year old son, Willie. The year was so dark and gloomy that in August Lincoln admitted to himself that he believed that he could not be reelected.
The turn began slowly but increased in momentum by the end of the year. The majority of the American people became ready to place their trust in him and his vision for success. At the ending of the year 1864 with some victories and the end of war insight he was beginning to achieve his vision that he once only saw in his own mind. Amongst the confusion and turmoil of the year 1864 Lincoln was able to steer the wheels of the country with the Homestead Act, the railroads and the Act to Encourage Immigration.
As the year 1864 ended with the reelection of Lincoln, he was working on the total elimination of slavery and developing the plan to reunify the country as he saw it. This is a book that explains to the average person why we are the way we are. Anyone who professes to know history and how we are involved in the past has to read and absorb the book so he can understand this nation as it is.
Movie Review: My Darling Clementine
July 17, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is a movie directed by John Ford about a western ledgend that has some fact laced with myth. The first scene is a cattle drive and it pictures the initial characters getting ready to stop for the night and a lone buggy drive by Walter Brennan playing old man Clanton comes close and the character played by Henry Fonda goes out to visit and the buggy. Old man Clanton wants to buy the cattle but he wouldn’t sell them. You learn that they are close to Tombstone, Arizona and the cattle drivers are heading for California. The three oldest brothers head for town leaving the youngest to clean up and watch the cattle.
Things begin to happen and in town you learn that Henry Fonda is playing Wyatt Earp. On their return to their camp they find that the cattle were rustled and the youngest brother James was shot dead. This puts the Earp clan and the Clanton family on a trail of a blood feud. The Earp’s particularly Wyatt befriends Doc Holiday played by Victor Mature. Victor Mature was to physically robust to convey a consumptive Doc Holiday. The movie has a real flavor of the west in the way that it was in the late 1800’s.
The story has all the fury of a storm as the families collide at the shoot out at the OK Corral. This is legend and the good guys win out and the bad guys die. While all of this is happening Wyatt falls in love with the new schoolteacher Clementine Carter an eastern love of Doc Holiday. The movie I viewed was the original version save for history and I saw excerpts of the released version. Not a lot of difference but very interesting. I recommend that you western movie buffs see the original. I have this movie on my top 100 best westerns, how about your list.
Book Review: No Rest for the Wicked
July 14, 2010 – 1:10 am
This is a short story by Louis L’Amour in his collection titled The Outlaws of Mesquite. This story puts a town marshal against the town when he arrests the man that is pushing dream of lost gold and missing towns. The scam was simple but Lou the town marshal had already seen and heard all about “The Lost Village Mine” and he knew Luke Feist for what he was a con artist.
This is a very short story only fifteen pages but it has some thoughts that are always present in the stories of Louis L’Amour. His characters will not be deceived, they demand loyalty, they do their duty and they do the right thing no matter the consequences.
This story seemed to me to be just the thoughts of a large and more significant story in the making. I have always enjoyed his story telling and I envision this one to be a story that never got completely told. I recommend this story as a thought provoking episode in your quest to write a western story.
