HOMBRE
- Elmore Leonard -
A stagecoach trip gone sour.
Why? Bandits hold it up.
Why? There is a bag of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why? That is the part of the mystery.
The mystery and suspense were the best part of this book. This seemingly random bunch of people, on a stagecoach ride to nowhere town in the middle of the desert, all have hidden secrets or strange connections to one another. The more I read the more I found out. I started to wish I could speed read and just get to the end already! There were lots of surprises that popped up and I really had no idea what
was going to happen next. Very well written in that way.
The first person narrative, from a somewhat
naive sounding clerk, helped with the suspense - he didn't have the life
experience or the brains to really have any solid predictions, which made everything a surprise.
Also, the
way this clerk built up other characters was great. He stereotyped everyone; the Doctor (who could do no wrong), the cute girl (who could do no wrong), the ruffian (who could do wrong), but, best of all the 'Hombre'. He build up this man to be a bigger than life superhero and made it
seem like everyone was in good hands...but, were they?
All of the characters were different and showed their true colours as the story progressed. It was very entertaining to see them all 'break down' at some point. Another part of the book that was very well written.
I've heard Elmore Leonard mentioned over and over again in the Western circles, but, I've never gotten around to reading anything by him. Now that I know how great he writes I will be sure to look into more of his books.
I've never read any of Leonard's Westerns. I have read a couple of his mysteries, and enjoyed them a lot. I bet he takes himself a lot less seriously than L'Amour!
ReplyDeleteI'd of guessed it would be less serious, seeing as he writes humour books like Get Shorty, but, Hombre (and his earlier westerns) were very serious.
Delete