From the Listening Hills: Stories

A reading for fans of westerns. A book that eclipse many great films of the genre as the novelist is talented. I have read and reread several times throughout the work of Louis L'Amour. Passionate introduction to the discovery of the myth of farwest.

What hasn't been said about Louis L'Amour by now? The name L'Amour is synonymous with adventure fiction and, if the genre that he is primarily known for, the Western, has fallen on fallow times, his work is nonetheless still known and appreciated, even enjoying cyclical revivals. And so it should be; the man published 90 novels, including HOW THE WEST WAS WON --- which was adapted into what might be the ultimate Western film epic --- and seventeen or so novels dealing with the Sackett family. Somewhere in between, he managed to write enough short stories to fill over two-dozen collections. And they still keep coming, thanks to the fine folks at Bantam Books.The latest --- and apparently the last of these --- is FROM THE LISTENING HILLS, a compilation of 12 L'Amour short stories that were previously uncollected. Interestingly enough, two of these stories are apparently published here for the first time. The first, the title story, is a bit unwieldy but is nonetheless a strong tale of justice gone wrong. The other, "Sand Trap," is about an innocent party who is at the wrong place at the wrong time and witnesses a murder. The murderers try to frame him for the deed and then kill him so he can't deny it. He turns the tables so neatly on them that you want to stand up and cheer by the end. It is possibly one of the best pieces of short fiction that L'Amour ever wrote; if it has, indeed, never been published before, it is a puzzle as to why it has not seen the light of day until now.In addition to these apparently unpublished works, FROM THE LISTENING HILLS is noteworthy for including the first, and last, pieces of short fiction that L'Amour wrote. Neither, interestingly enough, are westerns. "Anything For A Pal," his first short story, is only a few pages long and, although the ending is telegraphed, it nonetheless showcases the irony for which L'Amour's work later became so well known. The last story is a short parable with the haunting title "The Moon of the Trees Broken By Snow." The ending is more obvious now than it probably was when the story was first published, but no matter; it's still a beautiful and interesting story that provides more food for thought than one might expect from a tale that is only a few pages long.The remainder of the tales spans the gamut from sports stories ("Backfield Battering Ram," "Moran of the Tigers") to war stories ("Flight to the North," "Down Paagumene Way") to, of course, westerns ("A Night At Wagon Camp," "Murphy Plays His Hand"). L'Amour occasionally tried to jam too much into one story --- "Down Paagumene Way" is an example of this --- but even at his worst, L'Amour's ability to create suspense always shines through, even when details become murky. There is also imbued into every story a sense of fairness, values and ideals, where a man's word, spoken or unspoken, was his bond. There are heroes, villains and, usually, a woman to be saved from peril. What more does one need for great literature?It is not know