Gunsights

Once upon a time in the 50's and the 60's Westerns were the story of choice for readers and writers. Many a boy devoured westerns late at night and learned to read with horses, Indians, and blazing guns as guides. All writers wrote a werstern or two to pay the bills while they worked on other books. Some writers learned to write by doing westerns. Elmore Leonard is one of those who began in westerns and some people have said he rose out of those depths to become a serious writer. Well folks they are wrong. Leonard's westerns are classics. His HOMBRE and VALDEZ IS COMING were the bases for some of the best western movies ever made. THE BOUNTY HUNTERS is Leonard's first novel according to the back cover of the book. For a first novel it doesn't have any of the teething problems that are found in most first books. No Leonard was good right out of the box. THE BOUNTY HUNTERS is a great example of what made westerns popular. Basic story of good and evil with fully developed heroes and very bad vilians. The Indians are treated fairly and are show in a realistic light. The action is straight forward and realistic. The prose is the same prose of Leonard today. No this book is a trip to another time and place in American history, those times of the 50's and 60's when things were peaceful and the only action was in books. I miss this time in American literature. So you might take a look at this and see where Leonard began and compare it to his present works. It is worth the time to read it and think about the time it was written in.

I have a problem. I came to the Western recently, sort of as an accident after getting involved in single-action revolver shooting. I started with L'Amour, as perhaps most newcomers do, because he's so well known and has so many titles out there. I read a few; they're good, solid 3-star books. Then a friend says: "Elmore Leonard wrote mysteries. Read them. Start with Valdez is Coming". So I did, then with Hombre, and now with Gunsights. Gunsights is a "land war" Western with several twists; it's really a buddy story where the pals, tough gunfighters of different temperaments who've been through a lot together, end up on opposite sides of the war later on in their careers. They work it out. The narrative shifts points of view and provides the backstory in flashbacks during the main thread of the tale; this is handled very well by Leonard, as is his use of newspapermen covering the "war"; which gives a "late West" flavor that lends a sense of irony sometimes. The narrative structure is very different than "Valdez is Coming" or "Hombre", but is very effective. But Leonard's genius is in the way he lets the story speak through the characters' words and actions. He eschews all of the internal soliloquies in the protagonists thoughts that are usually only an author's way of making heavy-handed points. This seems uncommon in this genre. He lacks utterly the unrealistic sentimentality of L'Amour (and many other Western writers better than L'Amour, such as Elmer Kelton), and yet his stories are not dark, and often have strong moral points to make. But they are integral to the action of the story itself, which is the thing. My problem? Where do I find someone as good in this genre when I'm done with Elmore Leonard?

Two old friends who used to track down killers as a team now face each other in a small war. Brendan Early leads the mining company gang v.s. Dana Moon and the gang called the people of the mountain. This is an action packed story of gunfights all the way.

In general I do not read Elmore Leonard. So I approached this book w/some tepidation.Not to worry... 2 old friends wind up on opposite sides when a mining company wants to run some landowners off their property. Sure it's a standard western plot, but it comes alive in Leonard's capable hands. More details about the plot can be garnered from other reviews. The book has a feeling of great authenticity. The lead characters are both very well drawn ( you can see them in your mind & their actions are consistent w/their character.). The plot moves at a fast clip. I wish Leonard would return to Western writng. this book is availablle by itself, or in one of his Western Roundups.

Gunsights is a classic western story of an Arizona land war where two frontier deadly gunfighters and feuding best friends find themselves on opposing sides. Elmore Leonard is a consummate storyteller and this abridged, 90 minute audiobook production is superbly narrated by Peter Renaday providing western buffs with a thrilling, totally engaging, very highly recommended story of the Old West.