Hombre

If you haven't seen the 1966 movie take on Elmore 'Dutch' Leonard's book, HOMBRE then track it down and watch it. It is a western classic or perhaps a unique western, starring the late Paul Newman in a very good version of the book. Saying that, read the book first because Leonard offers up a great story that is anything but a typical cowboy western. The premise is that raised among the Apaches John Russell has to readjust to 'civilized' life and finds out early on just uncivilized it can be. Next to Valdez Is Coming and 3:10 to Yuma Leonard's Hombre makes us all look at the Old West with new eyes and perhaps a new appreciation of a talented writer early in his long career. Although he went on to write modern best selling novels I'd sure like to see him go back and do another western. They may not have broad appeal since the public seems to look down on the genre (literally too, for that matter since one store where I buy my books has them situated at ankle level!) and probably don't sell as well as main stream works but many are better written and have stronger, more convincing storylines than most thrillers. If you haven't read Leonard's westerns then try this book out for size and settle into a new realm of appreciation for a better brand of storytelling.

If Elmore Leonard had kept writing Westerns he would still be famous--he just wouldn't have sold as many books. His Westerns really do read like Hemingway if the latter had ventured into the field (although FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS was called the greatest Western ever written by one critic), and you could argue that during that era Leonard was writing better than Hem anyway--the books just took place in the American West. HOMBRE may be the best of the lot, but like the rest of his novels, it is terse, oblique and about as sentimental as a letter from the IRS. Not for everyone, but if you're going to wade through the so-called Top 25 Westerns of all time, you can't pass this one up. I met Leonard at a writer's conference a few years ago and he said this one and VALDEZ IS COMING were his two favorites--both available in Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3, with the distinctive covers by Chip Kidd. Try'em both.

No writer chronicles the battles of misfits, underdogs, and renegades like Leonard. In Hombre, Leonard captures a land where the rich, the poor, and the wandering come together as equals __ and where honor is earned by courage and by blood.

John Russell was not welcome to ride in the coach with the other passengers but they all want him after they are robbed and left to walk. Th story tells of their trying to get away and the outlws trying to catch them. Enough action to keep you interested. If everyone had been like Hombre the book would have ended differently. Russell was a great character. I liked his Indian ways and his quite silent wat if getting things done. The book is a fairly quick read and will hold you attention. As Henry Mendez says in the book, "Take a good look at Russell. You will never see another one like him as long as you live."