With These Hands: Stories

Unabridged, for most of us, means the text of the audiobook is left intact, just like the text of the printed book. This text is definitely abridged. There are 11 stories in the book - this audio version contains only three: "With These Hands", "Dream Fighter" and "Voyage to Tobalai". Those three short stories are unabridged, but the text itself is definitely abridged. These re-reprinted short stories (originally they appeared in pulp fiction magaines are read by veteran actor Keith Carradine who does a great job, especially with "Dream Fighter" - the best in this collection and also the introductory story for Kip Morgan who L'amour uses in other boxing and later detective stories. Carradine creates a unique old-style boxing trainer voice that perfectly fits the 1940s-style slang used in the text. "With These Hands" is the story of an oil company executive that survives a plane crash in Alaska in the winter and his efforts to survive. "Dream Fighter" is the best of the bunch - it is about an up and coming fighter who dreams how he will win his fights will take place and simply does what his dreams tell him to do. "Voyage to Tobalai" features another recurring L'Amour character, Ponga Jim Mayo, in a World War II adventure.

I bought "With These Hands" on a whim during a trip to a local store. For some time I have had the idea floating around the periphery of my mind to actually read something, anything, from Louis L'Amour. He is immensely popular through his western themed books, most of which are still in print. The back cover of this book says there are 270 million of his books floating around out there. Can you imagine? That blows most of the big boys out of the water. With that knowledge firmly embedded in my mind, I bought "With These Hands" and gave it a whirl. What surprised me about this collection of short stories is that only one is a western. The rest of the stories are highly charged action tales about boxing, crime noir, or WWII. It seems that L'Amour wrote most of these stories years ago for the pulp magazines at the start of his writing career. The first thing to realize about these stories is that they are not complex tales with sophisticated character development or multi-leveled plots. That is not to say that the underlying ideas of the stories are crude or undeveloped because each story does flow from an interesting theme. What L'Amour gives his readers is unrelenting action delivered with crisp dialogue and a minimum of words. Action stalks through each of these stories like a beast on a rampage. Teeth rocket out of mouths, noses are pulped, gunfire crackles, and bodies fall like rain. Not surprisingly, the boxing stories contain the most descriptive passages of violence. But all of the stories deliver a maximum level of entertainment to those readers looking for action heavy fiction. The most surprising realization with these stories is that L'Amour does an excellent job writing crime noir yarns. Arguably the best one included here is "Corpse on the Carpet." In this slangy, gritty tale, an ex-boxer named Kipling Morgan happens to show up at a bar at the wrong (or right, depending on what perspective you take) time. He witnesses a smashingly beautiful woman decked out in expensive jewelry pick up a young guy and leave. Intrigued yet concerned that something isn't quite right with this scene, Kip follows the two across town. When our ex-boxer realizes it is a set-up to shake down the guy for money, he steps in and saves the guy from a serious beating. There is no happy ending at this point, as Kip continues to investigate the suspicious events concerning the woman. What follows is the discovery of a murder, a kidnapping, a gang of dangerous thugs on the lam, and fistfights and shootouts. "Corpse on the Carpet" is everything a great short story should be in this genre. It easily matches up with Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op stories.The several boxing tales in this collection came about from L'Amour's own career as a boxer (!). There is always a little hook in each story to serve as background leading up to the showdown in the ring, such as a boxer seeking revenge (Gloves for a Tiger), or a boxer who sees his victories in a dream (Dream Fighter)

This is a great compilation of stories. What makes it great is that they are not all the same. They jump from a murder mystery to a boxing story to a story of survival. Give it a try you probably won't be disappointed.