Classic L'Amour western
It's been maybe ten years since I sat down with a Louis book; last time I read this one I didn't much like it since there isn't really a love interest. This time, though, I appreciated it for other things. L'Amour lovingly describes the mountainous 1870's Colorado landscape, investing his narrator, Logan Sackett, with a deeply abiding appreciation for the wonder of purple mountains' majesty, etc. The action is well-described and pretty constant, with tough characters abounding -- with Emily Talon not the least of them. I enjoyed the flavor of L'Amour's words, especially, as both the dialogue and the descriptive prose were given in western vernacular, misspellings to encourage the right pronunciation and all. That type of character drawing and scene setting is probably L'Amour's strongest asset as a genre writer. You get the feeling that he lived in those times himself, and is drawing portraits of the people he knew there. I also had an unexpected feeling of likeness to some of Willa Cather's work, who is also from Nebraska. I think it is in the clarity of vision for landscape and people that comes through in both their writings, as well as a strong affinity for artistic expression and/or appreciation. Logan may be an uneducated drifter, but he knows beauty when he sees it, and he recognizes that greatness in both landscape and people. Don't get me wrong, though -- there's plenty of shooting, bleeding, dying, running and dodging (horseback and afoot), and familiar settings like corrals and saloons. Plus, it's a Sackett novel. Great fun.
