Book Report: Hondo by Louis L’Amour (1952, 1987)

This is the first of the Louis L’Amour paperbacks that I picked up in Clever in June but the second overall that I’ve read this year (Last of the Breed being the first). And, you know what? It wouldn’t surprise me if I picked up another one or two before the end of the year.

This book centers on the title character, Hondo Lane, a frontiersman who spent five years living with the Apache and who has worked as a scout and a dispatch carrier for the United States Army. He has lived alone for a long time except for a mostly wild dog that accompanies him. A spot of trouble costs him his horse, and he happens upon a ranch in a valley populated by a woman and her son. Trouble is brewing with the Apaches as they’re raising all of their tribes/lodges for war after the white man breaks another treaty. He looks to buy a horse from her, and although she says her husband is away for the day, he sees that some things are falling into disrepair which indicates the husband has been gone for a long while. He fixes up the place a bit, and sparks fly between them. Hondo has to return to the fort/camp with his dispatches warning of war, though, and the woman and the boy wonder if he will return. When he gets to the fort, he encounters the husband, a gambler and all around not good guy, and gets on his bad side. The man accuses him of being a horse thief, since the horse has the man’s brand on it, but the authorities let Hondo go since he says he is returning to the ranch with the horse. Meanwhile, the Apaches approach the ranch, and they are ready to attack even though the woman reminds them they have lived in peace for so long. When the six-year-old boy fires a pistol and grazes a subchief, the big chief and the tribe are amused, so the big chief becomes a blood brother to the boy and offers his protection to the ranch. But, eventually, he says that if the woman’s husband does not return, she will have to take an Indian brave as a husband. As Hondo heads out, the husband follows him with a partner, as they hope to rob and kill him, but through the timely intervention of Apaches who also want to ambush him, Hondo kills the husband, complicating his relationship with the wife for whom he has developed feelings. One Apache escapes, and then they hunt and capture Hondo, and….

Well, all right, I don’t want to give the whole plot away–there is some more to it than that. But it’s a good book. Mid-century westerns are definitely a cut above men’s adventure fiction or modern westerns like the Gunsmith or Longarm which are basically men’s adventure novels with horses. Given that L’Amour and John D. MacDonald came up about the same time, one can see the benefits of an early 20th century education in the writing styles. Or maybe they did not have monthly deadlines. Regardless, the writing and characters have more depth; perhaps they’re built from imaginations fired by books and stories and not movies/television and comic books.

The book also presents the Indian characters, at least as personified by Vittorio, the head chief, as wise and almost heroic and has a nuanced view of the cowboys and Indians dynamic. Hondo speaks highly of the Indian way of life and that they do not have a word for “lie” in their language and so on. So it’s entirely possible that the Boomer’s parents, those squares, were more enlightened than the gave them credit for. Certainly moreso than modern “thinkers” give them credit for. And even though he has rough edges, Hondo is a hero, and not an immoral one. He does not preemptively kill people, and he does get softened with his contact with a woman.

So, yeah, you know what? I might pick up another such book before long. I do have several more, you know, right on top of the stack.

Also, note the years in the title. The book was first published in 1952 and was still in print and in racks in the drugstore in 1985. Can you imagine a writer of the last part of the 20th century or the first part of the 21st who would remain in print that long? Stephen King, I guess. Maybe some back list Koontz and whatnot. But it’s a very short list.