May There Be a Road

After his death in the late 80's, Louis L'Amour's heirs have been putting together several interesting projects capitalizing on his works. The most important, I think, and in context of "May There Be a Road", it's definitely true, is the collection of L'Amour's short stories into several paperback & hardback editions. As L'Amour loved to point out, he was not just a "western" writer, he was a storyteller.

And, damn, he could do that. These stories were written in an age when people interacted with each other and society for entertainment. You went to a play, saw a boxing match, engaged in a hobby, sang a song or even simply read a book - in the case of these yarns, the dime store collections which made Max Brand, L'Amour & Luke Short show more household names. None of these stories will be placed in Norton's Anthology, but if Norton neglects the important impact this industry had on American pop culture, it ain't worth a damn. These stories are small, impermanent reminders of a time gone by, a time of black and white and radio static streaming out of the gloom of the Depression and victory of WWII.

This collection has a slick Mayo story (I must say, I prefer Turk Madden) and a good story on the Communist take-over of Tibet back in the 40s and 50s.

Price of admission though, is Beau L'Amour's list of people and places his father traveled to as a young man. If you see this edition in the bookstore, scan the back three pages and try to imagine the person and life who could make it through those towns, in that time, and come back out a writer. show less

Made up of short stories not previously published in book form, this collection contains some very good examples of Louis L'Amour's diverse body of works. From a tale of Tibet, to pre-WWII Brazil, these short stories should entertain the reader. Recommended.

Not up to L'Amour's usual quality. Contains a few boxing stories, a couple of detective yarns and two western stories. Ponga Jim Mayo makes an appearance in Wings Over Brazil which is set during WW II and because of its length would probably be considered a novella. The Vanished Blonde is a detective story written in the style of 1940's gum shoe fiction. While I am not a fan of boxing, L'Amour deliver the grittiness of the action in the ring and the corruption of those who try to profit it.

I have not previously read anything other than LAmour's westerns, but enjoyed some of his detective stories; even the prize-fighter and adventure tales included some kind of mystery to solve, as have many of his westerns. The stories themselves are of uneven quality, hence the 3 star "average" of the collection.

May There Be a Road is a collection of previously unpublished Louis L'Amour short stories. The main character in each story was either a detective, western or boxer, although it didn't seem to matter very much as each story and character blended into each other.

There are some novels of Louis L'Amour that are fun to read, pioneer spirit and all, but I found each of these stories to be exactly the same; adown on his luck hero that does something redeeming and wins the girl.

I struggled through the last few stories......

Short Stories

From Publishers Weekly To most readers, Louis L'Amour is the quintessential writer of westerns; few know that among his 118 published volumes are stories set far from sagebrush country. In this volume of 10 previously uncollected short stories written early in his career and issued now, 13 years after his death, with an afterword by his son, Beau, L'Amour's broader interests are on display. Two of the tales, "Red Butte Showdown" and "The Cactus Kid" do indeed evoke the frontier settings L'Amour is best known for, but three of them, "Making It the Hard Way," "Fighter's Fiasco" and "The Ghost Fighter," are about prizefighting and indicate the influence of writers like Jack London and Ernest Hemingway. No less surprising in their modern show more California settings are "A Friend of a Hero" and "The Vanished Blonde," which echo Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett; Hemingway's themes are again reflected in "May There Be a Road" and "Wings Over Brazil," two yarns set against the volatile backdrop of war and revolution far from the purple mountains of Montana or the desolate plains of the Dakotas. The title story (never before published) unfolds in a rough-riding Tibet. Though influenced by other writers, each story follows L'Amour's patented formula, evident already in this early work. A tense situation is revealed, brief characterization and background follow, then the tale is tied up in a sequence of hard-hitting action sequences. These are professionally written stories, minor gems collected from the dustier corners of L'Amour's oeuvre. (May 8)Forecast: Banking on the enduring appeal of L'Amour, the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club are making his latest posthumous offering an alternate selection, and sales should be strong. One more volume of stories is yet to come before the well runs dry. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From Booklist This is an eminently readable and enjoyable collection of 10 previously unpublished short stories by the late L'Amour. In"The Ghost Fighter," Bat McGowan is the world heavyweight boxing champion. He is also a drinker, womanizer, and carouser. His managers have a chance to make some money off the title by staging matches in small towns, and decide to employ look-alike Barney Malone as a stand-in. As the exhibitions progress, Malone proves that having the title of champ and actually being one are two different things. Other stories feature a detective searching for a missing woman; another fighter who takes a gambler's payoff; and a young Tibetan lord who battles treacherous terrain and the pursuing Red Army to save his love and also the legacy of his people's way of life. Many posthumous collections consist of substandard works that probably should never be blessed with publication, but such is not the case here. Wes Lukowsky
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