The Tall Stranger

This book, like most L'amour books, falls into the "junk food for the mind" category. It's quick, tasty and fun but has no nutritional value. And like most junk food, I love it! There's nothing like escaping into a simple story of love, hate and heroism. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad and everyone in between runs for the hills (literally, in this case).

My only problem is the last few sentences. I don't know if they were meant to be funny or serious, but either way they don't fit the character's personality, even if he doesn't know how to talk to women.

B

Settlers heading west listen to a slick sales pitch, and soon find themselves in a land grab war. Standard L'Amour tale, worth a read but far from his best work.

This is a rip roaring L'Amour story. Rock Bannon is rescued by the people in a wagon train moving west. To show his gratitude, he rides along with them to assist then safely to their destination. When a shyster convinces them to take a new trail despite Bannon's warnings, things fall apart. Even though he love's a young woman in the traveling party, Bannon moves on because he is no longer welcome. The righteous members of the wagon train resent him after they learn he has killed a man in a fair fight in another town. The rest of the story revolves around the settlers discovering that the shyster is their enemy and not the taciturn Bannon and how he saves them from themselves/ Vintage L'Amour.

Author Readalike (Novelist) L'Amour considered himself a storyteller in the tradition of Chaucer and the troubadours, and although he didn't wander from place to place, his stories did, across western landscapes and around the world. Critics complained of his cardboard characters, stilted dialog, and rough prose, but L'Amour refused to revise his works, saying that they fit in the oral tradition, meant to be read aloud and enjoyed for the story, not dissected and analyzed for their style.

Although L'Amour's characters may be stereotypes, they are not without appeal. His heroes, natural men in the James Fenimore Cooper tradition, are strong, sometimes silent men, fighting for justice and bringing civilization to a savage land. Unlike the show more paladin hero of Jack Schaefer's Shane, who brings justice and moves on, L'Amour's heroes know they need to stay and teach, to settle down and pass on traditions. While his men are often dreamers, looking for that place where men could be whatever they are man enough to be, his women are more matter-of-fact. History doesn't allow them the independence of men, but they do, as the first Sackett dreamed, walk beside their men, not behind, and their fierce independence, skill, and ingenuity often save the day. show less

Don’t ever say I don’t venture out from my comfort zone in my reading. I finished my first real Western (unless Lonesome Dove counts). And it’s a Louis L’Amour, the John Wayne of Western writers. I knew where this book was going from page one. No doubt about it…it’s a guy book, through and through. Fellow (Mercy! His name is ROCK Banyon…please!) joins up with a wagon train headed west. The man who’s guiding the wagon train is Mort Harper. Harper has persuaded the train to take a southern route, a route that Rock Banyon knows will lead straight to the Salt Lake Desert. Harper and Banyon both fall for the same girl and they squabble back and forth until they reach a tranquil valley owned by a rancher Banyon knows won’t show more take kindly to having strangers move in. Banyon can’t quite figure out what Harper’s scheme is, but he lurks around on the fringes as the wagon train decides to appropriate some of the rancher’s land. There’s some gun fights, some fist fights, a saloon, beautiful farm land, and a pretty girl. You feel pretty confident early on that the good guy’s gonna win out. And, apparently, that’s a Western. show less

Passable but bland. The plot includes a few quirks of [il]logic, while the narrator offhandedly and disparagingly refers to one of the story's villain's as a squinty-eyed 'half-breed'.