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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
I quite liked this story of the California desert. I had no idea that Louis L'amour was so thoughtful. This is not your straightforward western/cowboy novel.
Good modern classic. Lots of messages about the value of being well-read and being a lifelong learner, and how earning what you have makes you value it, vs. having it given to you. The ending dragged on a bit for me, so why I only gave it 4 stars, but overall a good read.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid."
How to explain this book.
I thought, as I worked slowly through it -- at least for the third time, and it's been quite awhile since the first two -- that I wasn't sure it had held onto the magic it seemed to glimmer with when I read it as young teen or tween. The parts I best remember, that most haunt me -- Johannes alone in the house of Tahquitz, sharing books with an unseen friend -- are relatively small sections of the book. There is a great deal devoted to the rounding up and protecting of horses. There is much traveling through the land -- for L'Amour clearly loves this land, and passes this love to Johannes. The desert is such an active, living participant in the story, both an ally and an ever-present danger. There is business, politics, and history. There is Meghan, a sadly flat character in a rushed romance, mostly there to get into trouble. (Offset by the wonderful and mysterious Miss Nesselrode.) Johannes learns a lot of skills off-screen, and it's not that it isn't /believable/ but I sometimes felt a little cheated in not getting to go along with him.
But then there are moments like this:
[We] sometimes forget there are other ways, sometimes forget the Lonesome Gods of the far places, the gods who live on the empty sea, who dance with the dust devils and who wait quietly in the shadows under the cliffs where ancient men have marked their passing with hands.
Once my father had told me of finding a cliff dwelling built high on the rocks, the bricks plastered with mortar from clay, and in the clay were the marks of fingers.
Who left those prints in the clay? Who pressed his hand here and then stepped back to view it? Why did he leave his signature here? To show that he, too, had a hand? To tell others that a man had gone before, had passed some brief time in this place, and then gone on? My father had found human bones there. Did they belong to the possessor of the hand? Or were they the bones of another, following long after?
Why did he impress his hand upon the clay? Did he hope to send across centuries a thought? A dream, perhaps? Or just to say that "I, too, was here? This was my place. This I built with my hands."
The Lonesome Gods is many things. It's an adventure story -- a frontier story, with fistfights and shoot-outs and blood and revenge. It can be clumsy in its exposition and plotting and some attempts at emotion.
But it's also a story about a son and his father; it's about the importance of books and friendship and gentleness. Something that struck me, reading this as a young adult instead of an old child, is how Johannes is unfairly targeted by enemies, but also surrounded by friends, but also a resilient, self-sustaining person who knows how to be alone. He gets a rough start to life, and even with all of the offered and accepted help, it doesn't really ease up on him. But he is a whole person who knows who he is, and respects (and so attracts) others like him. I am not used to reading about people who are whole, and I found something healing in that.
Then there is Tahquitz, something I'm wary of quoting any references to because I'm not sure it will look and feel right divorced from the context. Tahquitz is one of the ways in which this book embraces a wild wonder, an untamed, frightening joy in our inability to truly understand.
It's not for everyone; and it is still for me.
"Perhaps he is a poet whose dreams are too large for his words."
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“I am Johannes Verne ... and I am not afraid.” This was my second time to read (listen) to this book and just as good as the first.
I'm kind of ridiculously impressed. I was not expecting literary awesomeness from a guy whose novels were the only books available in grocery stores in the 90s.
The story revolves around Johannes Verne, who is 6 when the story begins. I wasn't expecting a kid to be the main character! And, there are horses. That, I was expecting. It is a western, after all. The only western I've read, but I can see why they were so popular back in the day. I kinda want to go be a vaquero now and roam the desert. Except it sounds hot and dirty, so probably not.
The only thing I did not love about this book was Alfredo. That was just a weird, weird little storyline of weirdness. Everything else I thought was fantastic. I loved the emphasis on being a self-made man (or woman, in the case of Ms. Nesselrode.) I loved how tightly everything was wound up in the end (though I would have liked a bit more of a drawn out ending.) I loved the descriptions of everything, all the characters, Johannes and his black stallion...
So I will be investigating L'Amour's books from now on. I see me getting on a huge western kick now. I may even have to try out a Zane Grey or two. Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
The story revolves around Johannes Verne, who is 6 when the story begins. I wasn't expecting a kid to be the main character! And, there are horses. That, I was expecting. It is a western, after all. The only western I've read, but I can see why they were so popular back in the day. I kinda want to go be a vaquero now and roam the desert. Except it sounds hot and dirty, so probably not.
The only thing I did not love about this book was Alfredo. That was just a weird, weird little storyline of weirdness. Everything else I thought was fantastic. I loved the emphasis on being a self-made man (or woman, in the case of Ms. Nesselrode.) I loved how tightly everything was wound up in the end (though I would have liked a bit more of a drawn out ending.) I loved the descriptions of everything, all the characters, Johannes and his black stallion...
So I will be investigating L'Amour's books from now on. I see me getting on a huge western kick now. I may even have to try out a Zane Grey or two. Danger Will Robinson! Danger!
The Lonesome Gods is another gripping historical novel written by Louis L'Amour, adventure set in the early days of California. Johannes Verne is a young man left to die and then rescued by outlaws and raised (partly) by the indigenous people of the California desert.
The novel follows Verne as he exercises his desert-born skills and growing knowledge and intellect to live within the constraints of the desert and claim a piece of the burgeoning economic opportunity of early Los Angeles. It's an engaging read.
The novel follows Verne as he exercises his desert-born skills and growing knowledge and intellect to live within the constraints of the desert and claim a piece of the burgeoning economic opportunity of early Los Angeles. It's an engaging read.
This is one of my favorite Louis L'Amour books. I love his descriptions of early California.