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A review by darwin8u
Last Stand at Saber River by Elmore Leonard
3.0
“And she thought if you don't have the desire to fight or wait for something there's no reason for being on earth.”
― Elmore Leonard, Last Stand at Saber River
Last Stand at Saber River is the first book in Library of America's [b:Westerns: Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories|36236557|Westerns Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories|Elmore Leonard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505356910s/36236557.jpg|57878959]. A solid western published in the late 1950s with a lot of the same feel of Louis Lamour's pulps Westerns of the same period. My favorite description of Elmore Leonard's Westerns comes from Britian's New Musical Express, they called him "the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers" .
The book is set in the last year of the Civil War. The protagonist, Cable, comes home from to his land in Arizona to find that his land/homestead has been overun by two brothers (and their posse of 12 thug apostles) supplying the Union with horses. They have no intention of leaving. Cable, an officer under Bedford Forest, is between a hard rock and an adobe place. Lucky for Cable, he's got a heart of gold and a gun of steel, and an unyielding woman, yadda yadda.
No the prose isn't actually that bad. HOWEVER, I'm not very comfortable with the protagonist having come from Gen Bedford Forrest's 8th Texas Cavalry. This gives me pause. I recognize Forrest's genius, but also his many, many, many moral failings. So, utilizing as hero a Confederate soldier from that notorious Calvary comes with an automatic helluva lot of saddlebaggage. I see with Leonard was doing. He was showing morality stripped down. It wasn't about North or South. It was about man, taken away from War, deciding on whether it was right or wrong to kill another man. What limits do men place on themselves? In War? What happens when men place few limits? But I also don't think Leonard was writing a super-deep exploration of morality, war, and killing. Mostly, this was just a Wild West setting, with an interesting backstory, and a couple characters placed in each others way, and a young Elmore Leonard writing about the struggle and its inevitable conclusion. It was good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.as good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.
― Elmore Leonard, Last Stand at Saber River
Last Stand at Saber River is the first book in Library of America's [b:Westerns: Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories|36236557|Westerns Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories|Elmore Leonard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1505356910s/36236557.jpg|57878959]. A solid western published in the late 1950s with a lot of the same feel of Louis Lamour's pulps Westerns of the same period. My favorite description of Elmore Leonard's Westerns comes from Britian's New Musical Express, they called him "the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers" .
The book is set in the last year of the Civil War. The protagonist, Cable, comes home from to his land in Arizona to find that his land/homestead has been overun by two brothers (and their posse of 12 thug apostles) supplying the Union with horses. They have no intention of leaving. Cable, an officer under Bedford Forest, is between a hard rock and an adobe place. Lucky for Cable, he's got a heart of gold and a gun of steel, and an unyielding woman, yadda yadda.
No the prose isn't actually that bad. HOWEVER, I'm not very comfortable with the protagonist having come from Gen Bedford Forrest's 8th Texas Cavalry. This gives me pause. I recognize Forrest's genius, but also his many, many, many moral failings. So, utilizing as hero a Confederate soldier from that notorious Calvary comes with an automatic helluva lot of saddlebaggage. I see with Leonard was doing. He was showing morality stripped down. It wasn't about North or South. It was about man, taken away from War, deciding on whether it was right or wrong to kill another man. What limits do men place on themselves? In War? What happens when men place few limits? But I also don't think Leonard was writing a super-deep exploration of morality, war, and killing. Mostly, this was just a Wild West setting, with an interesting backstory, and a couple characters placed in each others way, and a young Elmore Leonard writing about the struggle and its inevitable conclusion. It was good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.as good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.