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A review by hernamewaslily
Hombre by Elmore Leonard
4.0
Considered by some as ‘one of the best westerns of all time,’ Elmore Leonard’s 1961 novel ‘Hombre’ follows a mismatched group of stagecoach passengers consisting of an Indian agent and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Favor, a teenage girl called who had been kidnapped by Apaches and held captive for a month, an abrasive man called Braden, the coach driver Mr. Mendez, Carl Allen a young clerk and narrator of the book, and James Russell, or simply Hombre as he is also known, a white man who has been raised as and lives as an Apache. All is going well until the passengers discover, after having exchanged racist remarks and backwards attitudes about Native Americans, that Russell isn’t, by their definition, a white man. Shocked by the revelation that Russell is not one of them, ‘he doesn’t look Apache, does he?’ Mrs. Favor points out, and confused as to why he would ‘[want] to live the way they [the Native Americans] do,’ the passengers banish Russell from the stagecoach and forced to ride up top with the driver, but when the stagecoach is later attacked by a gang of robbers, he is the only one they can rely on to lead them to safety.
Because the narrative is told from the point of view of Carl Allen, a young clerk, who recalls the story in a simplistic reportage style, the prose can be quite dull. There is a lot of Allen just explaining what happened – or not explaining; he makes a point in pointing out things that he didn’t pay attention to – without expanding much. The novel’s strength really lies in the interactions between the characters. Leonard pulls at the threads of tension that arise between the group as they struggle to survive. We see some characters reveal their true, not-so-honest intentions and others rise to occasion when even they themselves didn’t believe they could do it.
What struck me most about this text, given its length (my copy came in at a slim 168 pages), the fact that it was published in 1961, and because of its genre, of which is typically written by white men about white men, was how nuanced it was in its discussion of racial and cultural identity. The novel really calls into question and hold accountable those who believe in the colonial myths about Native American ‘savages’ by presenting a narrative in which its hero, who though technically white is by all accounts Apache, utilises what he has learnt from living as an Apache to keep the group alive.
Of course, the novel is not perfect and as critic Matt Wanat points out, it is still under the guise of white subjectivity. However, he continues, in his discussion of the film adaption of the novel, though the comment is applicable to the novel too ‘Hombre’ “is not only shaped by privileged point of view but also about privileged white points of view.” This is established in the fictionalised authors note that prefaces the novel when Allen reveals that “some of my ideas about John Russel at the time […] are embarrassing to put on paper.”
In this sense then, having Allen as the unreliable and naïve narrator who sems to ask more questions than he answers makes sense because it is through him that the reader, who we may assume that at the time the book was published was perhaps not as progressive as a reader today, can learn about these issues in a way that is not belittling nor confrontational.
Overall, I found ‘Hombre’ a compelling read and at less than 200 pages Leonard packs in a lot – especially in the final chapter where I could feel the dust sticking to the sweat behind my neck as the novel reached its climax in a day-long standoff underneath the scorching and unrelenting rays of the desert sun. I’ve been really enjoying getting into the Western genre, which I think is both over- and under-represented in fiction, and this was a great classic to add to the list.
Because the narrative is told from the point of view of Carl Allen, a young clerk, who recalls the story in a simplistic reportage style, the prose can be quite dull. There is a lot of Allen just explaining what happened – or not explaining; he makes a point in pointing out things that he didn’t pay attention to – without expanding much. The novel’s strength really lies in the interactions between the characters. Leonard pulls at the threads of tension that arise between the group as they struggle to survive. We see some characters reveal their true, not-so-honest intentions and others rise to occasion when even they themselves didn’t believe they could do it.
What struck me most about this text, given its length (my copy came in at a slim 168 pages), the fact that it was published in 1961, and because of its genre, of which is typically written by white men about white men, was how nuanced it was in its discussion of racial and cultural identity. The novel really calls into question and hold accountable those who believe in the colonial myths about Native American ‘savages’ by presenting a narrative in which its hero, who though technically white is by all accounts Apache, utilises what he has learnt from living as an Apache to keep the group alive.
Of course, the novel is not perfect and as critic Matt Wanat points out, it is still under the guise of white subjectivity. However, he continues, in his discussion of the film adaption of the novel, though the comment is applicable to the novel too ‘Hombre’ “is not only shaped by privileged point of view but also about privileged white points of view.” This is established in the fictionalised authors note that prefaces the novel when Allen reveals that “some of my ideas about John Russel at the time […] are embarrassing to put on paper.”
In this sense then, having Allen as the unreliable and naïve narrator who sems to ask more questions than he answers makes sense because it is through him that the reader, who we may assume that at the time the book was published was perhaps not as progressive as a reader today, can learn about these issues in a way that is not belittling nor confrontational.
Overall, I found ‘Hombre’ a compelling read and at less than 200 pages Leonard packs in a lot – especially in the final chapter where I could feel the dust sticking to the sweat behind my neck as the novel reached its climax in a day-long standoff underneath the scorching and unrelenting rays of the desert sun. I’ve been really enjoying getting into the Western genre, which I think is both over- and under-represented in fiction, and this was a great classic to add to the list.