HONDO BY LOUIS L'AMOUR (1953)

Louis L'Amour is the most successful Western writer ever, having published 100 novels, all of which are still in print. This is my first L'Amour, and I expected that I would be impressed. Instead, I am surprised. I don't think this is a very good book at all.

The plot is so formulaic as to be almost laughable: a tough army scout (who had once lived with the Apache for five years) arrives at a ranch in the middle of the Arizona desert and finds a beautiful young woman, who has been deserted by her husband, and her 6-year-old son. She refuses to leave her home to go to the fort, even though the scout tells her that the Apache are readying for war. Romantic sparks fly. He goes on to the fort to report. The Indians start attacking settlers. He returns to the ranch to rescue the woman and her son. Anyone who has ever seen a Western movie from the '50s can fill in most of the details.

Sometimes a hackneyed plot can be rescued by characters who are dimensional and interesting. Here is L'Amour's description of his hero: "He was a big man, wide-shouldered, with the lean, hard-boned face of the desert rider. There was no softness in him. His toughness was ingrained and deep, without cruelty, yet quick, hard, and dangerous." Here is the damsel in distress: "She was a woman, all right. Scarcely more than a girl in years, but all woman. And mighty pretty." These two, and all the other characters in the story, are stereotypes and behave in entirely predictable ways.

L'Amour devotes a portion of the narrative to descriptions of the Arizona landscape, but even here he descends into cliche and repetitiveness. For example, within ten pages, L'Amour writes, "the vast night sky," "the vast and rolling plain," and "the vast distance." It would be interesting to count the total times "vast" is used in the novel.

I know that it is comforting to some readers to be able to anticipate the course of a novel, but I prefer to be surprised by the characters and events and to be impressed by the originality of the writing. This L'Amour novel does not fulfill those requirements.


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The Hollywood movie Hondo starred John Wayne. No surprise there. Forty-five of L'Amour's novels and short stories were made into feature films and television movies.