Customer Reviews

North to the Rails: A Novel

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I miss Louis L'Amour. I first discovered him when I was in high school in the '80s, and I remember devouring his books one after another. I remember the sadness I felt when I found out he'd passed away. Though I prefer his Sackett stories (especially William Tell, my favorite Sackett), his chronicles of the Talon and Chantry families also make excellent reading. Heck, even his non-series novels are gripping (FALLON, FIRST FAST DRAW, BENDIGO SHAFTER, FLINT, REILLY'S LUCK...and these are just the ones off the top of my head; he's got many other fine novels). The very enjoyable NORTH TO THE RAILS is a Chantry novel.

NORTH TO THE RAILS tells the story of young Tom Chantry, a businessman from New York who journeys to rugged Nevada and quickly garners a reputation for cowardice when he backs out of a gunfight. This hampers his attempts to purchase a herd of cattle as most folks in the Old West hold the quality of courage in high esteem, and no one now trusts Chantry. Tom does finally end up with steer when he makes a chancy deal with French Williams, a cattleman of canny but dubious nature. The deal is that Williams and his shifty cowhands will herd the beef if Chantry accompanies them for the duration of the cattle drive. If, at any time, Chantry falls out before the trail's end, then Williams gets every last steer for himself.

Williams doesn't waste time in testing Chantry's mettle as he comes up with challenges and obstacles for Tom. But, here's the thing: just because a man doesn't believe in killing doesn't mean he won't fight for what he believes in. And Chantry may now be from the soft and civilized East, but he was born in the wild West, and his father, who had been a respected marshall, had taught him some things...

Two things about the prolific Mr. L'Amour: he knew how to write bone-crunching action sequences which impact the reader on a primal level, and he was a master at conveying his great love for the West. Each western he wrote would inevitably offer rich and evocative passages not only about the land itself but about its people, its history, and its culture. Himself a self-made and self-taught man, he valued the quality of the hardy people who tamed the savage frontier.

Here, he effectively delineates the difference between someone who inhabits the urbane and long-settled East, where culture and civilized living had greatly tempered one's survival instincts, versus a denizen of the brutal and uncompromising West, where one's life and livelihood directly hinged on one's ability to show valor, keep one's word, and, on occasion, draw a gun. I was glued to the pages as, with every escalating predicament, L'Amour inexorably peels away layer after layer of Chantry's civilized veneer. Tom starts out adamant in his refusal to sport a gun and he holds to this for a large portion of the book, until circumstances force him to re-evaluate his philosophy. He becomes progressively seduced by the West, until, late in the book, Tom glances at a mirror and sees "...a tall, bronzed young man with wide shoulders, narrow hips, and a quietly commanding way about him." In Louis L'Amour's eyes, this is the very definition of a man of the West.

NORTH TO THE RAILS is action-packed, believe me, full of fist fights and, later, gun battles. Tom Chantry proves to be a very rootable protagonist as he is battered and wounded and bushwhacked but remains resolute. The can't miss premise (that of a perceived naive and out-of-his-depth character who actually turns out to have "sand," is resourceful, determined, and quite handy at kicking outlaw arse) hooked me in straightaway. The author, as usual, throws in a lot of nasty bad guys (there's even a female villainess) and a ton of peril down our dude's way. For the most part, L'Amour doesn't really take the time to flesh out his supporting characters so we're left with a lot of stereotypical cardboard cutouts here. He does give some much needed depth to French Williams and presents him with such an enigmatic stature that I didn't know which side he would ultimately be on. I also liked Sun Chief, though he was depicted in very broad strokes.

In my life, there are only two authors in the western genre: Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. I've tried other authors of the "Cowboys and Injuns" ilk but have since learned to accept no substitutes. NORTH TO THE RAILS isn't even in the top tier of L'Amour's best works. Nevertheless, it can't help but entertain its readers. And, if you want to read about Tom Chantry's dad, take a peek at BORDEN CHANTRY.

Tom Chantry came from the East to the West to buy cattle then bring them to the railroads at Dodge. But when he backs down from a shoot-out with a drunk named Dutch Akins, everyone takes him for a coward and a man who doesn't keep his word. Tom can't find anyone now to buy cattle from or even help move them to the railroads. Tom must learn that he is now in the untamed land of the west where there is no law but only a man's courage and his gun.

Then Tom shocks everyone with how much nerve he has. He makes a deal with French Williams, a well-known man who everyone accuses of stealing cattle though there is no proof. He is said to be able to swindle anyone out of a cow deal. Tom says to Williams that if French Williams will supply the men to help take the herd to the rails, Chantry will give him some shares of the profit. Then Tom makes the deal more interesting. He says that if he himself can't keep up with the outfit and doesn't make it to Dodge City, French Williams will get all of the profit. Williams agrees to it.

Now Tom must be sure to keep up with the herd. But everyone forgets that his father was the famous Borden Chantry and that Tom knows what he's doing. Though at first he is against having a gun, he buys himself a gun and a rifle. And not only does he know how to shoot, he knows how to fight. Local outlaws and gunmen mistake him for a victim but they were going to learn that he is no greenhorn and not a man to be trifled with.

This is a great book to read!! When I first read it, I had such a hard time putting it down when I had to do other things. I couldn't stop reading it. It's very exciting and suspenseful. The character of Tom Chantry is really likable and I was rooting him on throughout the whole book. But probably my most favorite character in the book was French Williams. He is cool, smart, fast with a gun, and a very honorable man. He might steal cattle from others and swindle people out of a cattle deal, he still is very nice and trustworthy. Then there's also the character of Mr. Sparrow. He's very mysterious yet nice and kind, and strangely very attached to Tom Chantry, even though they hardly know each other. But if I tell to much about him, I'll spoil the story.

I used to wonder why anyone read L'Amour when all the plots seemed the same. At some point, I picked up one (probably on vacation) and now I'm hooked. Sure, they're predictable - but so are 98% of the shows on TV. It doesn't mean they're not enjoyable.

I probably won't review many westerns, but this is a great one if you don't know which of his dozens to choose.

A pleasing, unusual Western from genre master Louis L'Amour, "North To The Rails" is a fast-moving account of a cattle drive up the hard country of the American southwest, led by a man from back East who must choose between a moral code that hates guns and showing his fellow cowboys he is tough enough to live through his assignment.

"I believe a lot more can be done by reason than by guns," says the man, Tom Chantry, whose father Borden was killed by the gun (and was the subject of another L'Amour western.) Arguing against that philosophy are several nasty cowpokes, including the cunning French Williams, who schemes to take Chantry's cattle away from him even as he goes through the motions of helping him out.

That's not really a spoiler, as French is curiously upfront about what he's up to, in an amiably roundabout way. Williams is one of many welcome elements in L'Amour's 1971 novel, giving you what you expect in terms of the flavor of the Old West, but not in the expected ways.

When we first meet Tom Chantry, he's about to be dry-gulched by the nasty Talrim brothers. "This is raw country," he is told later, after he explains his policy about weapons. "The good folks are good because it's their nature, and the bad can run to meanness until someone fetches them up short."

L'Amour seems at times to be making points to modern audiences, as the early 1970s were about the time people began arguing about American firearms laws, questioning precisely those tenets of liberty and self-protection L'Amour's oeuvre espoused. For L'Amour, it's a question of circumstances. In the East, people can count on police and a code of refinement to keep them safe and unchallenged. But out West, in the years after the Civil War, there was no such civilizing insulation from life's crueler side, just the hard truth of it. Maintaining one's freedom depends on one's willingness to not only have beliefs, but fight for them, lethally if necessary.

At the same time, L'Amour presents Chantry's side of the argument with fairness, showing it not only a deeply-felt position but at times a practical one. Again, it boils down to circumstances. Chantry's story becomes one of making choices, of showing he has the right amount of "sand" to tough out the challenges before him but maintaining a sense of integrity, of living up to the ideals he rode in with.

L'Amour makes this dilemma entertaining, and at the same time sweeps you up on a good cattle drive story, one up there with "Red River" for all its shifting loyalties and plot twists. Like H. Bala pointed out in a March 2007 review, the supporting cast comes off a bit cardboard at times, not all of them producing a real payoff despite the care L'Amour puts into introducing them.

But there's a nice through-line the whole way across the novel that leads to a somewhat offbeat if satisfying end. Everything in this L'Amour novel can be described that way, offbeat but satisfying, and it provides more than the usual enjoyment you get from reading the Old West master.

Tom Chantry (Borden Chantry's son) having lived in the east since his fathers death, now comes west to buy cattle for shippment back east. Believing gun's only lead to trouble he refuses to carry one but he soon finds out that a peaceful unarmed man can get into trouble just as fast as a man carrying a gun. Tom leaves town after being challenged to a gunfight, the word gets around, and everybody believes him to be a coward. This is a very good novel, possibly one of L'Amours best, it never let's up and Tom's stubborn refusal to carry a gun (even though he does know how to use one) makes it even more exiting. You'll love this one....like I do.

North to the Rails runs with a fun story that carries along with it a different western tone. Unlike many of our western heroes, Lamour develops a character that doesn't believe in guns. He learns the uses for it but carries an internal feeling against them, very different and unique. A good read.

Vintage L'Amour. About an apparent tenderfoot who doesn't like killing, and learns and proves himself in the west, and proves he's his father's (Borden Chantry) son.

I love L'amour's western Novels. I have about forty of them. This is about an Easterner named Tom Chantry. He say's he won't carry a gun, but people warn him, 'you need to wear a gun' When Tom Chantry starts on a cattle drive with a man named french Williams and his men, he finds out he'll have to fight and wear a gun

My VERY favorite L'amour, though, is the man called noon.
I reccomend this book.

William Andrews

Tom Chantry began this story as a peaceloving man who refused to carry a gun. He inherited this belief because his own father had been gunned down when he was a boy. After his father's death, he moved to the east and that is where he grew up. As a young man, he came west to buy, drive, and ship cattle back east. He thought he would have no need for a gun, but soon became known as a coward because of his beliefs. Over time, and with much trouble, he finally realized that he needed his guns to survive in this wild country. In the end, he defeats all his enemies and gets his cattle to the railroad head. I enjoyed reading this one and encourage you to give it a try.

I didn't rate this a 5 because it didn't hold my interest the way some of the other L'Amour books have. L'Amour holds true in this book to his theme of education, peace loving (unless forced to be otherwise) and a little romance.
The book didn't pick up for me until the end.