Hondo (L Amour, Louis) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "HE ROLLED THE cigarette in his lips, liking the taste of the tobacco, squinting his eyes against the sun glare..." (more)
Key Phrases: squaw cabbage, planting rain, pony soldiers, Hondo Lane, Small Warrior, Major Sherry (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"L'Amour is popular for all the right reasons. His books embody heroic virtues that seem to matter now more than ever...L'Amour falls into the grand tradition of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson."
--The Wall Street Journal

"[Louis L'Amour] made the modern Western a national pastime."
--Smithsonian Magazine? -- Review

Review

"L'Amour is popular for all the right reasons. His books embody heroic virtues that seem to matter now more than ever...L'Amour falls into the grand tradition of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson."—Wall Street Journal

"[Louis L'Amour] made the modern Western a national pastime."—Smithsonian Magazine

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Bantam Hardcover Ed edition (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553802992
• ISBN-13: 978-0553802993
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #391,744 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not about to argue with the Duke, December 18, 2000

By	Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hondo (Mass Market Paperback)

The best Western novel I have ever read. -John Wayne

Hey look, I'm not about to argue with the Duke. Louis L'Amour is probably the best-selling Western writer of all time and Hondo his first big, and perhaps his best, novel. It is reminiscent of Shane (see Orrin's review) and Riders of the Purple Sage (see Orrin's review), but with Apaches on the warpath taking the place of hostile cattle ranchers or intolerant Mormons. Hondo Lane is the gun fighter, Army dispatch rider, hero who, along with his feral but loyal dog Sam, meets Angie Lowe and her young son Johnny who are homesteading in Apache territory in late 1800's Arizona. Angie has been abandoned by her low down snake of a husband, but refuses to leave her land. Hondo must ride back to the Fort to warn the Cavalry that the Apache chief Vittoro is on the move, but then returns to help defend woman and child.

If the story does not quite reach the lofty literary heights of Shane--perhaps because the focus is so much on what Hondo needs from Angie and Johnny, as opposed to the way in which Shane was the object of the Starrett family's affection--it is still quite enjoyable. Three elements that really stand out and offer a contrast to the easy caricature of the genre are the respectful portrayal of the Apaches, the centrality of the romance angle to the story and the blithe depiction of the difficulty and brutality of frontier life. Even in so formulaic a tale as this one, the American Western demonstrates a level of maturity and nuance that critics seem bent on denying.

With the possible exception of the romance novel, there is perhaps no other genre of fiction which the critics and academia take less seriously than the Western. But consider the fact that by the time of his death L'Amour had sold over 200 million books and among his avid legion of readers were two of the most decent men ever to become U.S. Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. It seems to me that the failure of the intelligentsia to reckon with Western reflects poorly on themselves, rather than on the literature. L'Amour says at one point:

No man knows the hour of his ending, nor can he choose the place or the manner of his going. To each it is given to die proudly, to die well, and this is, indeed, the final measure of the man.

It is easy, too easy, to dismiss the ethos of the Western as a kind of macho posturing. But those lines and the general "code of the West", however much it may be a fictional construct, reflect a concern with reputation which, when observed, has had a salutary effect on men. In an excellent essay on "The Greatness of George Washington" (Virginia Quarterly Review, Volume 68, Number 2) historian Gordon S. Wood traces Washington's greatness and his stature among his peers to what our generation would perceive as an overweening concern for his own reputation. But this same zealous regard for his own name and place in history motivated Washington to lead a life of exemplary moral rectitude and he created in himself the ideal man to lead a nascent and fragile democracy, a man capable of resisting the temptations of power because reputation was more important to him. It is no surprise then to find that two of the only other presidents we've had who can even approach him in stature immersed themselves in this idealistic and rigidly moralistic fiction. God knows what Bill Clinton reads (actually one book we know he enjoyed is Vox by Nicholson Baker, see Orrin's review), but rest assured, it ain't Louis L'Amour

GRADE: A-

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hondo is the ultimate western man - great read, December 27, 2005

By	A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've really got a thing for these Louis L'amour books at the moment. They hardly take a moment to read, but they are well-crafted and excellent reads. Hondo seems to be the ultimate Western man - he has lived at least part of his life with Apache, is a scout for the Army, and comes up against the Apache both as friend and foe.

Hondo comes across a farm run by a woman and her son, she lies to him and tells her that her husband is away in the hills rounding cattle - Hondo knows that isn't true as there are no tracks leaving the place. He tries to convince her to come with him to the safety of the fort but she refuses. She has always been friends with the Apache and wants to remain on the property even though her husband has gone and is probably dead.

Returning to the fort Hondo realises that things are bad and the woman and boy out there alone will probably die so he returns against orders, but not without the tacit consent of the fort's commander.

He is tracked from the fort by two men intent on killing him - one of them is Ed Lowe, the woman's husband. Unfortunately for them group of Apache track them to the springs and the two men die trying to ambush Hondo - Hondo manages to kill two of the indians along with Ed Lowe. HOwever one indian has escaped to raise the alarm - and now Hondo is in danger, tracked by one of the vicious roaming Apache bands.

This is very much the story of a man who knows his own code of justice and righteousness and is prepared to live and die by that code. His dog, Sam, is like him. A loner, but one who is loyal and trustworthy.

What I really liked about this book is that most of the characters in it were shades of black and white rather than all good or all bad - for instance Vittoro, the Apache cheif - he was not all bad - as was Hondo. Both respected one another because theirs was a code of fairness rather than hatred. The characters who simply hated got their come-uppance.

It moves along at a cracking pace, and although I like some of the later more humourous heros, I still really enjoyed this book - a great read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC TALE FROM LOUIS L'AMOUR, October 11, 2004

By	D. McAllister "MRD" (Somewhere in the Field) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Hondo (Mass Market Paperback)

As my Louis L'Amour library grows I find that there are stories there that rank among some of the best American fiction readers can find. Okay, I can just hear you. "Louis L'Amour! Isn't he just the leading purveyor of Western pulp fiction that there is? Not a serious author after all!"

Not hardly! Let's face it, L'Amour's Western stories rank right up there with those of Larry McMurtry, Vardis Fisher and Zane Grey.

And HONDO is one of L'Amour's best ever! My book includes an endorsement by John Wayne, the star of the movie based on L'Amour's classic. I won't say that it's my absolute L'Amour favorite. But it ranks right up there with other favorites of mine like HAUNTED MESA and LAST OF THE BREED. Over fifty years old and still a great book!

THE HORSEMAN