This book is amazing and everyone should drop what they're doing right now and go read it! Seriously, stop reading this review and just go read the book. :)Bendigo Shafter is our protagonist. At 18 he moves West in a wagon train with his brother's family and his younger sister. With winter coming on and their supplies running low, some members of the wagon train decide to stop in Wyoming and begin to build a community. That's where the story starts. I don't think L'Amour ever gives us an exact year, but from the clues dropped I'm guessing this is somewhere in the 1850's?There are several themes that I noticed throughout the book. One was the question, "...when is the point at which a group of strangers becomes a community?" What makes a community? What keeps a community healthy and what will kill a community?Another theme was: What makes a man? How do Bendigo's choices direct who he will become?And the last big one that I noticed was education. How can an individual gain an education when life presents him with very few options? (Goodreads members will already know the answer - read books!)So far, this is my favorite Loius L'Amour book that I've read! It is fast paced and action packed. Honestly, reading it reminded me of reading *The Hunger Games* because so much would happen in so few pages. But there are also big ideas to think about and follow in the story. L'Amour does a good job of representing and being respectful of all of the peoples of the West. There is a scene where the townspeople go to help a Mormon handcart company stuck in a blizzard and, as a Mormon, I groaned inwardly when Mormons came into the story. I just didn't want to read a negatively biased depiction of my Mormon heritage. (Like I have in some other books - I'm looking at you *Roughing It* by Mark Twain!) But actually L'Amour did a great job - he didn't shy away from the controversial aspects of Mormonism, and he didn't belittle them either. Well done Louis. :) I feel like I could discuss each of the characters at length - even the ones who played a seemingly small part in the story. A small selection of some of my favorite lines:"When I saw the books she carried I looked at them wishfully. I had never owned a book, nor had the chance to read but four or five, although I'd read those carefully and often.""The more ill-prepared people are to face trouble, the more likely they are to revert to savagery against each other." -Hurricane Katrina, anyone?"A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one's life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself. You have a chance to select from some pretty elegant furnishings."Near the end of the book speaking of two mountain men who are his friends, Bendigo says, "Do you think they were really hunting furs out here? Don't you believe it. They were seeing new country." Maybe I love this book because it took me by surprise. It was recommended by a person I respect, but I really wasn't expecting it to have the huge impact that it has had. And I guess I expected it to be really slow and maybe somewhat boring. NO. It was none of those things. It was awesome! It should be required reading for every young person. Bendigo is exactly the kind of role model youth need today.
The title character is one of the best male role models in literature. He's the type of man you want to raise your son to be. He's not perfect, he's just an extremely believable rendition of a person that survived & even thrived during white people's exploration/settlement of the American West. When we're introduced to him, he's a young adult, physically strong through years of toil, used to being responsible for others' welfare, and skilled with weapons as was necessary for those who hunted game for survival and/or dealt with hostiles of the time period.His physical development complete, the narrative focuses on events shaping him mentally, his life experiences forging him into the formidable man he becomes. Being told in first person, the story doesn't make him an idealized caricature, just a man responding to his life course and making adjustments as events necessitate. The dangerous tasks he undertakes, the family and friends who mold his thoughts & ideals, and the unexpected trials he faces all culminate in him becoming a realistic hero.Bendigo Shafter's blessed with a curiosity for ideas; he's a thoughtful reader as well as a man of action. In a world where people often devote themselves to learning or doing, viewing these choices as mutually exclusive, he makes good use of both, and prospers because of it. His success is all the more alluring because of its accessibility. It doesn't inspire you to try to be him, but to be the best version of yourself, a timeless notion that should resonate with most people.
What do You think about Bendigo Shafter (1983)?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book right up until the last third. Plenty of wisdom, adventure and hardship on the frontier. It really makes you appreciate how it was on the frontier. Reading it made me think of reading some kind of old John Wayne movie in print form, and I guess that figures since L'Amour wrote several that were later made into westerns. I would have given it a 5 star rating, but to me, the last third or so started to drag, and I didn't like it as much. But I would recommend it as a great read.
—Yougo
Kind of a slower paced L'Amour novel. Bendigo builds a town, heads a cattle drive - generally conquers the west and then travels to the big city. A few gun battles along the way. Some nice poetic language about the pull of the west. L'Amour characters (the good guys anyway) show a kind of respect for American Indian way of life, even whilst gunning them down. Bendigo talks and philosophizes a heck of a lot more than your average western character. In this volume we get dialog on how young Indian braves don't have the option to do anything but fight the white man, as their social structure gives no other option for advancement. Not to mention that most white men in the old west were pretty much greedy land-hungry thieves and A-holes. We even get some theorizing about indigenous people prior to the western tribes (those who created the "medicine wheel" in Wyoming) as well as some philosophy about how we're all just temporary tenants on the land.While reading, I kept on thinking of Bobby Shaftoe from the Neil Stephenson novel cryptonomicon a go-getting, philosophical self-made-man-of-action. Hmmm...There was an unresolved plot-line towards the end (the preacher Finnerly and the gold thieves) that seemed odd. Usually these novels wrap everything up pretty tight by the final paragraph.
—Tom
Not your typical good guy vs bad buy shoot 'em up western from L'Amour. This is a little more thoughtful & told in the first person, from our hero's POV. Bendigo journey's west with his older brother & his family. They set up a new town in the wilderness. L'Amour hits some of the high points of what that entails & makes you think a bit about how hard it was for them.Bendigo is a little to good to be true (typical hero) but it's a fun read. There's plenty of action, but not a lot of slap-leather, get-out-of-town-by-noon stuff. Hunting for lost people in the snow, hunting for food, keeping out some riff-raff & even a glimpse of NYC during that time.The only downside to the book is the philosophizing that Bendigo constantly shares with us. It actually wasn't bad reading as a teenager since it is idealistic & appealed to me at the time. Now, it's a little too trite & too much. Still, a very good book.
—Jim
