I knew I would enjoy this book before I read it. After all, one of the best western movies of all time is based on the story. I never get tired of watching the Alan Ladd film classic directed by George Stevens, with a perfectly chosen cast. Especially noteworthy is Jack Palance, billed as Walter Jack Palance in one of his best bad-guy performances as the evil hired killer Stark Wilson.If you've enjoyed the movie, don't miss the book. Whereas the former is primarily action-oriented, the latter contains greater depth of character development. Neither film nor book is merely a western shoot-em-up. They explore the experience of a man who finds himself trying to find meaning amid the historical changes occurring in his world, in this case Wyoming in the late 1880's.A web site devoted to the works of Jack Schaefer (1907 to 1991) makes the point that his place in western-themed literary history has not been appreciated by critics. He was a writer of about 20 novels and anthologies, along with about four children's books. Shane was written early in the career of this editor and publisher, who had never been west of Cleveland before he wrote this book. Nevertheless, his descriptions of Western locales and characters give the reader a vivid picture of the setting in which the story unfolds.Key to the story is the mystery of the actual identity of the stranger who rides his horse onto the property of sodbuster Joe Starrett and his wife Marian. The first person he meets on the farm is the Starrett boy, Bob (Joey in the film), who spends the duration of the book learning the various ways in which adults handle conflict, as he watches Shane and his father react to the events affecting their lives. The story is narrated by Bob; this device works nicely by tying the reader's enjoyment of the story's developments to Bob's memory. It is unmistakable that Shane, from first meeting, is not someone you would usually meet on a farm. He wears well-tailored clothes (Alan Ladd wore buckskins) and has the reflexes of a cat. The gun he is wearing is evidence that he is a dangerous man. Something in him clicks, however, when he meets the Starretts. He responds immediately to their hospitality and takes up Joe's offer to stay a while and work as a hired hand. This is a holiday from whatever world Shane lives in and he responds with enthusiasm to the hard work and closeness of a surrogate family. Shane finds out very soon, however, that serious trouble is on the horizon. The powerful cattle rancher, Luke Fletcher, is trying to intimidate the farmers who have been moving into his valley so that they will leave. His open range gets smaller as each new farm is added. High on his list of targets is Joe Starrett because he has the respect of the other farners. If Starrett can be run off, then the others will follow him. This does not go down well with Shane, who is enjoying a bro-mance with Joe. They work morning to night, reveling in mutual stump pulling and like tasks. Shane respects Joe's devotion to family; Joe respects Shane's integrity; Bob finds himself loving Shane as much as his father. Marian likes having two grown men around the farm. There is a hint about Shane stepping in if anything happens to Joe, but wait; this is based on the memory of a ten-year-old, so we'll never know if any deeper feelings were felt by Shane and Marian. It becomes clear that Shane enjoyed a life like this in the past; could he be ready to emulate Joe and get his own ranch?Fletcher and his thugs will not let up with the constant bullying of Starrett and his friends. Starrett and Shane put some of the worst rough-necks in their place in one memorable fight at Grafton's Saloon and General Store in the nearby town, but this only escalates hostilities. Fletcher's response is to travel to Cheyenne and bring back hired gun Wilson. Now, things are going to get deadly.You don't need a crystal ball to know that Shane will have to blow the dust off his six-shooter and go into town to resolve this matter. Before he can do that, he will have to figure how to handle Starrett, who is bound and determined in his stubborn way to confront the dangerous Wilson with no gun fighting experience of his own. After all the fighting is over, Bob is inspired by the former stranger who exhibits heroism for the sake of a community he could have ridden from. Shane recognizes that, for all of his effort, he is destined to keep living up to his past as a gun man, as he explains to Bob "There's no going back from a killing, Bob. Right or wrong, the brand sticks and there's no going back." (p. 143). No domesticated life on a ranch awaits Shane as he rides into the sunset.
What is the best Western ever written? For my money, that’s an easy one: Shane, by Jack Schaefer. (I know the movie is also considered to be a great classic, but to me, Alan Ladd just doesn't match up to the hero described in the book.)This quintessential tale of good-versus-evil is also one of the shortest — my copy has only 119 pages, making it pocket-portable. It is the ideal summer read for any young adult, male or female.What's so great about it?The character for whom the book is named is the personification of chivalry, as defined by C.S. Lewis: “...a man of blood and iron... he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, guest in hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not a compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth.”Ask the man on the street what “meekness” means, and he’ll probably say, “Weakness.” He couldn’t be more wrong. Meekness is not weakness, but strength — under control. (And by the way, if anyone out there knows exactly who originated that statement, please let me know, because he nailed it on the head.)Meek — that’s Shane. He deals in hot lead, but he is also the most civilized guest ever to visit a little house on a prairie. He is a nineteenth-century knight-errant. Launcelot with a six-gun.Shane falls in with the Starrett family, and makes an immediate and powerful impression on each of its three members. Marian, the woman of the house, has some difficulty articulating precisely what it is that she senses about Shane. But her husband Joe understands very well what kind of man has drifted into their lives:“I like him.” Mother’s voice was serious. “He’s so nice and polite and sort of gentle. Not like most men I’ve met out here. But there’s something about him. Something underneath the gentleness... Something...” Her voice trailed away. “Mysterious?” suggested father. “Yes, of course. Mysterious. But more than that. Dangerous.” “He’s dangerous all right.” Father said it in a musing way. Then he chuckled. “But not to us, my dear.” And then he said what seemed to me a very curious thing. “In fact, I don’t think you’ve ever had a safer man in your house.”Best. Western. Ever.
What do You think about Shane (2001)?
Excellent. On the surface a dime-store western but dig deeper and you'll find a remarkably American novella that captures through the characterization of its primary players a complex tapestry of the longing for a better tomorrow in the face of a troubled past and despite a recognition of one's resposnibility to oneself, and more importantly, to those for whom one cares. This is another of the many pieces assigned for classroom reading by students at the 7-9 grades who's value and themes are likely to come into greater focus ten to fifteen years after having graduated from highschool.
—Jean-Paul
jesus christ, what a beautiful book. i'm tempted to call it holy. there's a part of me that wants to read it every day from now until the end of my life.Where was Shane? I hurried toward the barn. I was almost to it when I saw him out by the pasture. He was staring over it and the grazing steers at the great lonely mountains tipped with the gold of the sun now rushing down behind them. As I watched, he stretched his arms up, the fingers reaching to their utmost limits, grasping and grasping, it seemed, at the glory glowing in the sky.
—Ben Loory
Jack Schaefer wrote this western novel in 1949. The story is set in 1889 Wyoming during the time when homesteaders claimed land in the West through the Homesteaders Act of 1862. The novel is narrated by the homesteader's son Bob Starrett. I have never been too fond of Western stories, movies or books, but I read ‘Shane’ on a hot summer weekend as I felt like diving into something easy on the brain as well as atmospheric enough to match the weather. I have to admit, I found in the novel exactly what I was looking for and more. The story brought back memories of Western movies, which were often in the background of my primary school days; my granddad would chose to watch them with much anticipated excitement but he would inevitably fall asleep half way through them, as their pace was often on the slow side. ‘Shane’ made me recall those evenings and reminded me that, after all, Westerns represent a form of entertainment that the Greatest Generation regarded as a much necessary escapism and, for that reason alone, one must at least respect their significance.The book is well written, it grabs your attention within the first few pages and it flows nicely until the end. One gets to like the gentile predictability of the story (I often had the comfortable feeling of being six again, playing Lego on my grandparents’ living room floor, hearing shotguns from the TV set), and the simplicity of the characters and situations.Perhaps the most interesting part of the novel is the platonic (or is it merely platonic?) relationship between Shane and Marian. It’s rather interesting that, in this type of novel, written for young readers, the author had the confidence to narrate the infatuation of the narrator’s mother towards the handsome stranger. However, I wish Schaefer told us more, perhaps about Joe’s considerations, views and feelings. Instead, the author, after mentioning Marian’s crush on Shane, breezed over it, undoubtedly in order to keep the novel on the ‘straight and narrow’ for its (young) target audience. ‘Shane’ is a solid novel which can entertain at any age and, given its rather excellent literary style, I would recommend it. One review at the back of the book reads “If you only read one western book, read ‘Shane’.”; I would agree, despite my preconception about Westerns, I took great pleasure in being absorbed in the book. The book fully deserves 3 stars.
—Saul
