Bendigo Shafter

Great Read

As usual another Lamour outanding book

Great book.

Enjoyed it a lot.

A L¿Amour classic that stands out above the rest.

I first picked up a L¿Amour book years ago from a used book store. I¿d never read westerns books before, but always loved the movies. Instantly I was drawn into his stories and found them so much more riveting than the movies. LL has a wonderful writing style and a gift for drawing the reader into the world of his characters. Bendigo Shafter is a classic that stands out above the rest. It tells the story of a young man who comes of age in the harsh world of the American Frontier. Having travelled far from the east his wagon train decides to stop well before the winter comes and build a small settlement to wait it out. Bendigo, along with the other men, sets to work to build houses for all to live in. But this man is more than just muscle and hard work, he discovers a love for reading through the books given to him by the widow Macken, a strong, intelligent woman for whom Bendigo builds a house. She sees in this young man someone of great intellect and promise, and introduces him to a way of learning about the world through reading. While others move on come summer, many decide to stay and continue to build a town. While the story focuses mainly on the young man¿s journey from teenager to manhood, it¿s also a reflection of the real people that made the Wild West, through hard work, strength, courage, dedication and reliance upon each other. Unlike the Hollywood movies, this book paints a realistic picture of how tough life was on the frontier. Over the years the settlers battle harsh winters, the threat of starvation, renegade outlaws and see their town grow from a small settlement into a thriving community, not all of it good. Bendigo ventures off now and then in search of his destiny, but such is his dedication to the people of this town, that the moment trouble flairs he heads straight back to stand shoulder to shoulder with his friends and defend the place they built with blood and sweat. LL¿s descriptions of the land are so vivid that as a traveller I feel I was there with Bendigo, riding across the plains on horseback with the wise old Indian. This book has it all, action, love, wisdom, history and adventure. Reviewed by Ian Middleton: Travel Writer, Photographer and author of Mysterious World: Ireland.

Not your typical Western

A good book by Louis LaMour. Written about a young man named Bendigo Shafter. It starts as a normal western book with a wagon train moving across the plains. The book drags in the beginning but this is just because it is explaining all the histories and types of people on the train. The train begins to build their town and go through the usual struggles of Indians and renegades but has less shooting than a lot of other LaMour books. Ben is more of a hand fighter and a basic moral man than a heroistic killer like other main LaMour characters. Ben begins to have dreams of other, bigger places and doesn't want a wife when he begins falling for young Mae and the older Widow Macken. The big twist in the story is how Ben decides between a possible small town life in a town he helped build or run off and live the exciting life of a bachelor traveling around the west coast and the big city life of San Francisco. Overall a good book but if you read westerns for the exciting and shooting this most likely isn¿t for you. I enjoyed the book due to the moral content of it and how Ben strives to live life by good morals.

A good and different L'Amour story

I always liked L'Amour, and a lot of other people do, too. Mostly, I guess it's because we know how his characters will act and pretty much what they'll do next. I've heard people argue that the characters are all individual and different, but it's obvious these people haven't read very many L'Amours. However, this book really is different, if not in the hero, in the story and its progression. It's not the typical gunfighter story, and he doesn't have to be the best man in town with his fists, too. Bendigo Shafter shows a man of the wilderness who goes about the everyday survival of a pioneer. This is a good book that puts me in mind of other books by the man critics are calling 'The New Louis L'Amour', Kirby Jonas. Jonas writes a lot like L'Amour, but a lot better. We get into his characters a lot more deeply and can see the scenery more clearly. Bendigo Shafter was a good book, but it's too bad Kirby Jonas, the 'New Louis L'Amour', doesn't have as many books out as the real L'Amour.

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