Country: USA
Genre: Western
Pages: 193
Elmore Leonard is one of those long lasting literature legends. He's eighty-five years old, still kickin' and writing stories. I'm a little bit ashamed to admit I had never read him before. But it happened a lot this year, me admitting my complete ignorance about a writer in particular. So I picked up THREE-TEN TO YUMA AND OTHER STORIES at the bookstore on the recommendation of my friend and writer of THE BASTARD HAND Heath Lowrance. He told me Leonard's crime stories were good, but that his Westerns were quite something. Elmore Leonard's books also happen to be laughably cheap (at least in my bookstore), so I made my choice and went for a title I recognized. THREE-TEN TO YUMA has been adapted for film twice now. There's a good reason for that. It's very good. Is that good enough of a reason?
Like I usually do when I review a short story collection, I'll concentrate on the stories that marked me the most. CAVALRY BOOTS, the opener, isn't your typical tough-guys-talking-shit-in-a-saloon type of Western. It literally blew me away. It's a Western sure, but it's also a war story and a story about the nature of courage. It's loaded and layered with meaning, yet the prose is very simple and straightforward. It's the story of a battle in between the U.S Cavalry and the Mimbreno Apaches in Arizona and of Bud Nagle, an honest and simple-minded soldier with a very important task. Bud's action are sure dictated by his "simple" state of mind, but in the end, it's his action that stays. Through very simple, straightforward and entertaining storytelling, Leonard crafted a fine piece of thoughtful fiction.
The title story, THREE-TEN TO YUMA is a little more conventional, but very interesting still. It's been the basis for two films despite it's diminutive size (about twenty-five pages in a mass market paperback, so maybe what, eighteen pages) so there is a lot of mood and time-specific charm to it. It's basically a one-on-one showdown in between a criminal and his jailer, who is supposed to put him in the 3:10 PM train to Yuma prison (hence the title). Well, not really. But no spoilers here. It's a story that exposes the ambiguous nature of law back then, versus the principles of right and wrong. It's about trust and how well can you really know a person. Elmore Leonard's character have all a strangely moral side (sometimes self-righteous, but still somewhat moral), and the fact they're living in such a dark and uncertain time makes them shine even brighter.
CAVALRY BOOTS, THREE-TEN TO YUMA and THE CAPTIVES were the three stars of this story collection. They were loaded in, each in their own way and kept me reading feverishly. Other stories like THE KID, I found a little less interesting. Some could have been written using a contemporary setting and it could' have worked. They're decent stories (none of the seven stories were actually bad), but they don't grasp the era like the three stars do. I mean, what's the point of writing a Western if you don't want to address something about that era. Anyway, THREE-TEN TO YUMA AND OTHER STORIES was a great, quick read and Elmore Leonard's style is enjoyable anywhere, from the comfort of your home to the discomfort of plastic bus seat, knocking on your ass. The perfect companion for off-road reading.
The title story, THREE-TEN TO YUMA is a little more conventional, but very interesting still. It's been the basis for two films despite it's diminutive size (about twenty-five pages in a mass market paperback, so maybe what, eighteen pages) so there is a lot of mood and time-specific charm to it. It's basically a one-on-one showdown in between a criminal and his jailer, who is supposed to put him in the 3:10 PM train to Yuma prison (hence the title). Well, not really. But no spoilers here. It's a story that exposes the ambiguous nature of law back then, versus the principles of right and wrong. It's about trust and how well can you really know a person. Elmore Leonard's character have all a strangely moral side (sometimes self-righteous, but still somewhat moral), and the fact they're living in such a dark and uncertain time makes them shine even brighter.
CAVALRY BOOTS, THREE-TEN TO YUMA and THE CAPTIVES were the three stars of this story collection. They were loaded in, each in their own way and kept me reading feverishly. Other stories like THE KID, I found a little less interesting. Some could have been written using a contemporary setting and it could' have worked. They're decent stories (none of the seven stories were actually bad), but they don't grasp the era like the three stars do. I mean, what's the point of writing a Western if you don't want to address something about that era. Anyway, THREE-TEN TO YUMA AND OTHER STORIES was a great, quick read and Elmore Leonard's style is enjoyable anywhere, from the comfort of your home to the discomfort of plastic bus seat, knocking on your ass. The perfect companion for off-road reading.