reviews
Dec 16, 2009
ward
rated it: 
This is the book I grew up with, having it read to me as a boy. It is an American classic and considered one of the great Westerns in league only with Lonesome Dove.
This is THE novel from which the wester movie genre was created. The dark hero with a mixed and unstated past, the western town with a struggle raging between migrant farmers and cattle ranchers, the hired guns and dark saloons all comprise elements of this short story. This is THE story that gave birth to the image of th More...
This is THE novel from which the wester movie genre was created. The dark hero with a mixed and unstated past, the western town with a struggle raging between migrant farmers and cattle ranchers, the hired guns and dark saloons all comprise elements of this short story. This is THE story that gave birth to the image of th More...
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Oct 21, 2010
Kate
rated it: 
A mysterious drifter rides into the lives of Wyoming homesteaders who are being threatened by a powerful cattle rancher.
His name is Shane. He takes a quiet yet powerful stance that is keenly observed by Bob Starrett, a 12-year old boy. It is through Bob's eyes the story is told. The book was originally published in 1949. Perhaps this is why I found some of the language and descriptions to be odd. Bob is quite fixated on Shane. Some of the descriptions border on homoerotic. Bob also More...
His name is Shane. He takes a quiet yet powerful stance that is keenly observed by Bob Starrett, a 12-year old boy. It is through Bob's eyes the story is told. The book was originally published in 1949. Perhaps this is why I found some of the language and descriptions to be odd. Bob is quite fixated on Shane. Some of the descriptions border on homoerotic. Bob also More...
Aug 09, 2010
K.
rated it:
It's been a really good thing for me to categorize my library. I have found a lot of jewels that I know I probably picked up at DI and then forgot about (how silly of me, I know!). This book must be one of those. Found it last night on the top shelf of the "man & boy" shelves.
Anyway, perhaps I'm too effusive with my stars, but I usually give books stars based on how much I enjoyed them or how much they changed my life. This one falls into the first category. What a great l More...
Anyway, perhaps I'm too effusive with my stars, but I usually give books stars based on how much I enjoyed them or how much they changed my life. This one falls into the first category. What a great l More...
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Aug 17, 2009
Jeannie
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 14, 2009
Richard
rated it: 
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, t More...
If you've enjoyed the movie, don't miss the book. Whereas the former is primarily action-oriented, t More...
Jan 15, 2012
Parksy
rated it:
This is a must read with your family! Having just reread this with my daughters it still holds up to how I remember it from being a kid! I would have read this in grade 8 or 9 (27 years ago) and parts are still etched into my brain:
I can still vividly remember the adult bonding over the removal of the huge stump... how they didn't hitch up the horses at the end, and how they weren't going to let the stump beat them.
The theme of the dark stranger, with an obvious dark past he's try More...
I can still vividly remember the adult bonding over the removal of the huge stump... how they didn't hitch up the horses at the end, and how they weren't going to let the stump beat them.
The theme of the dark stranger, with an obvious dark past he's try More...
Jun 24, 2009
Mrs_M
rated it:
I read this book to my son more than 20 years after I read it for the first time in high school. Here's why:
This book is a mystery western that you are never allowed to know. The characters were developed through the eyes of the narrator who is a child, headspun with admiration by a stranger who comes into town. Shane is this child's hero; a genius move on the part of the author because the child does what a child would do; follow him everywhere behind the lines of everyone else's More...
This book is a mystery western that you are never allowed to know. The characters were developed through the eyes of the narrator who is a child, headspun with admiration by a stranger who comes into town. Shane is this child's hero; a genius move on the part of the author because the child does what a child would do; follow him everywhere behind the lines of everyone else's More...
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Jul 20, 2011
Harmonybites
rated it:
A mysterious stranger rides up to a lonely homestead. That's an archetypal Western figure, familiar in my reading of Westerns from a recommendation list, and certainly Shane is much better written and worth the reading than Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage or Louis L'Amour's Hondo or Max Brand's Destry Rides Again, even if I think this can't really match the classic 1953 film adaptation with Alan Ladd. The title character Shane is presented as a mythic figure, which is something of the book
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Apr 23, 2010
Natalie
rated it: 
Had to read it for school in the 8th grade, and it was horribly bland. Searching my mind for various memories of the 8th grade lead me to this book.
Shane, set in the Old West, tells a story of a boy, and an lone stranger. This mysterious stranger, named Shane is practically an vigilante who is running away from something( that thing is never implied).
The first 4 chapters are about the boys father and Shane cutting a dead tree. SERIOUSLY!!! you got to be kidding me, was my thought wh More...
Shane, set in the Old West, tells a story of a boy, and an lone stranger. This mysterious stranger, named Shane is practically an vigilante who is running away from something( that thing is never implied).
The first 4 chapters are about the boys father and Shane cutting a dead tree. SERIOUSLY!!! you got to be kidding me, was my thought wh More...
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May 09, 2011
Tim
rated it:
This one is probably a shade closer to 3 1/2 stars than three. And it may pale a bit by my having seen Alan Ladd and Jack Palance a few too many times.
This isn't the stereotypical shoot 'em up western. There's action...but it's not the focus of the book. The focus is a quieter look at the myth of the west. And ultimately that's what Schaefer gives us. It's a western myth. Shane is the Demi-God who rides in and out of the lives of the mortals. Making it (their lives) better... More...
This isn't the stereotypical shoot 'em up western. There's action...but it's not the focus of the book. The focus is a quieter look at the myth of the west. And ultimately that's what Schaefer gives us. It's a western myth. Shane is the Demi-God who rides in and out of the lives of the mortals. Making it (their lives) better... More...
Aug 30, 2010
Coyle
rated it:
A fantastic book, or at least a well-read one.
I'm not really a huge fan of Westerns, but this one did the job well. It was particularly interesting to read this having seen and taught the movie (which I don't really like) several times. The movie really does capture the important themes out of the book, even if it doesn't quite carry the struggle Shane himself goes through.
Shane carries all the standard Western-genre issues: what is the difference between civilization and barbarism More...
I'm not really a huge fan of Westerns, but this one did the job well. It was particularly interesting to read this having seen and taught the movie (which I don't really like) several times. The movie really does capture the important themes out of the book, even if it doesn't quite carry the struggle Shane himself goes through.
Shane carries all the standard Western-genre issues: what is the difference between civilization and barbarism More...
Nov 15, 2011
Mikella
rated it:
Westerns are so far out of my comfort zone of genres that I didn't have many expectations at all for this book, but if I had it would have exceeded them all. There is always something different about seeing a story--that, quite possibly, has been told a hundred times over--through the eyes of a child. The charged sexual tension between the adult characters and the undercurrents of social relations between the different groups in the town are masked by the naive view of the narrator. It is a stor
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Apr 08, 2011
Marty
rated it:
Anna read this for her Heroic Men and Women English class (2nd sememster junior year), so I decided to read it, too. She really liked it, but I wasn't so enthusiastic about it. It is a classic western with the dark and mysterious stranger who comes and saves the family farm, kills a couple of men, and then disappears into the mountains. It was well written, from the perspective of the young son of the farmer. It had lots of light and dark images, a suggestion of godliness about the mysterious st
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Feb 08, 2012
Portia
rated it:
This was one of the best books I read when I was still a pre-teen, lovely innocent and happy (me) It was like a fantasy coming to life, where a man as noble and as good as the stereotypical hero in every faerie tale graced my whole all female class. I think we all feel in love that semester.
Shane is a tale of a real cowboy, who was strong, silent, intelligent yet unwanted by some. He did not live and die by his gun though, he was one who wanted to make peace.
The part tha More...
Shane is a tale of a real cowboy, who was strong, silent, intelligent yet unwanted by some. He did not live and die by his gun though, he was one who wanted to make peace.
The part tha More...
Sep 27, 2010
jun
rated it:
Bought this for a class I ended up taking but was intrigued.. it looked so hokey but entertaining!
Finally read it today.
cried at the end.
WOW, i just loved this from start to finish. The vivid language, the wholesome values, the typical good, hardworking farmer versus evil, cheating, landowner..
looking through the eyes of a boy.
the family dynamic.
SHANE. SHANE was just DOPE. hahahah.
seriously.
so .
cool.
More...
Finally read it today.
cried at the end.
WOW, i just loved this from start to finish. The vivid language, the wholesome values, the typical good, hardworking farmer versus evil, cheating, landowner..
looking through the eyes of a boy.
the family dynamic.
SHANE. SHANE was just DOPE. hahahah.
seriously.
so .
cool.
More...
Jan 25, 2011
Alexis
rated it:
I am not much for westerns, but this book is fantastic. There's a reason the hard-as-nails, dangerous-but-trustworthy hero is so popular in books and movies--when done well, it works. And this books does it very well.
Like Little Britches, the story is told through the eyes of a child, and to great effect. And the author keeps the hero shrouded in mystery throughout the story, which keeps the reader on edge and makes Shane excellent fodder for the narrator's hero-worship. And Shan More...
Like Little Britches, the story is told through the eyes of a child, and to great effect. And the author keeps the hero shrouded in mystery throughout the story, which keeps the reader on edge and makes Shane excellent fodder for the narrator's hero-worship. And Shan More...
Aug 06, 2010
Scotty
rated it:
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 lik
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Aug 25, 2009
White
rated it:
This is the white man's connection to Native American claims that nature's metaphors are literal manifestations of who we are in our core.
This is an excellent piece, taken from the eyes of a mother and a wife who is racing through every day. She gathers perspective, a part of herself, and the aroma of life's roses as she visits the beach with a journal on vacation with herself and no one else.
She brings back what we all want the time to discover.
I love this b More...
This is an excellent piece, taken from the eyes of a mother and a wife who is racing through every day. She gathers perspective, a part of herself, and the aroma of life's roses as she visits the beach with a journal on vacation with herself and no one else.
She brings back what we all want the time to discover.
I love this b More...
Aug 02, 2010
Ben
rated it:
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 g More...
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 g More...
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Oct 18, 2011
Scott
rated it:
My rating is probably a little unfair because Shane was required reading in my sixth grade English class. As such, any joy the book may contain has been shrouded by the agony of reading at break-neck speed to someone else's expectations. During that class, I remember watching the movie of the same name starring Alan Ladd and being totally annoyed by the boy who played "Joey Starrett" and his high pitched voice drawling out the title character's name.
I need to re-read this o More...
I need to re-read this o More...
Apr 08, 2009
Lars
rated it:
'Shane' is a little shopworn for me, having seen the movie countless times. The film is quite faithful to the book, so much so that I could not re-image Shane while reading as anyone other than Alan Ladd. It was also probably a little flatter and paler in the shadow of the other YA Western classic I just read, 'True Grit.' On the other hand, its familiarity was as comforting as a security blanket, and the nuanced differentiation between the adults' lives and Bob's put me in mind of yet anothe
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Aug 30, 2009
Garlan
rated it:
I was very impressed with this book. Also surprised that I waited so long before finally reading it. This has always been one of my favorite western movies, and I was delighted to see that the movie followed the book very closely. I really enjoyed that it was told from the POV of the young boy, Bob. In doing so, the author was able to lend more of a "larger than life" aspect to Shane as seen by Bob. This book has all the classics of a good western; good vs bad, right over wrong, j
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Jan 02, 2011
Kierra
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 07, 2009
LynnB
rated it:
Shanewas a good book, though the western genre is usually not one I care to read. It was about good vs. evil, and the psychology of male pride vs. a man who got his strength and power not from a weapon but from within himself. Shane was the ultimate good-guy cowboy. He carefully considered the consequences of his actions before he took any action. The book shows a way of life where virtues were important and that way of life was passing by.
The author wrote from the point of vie More...
The author wrote from the point of vie More...
Apr 04, 2009
Sara
rated it:
I read this book in class, never believing that I could actually like what I perceived to be a Western. And yet, this book is definitely a classic. It's not a long read, but it's a good one, and Mifflin is master at creating characters of depth and complexity. It's also one of the few books where the movie made actually does it justice. I will never forget the very ending of this book. For anyone that wants to venture into a genre they might have never explored, give Shane a try. It really is a
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Dec 19, 2011
Black Elephants
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Aug 17, 2011
Brian
rated it:
Great old rip-roaring western, a genre that doesn't usually appeal, but probably attractive partly for the sentimental reason that it formed one of the eccentric list of books Dad read to us as children - never mind the Beatrix Potter, or A.A. MIlne; our "read to" library included "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Fox Under My Cloak", "The Willing Flesh", Raymond Chandler - all read with a certain amount of on the spot editing and abridgement.
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Aug 31, 2009
Victoria (vikz)
rated it:
I've just finished it and, I must admit, that it won me round. I really liked the mother (she had spirit and reminded me a little of Mrs March in[ book:Little Women|1934] and even grew to like Shane. Although, wouldn't say he's my favourite literary character. I like its sparse writing style and it was an achievement to tell such a story in so short a book. And the kid nots s annoying as I remember in the film. Dune
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Feb 21, 2011
Annika
rated it:
Shane was a wonderful western novel. It captures such a gritty time through the eyes of a young boy, who idolizes a mysterious stranger who visits his house. This mysterious stranger, Shane, becomes embroiled with the boy's family in a bitter struggle between the rich cattle rancher and the farmers. This novel creates another side to the classic western hero, showing what a true man should be like. The characters are fully fleshed out, making "Shane" feel like a trip to the past.
Mar 31, 2009
Sharon
rated it:
This was my first western! I don't think I'm going to become a fan, but I do love well-written family stories. At its core, 'Shane' is a family story. It's about a family that embraces a mysterious stranger who in turn becomes the family's friend and guardian. The book is definitely anti-violence and one of my favorite moments is when Shane explains to Bob, the young boy in the book, that a gun is a tool and it's as good or as bad as the man that carries it.
