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Forty Lashes Less One
The hell called Yuma Prison can destroy the soul of any man. And it's worse for those whose damning crime is the color of their skin. The law says Chiricahua Apache Raymond San Carlos and black-as-night former soldier Harold Jackson are murderers, and they'll stay behind bars until they're dead and rotting. But even in the worst place on Earth, there's hope. And for two ha...more
Paperback, 272 pages
Published
November 5th 2002
by HarperTorch
(first published April 1972)
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The hell called Yuma Prison can destroy the soul of any man. And it's worse for those whose damning crime is the color of their skin. The law says Chiricahua Apache Raymond San Carlos and black-as-night former soldier Harold Jackson are murderers, and they'll stay behind bars until they're dead and rotting. But even in the worst place on Earth, there's hope. And for two hard and hated inmates -- first enemies, then allies by necessity -- it waits at the end of a mad and violent contest ... on a
I wish Elmore Leonard wrote more westerns. Absolutely nothing against his superb crime thrillers, but the western really brought out his inner Hemingway, terse and tough and worn to perfection like old saddle leather. “Forty Lashes” is a bit of a transition novel, taking place in the waning days of the Old West and published as Leonard was making the switch to urban action. It has more of the wiseass sense of humor that marks his later novels. Inside Yuma Prison, Harold Jackson and Raymond San C...more
Having read every Elmore Leonard book about ten times (possibly more!) I thought I'd take a look at some of his early westerns. I'm glad I did. This book has all the elements of his Detroit, Miami, and Atlantic City novels. Its all here in glorious print: oblique machine gun dialogue, closely observed behavior, a smiling sunny cynicism, a melancholic outrage and courage. Absolutely brilliant, I'm going to tuck into Valdez is Coming next. I vaguely remember the film with Burt Lancaster playing th...more
There is an autumnal glow about this book, which in movie terms is more like "High Plains Drifter" than like "Silverado." Characters in this story are as hardboiled and believable as anything in Elmore Leonard's urban fiction, and a surprising tie-in to the travails of Paul the Apostle elevates this above the "horse opera" level well-trod by less ambitious writers in the western genre.
If you like Leonard's crime fiction, you will like this book as well. While classified as a western, it is more about racial prejudice and hypocritical religious figures than cowboys. A enjoyable read.
This was an excellent book. It is a lot of fun. Best $3.99 I've spent in a long time. Thanks Amazon!
The hell called Yuma Prison can destroy the soul of any man. And it's worse for those whose damning crime is the color of their skin. The law says Chiricahua Apache Raymond San Carlos and black-as-night former soldier Harold Jackson are murderers, and they'll stay behind bars until they're dead and rotting. But even in the worst place on Earth, there's hope. And for two hard and hated inmates -- first enemies, then allies by necessity -- it waits at the end of a mad and violent contest ... on a...more
Two convicts in an Arizona prison, early 1900s.
Nothing like a little Elmore Leonard to get to the basics. I think this is the first of his westerns I've read.
Simple, effective writing.
I loved this book
What a blast.
Not the most exciting book you'll pick off the shelf, but it is pretty good. Refreshingly concise with its style after reading several books that tended to bloviate and meander into maddening amounts of minutia.
Fun hardboiled ride with some unique players. There was plenty of action, but it wasn't exciting or urgent.
surprisingly, no whipping or any whipping up to a number of 40.
May 15, 2013
Matt Ryan
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2013
Marcus Cope
marked it as to-read
Apr 08, 2013
Micah
marked it as to-read
Apr 08, 2013
Daniel Baldwin
marked it as to-read
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Elmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into m...more
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Apr 16, 2012 04:58am