false658155121Jubal Sackett
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6581551-jubal-sackett
858Louis L'Amour34763172140falseTue Jul 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009Tue Jul 21 07:25:47 -0700 2009Tue Jul 28 06:19:57 -0700 2009 Normally, I wouldn't have enjoyed a book written like this: there was a high level of repetition, some plot resolutions that seemed just a bit too easy (and that were, by and large, foregone conclusions), and some bald foreshadowing that could easily have killed off any suspense before it got going.
But I have to say that it was a plain old good story. I think that's where L'Amour wins, here, is that it was so enjoyable despite literary issues that I would otherwise have gotten hung up on. I wasn't just continuing the book "just to finish" the way I have with some, but because I actually came to enjoy the characters more than I would have expected, and wanted to follow their path.
The story is told in the first-person, and perhaps that could explain the repetition: the story itself would be a function of the narrator's personality and paradigms. If nothing else, Jubal Sackett is a very careful, meticulous man who works hard for what he gets, and despite the fact that I felt that some of the conflict resolutions were a bit too easy or contrived, I never had the sense that they were overly fake, or undeserved.
What really hooked me on this one is that it's a good "coming of age" tale. Sackett starts out as a young, single guy consumed with an inexplicable sense of wanderlust. Before the book is over, he's (accidentally) become a respected tribal chief of a mixed bunch. As it says on the dust jacket, he "finds and land and a woman worth dying for," and Sackett himself, at one point, speaks of "one dream slipping away, and another one being born."
I guess I can relate to that, having myself transitioned from carefree bachelor to father of a growing family (working on child #6 at present). While I didn't have to give up quite as many dreams as Sackett did, I still had to make the usual adjustments.
Sackett's sense of responsibility, his pragmatism, and his senses of honour and duty really endeared this character to me as a role model of sorts. While I don't expect to ever be a "backwoods ninja" the way he was, I still prefer to picture myself as progressive, responsible, and dependable, as he was.
The other characters in the book went through their own transformations as they also moved from being individuals of considerable skill or importance into being operational parts of a greater whole. It's the necessary move from individualism into being one who contributes to a greater society, and I think it's something we're rapidly losing in the 21st century.
In any case, this wasn't the best-written or most compelling book I've ever read, but it was certainly very enjoyable as I read it, and it has definitely left a good aftertaste with me.