Six Gun Song

by Orlando Rigoni

interesting

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

Reviews

[Justin Vaccaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clunky but fast, Six-Gun Song is in the classic Western revenge mold. Scott Gentry sees his parents brutally killed and their home burned, so he heads to the desert and trains for vengeance. Gentry is one of those Western superheroes who's the fastest draw, the greatest gambler, a fantastic boxer, and a master of disguise. What keeps him interesting is he is a borderline psycho. He plays a long, obsessive game of revenge, filled with psychological torture as well as the requisite physical violence, but he also keeps "tokens" of his dead parents and quotes scripture at odd moments.

Religion itself plays an interesting role. Mormons are paragons of civilization and morality, but also kind of invaders of the West. Our hero teams up with them at times but he is strictly an Old Testament blood and thunder guy. He has no time for a religion of forgiveness or civilizing projects.

Rigoni is not a great stylist. There are lots of clunky sentences, especially dialogue. Not to mention that basically the same fist-fight happens three times, though against different antagonists each time. That said, the book moves briskly and is never boring. And Scott's crazed nature keeps things from feeling stale. All in all, a quick enjoyable read.