Elmore Leonard’s early western novels show
a gifted short story writer learning how to master the longer narrative form. The Bounty Hunters (1953) is a sometimes
awkward attempt to extend and enlarge characters and situations that would make
sharply conceived material for short stories but thin out and lose focus over
the length of a novel.
The Law at Randado
shows him still learning, but he’s turning what he knows of the short story
into what holds together well for its 250 pages and more than maintains our interest. The novel
still reads like a series of short stories, but each flows smoothly into the
next, with continuing characters, and a central thread linking two of them, a
sheriff and a young deputy he has hired, Kirby Frye.
Plot. The premise of the plot concerns Frye’s
having to deal with a cattleman, Sundeen, who prefers a vigilance committee to
keep order in town. Matters come to a head when the self-elected vigilantes
hang two Mexicans awaiting trial for rustling, and the young deputy is beaten
up as he attempts to assert his authority as “the law at Randado.”
First edition |
The main action of the novel involves an
extended manhunt, as sheriff, deputy and a posse ride off in pursuit of the
vigilantes to serve warrants and deal with any resistance to arrest, which they
get more than a fair share of. The chief instigator, Sundeen, is chased to an abandoned mine camp (a scene found again in the novel Hombre) and from there all the
way back to town, where he and Frye have a final showdown in the saloon.
The other thread linking the episodes of
the novel concerns the sheriff and his deputy, as the younger man proves this worth
on the job, despite the odds against him, and the sheriff’s initial judgment of
his character and capabilities is confirmed.
Elmore Leonard |
Wrapping up. So this western
works as a blending of forms, drawing its overall plot structure from what we
expect to find in a novel, while drawing on the short story form for richness
of characterization and emotional depth in the situations that Leonard’s characters
find themselves in. His gift for realistic and believable dialogue as found in
his short stories (I’m thinking of “3:10 to Yuma” as an example) also serves
this end.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Law at Randado. Told
from the point of view of a dozen or more characters, the novel creates a
social context for its story that makes Randado more than just a generic
frontier setting. Secondary characters are developed as people
who live here and have complicated relationships to each other.
We learn some
of their stories through digressions and flashbacks. They range from an Apache scout and tracker never sure
of his understanding of white culture (a theme returned to and developed more fully in the later novel, Hombre) to a mail order wife unfaithful to her husband. You find yourself wishing that Leonard had
given more of himself to the western instead of switching to crime fiction.
The novel was adapted to a poorly received
film in 1990, Border Shootout, with
an aging Glenn Ford as the sheriff and unknowns in other roles. The Law at Randado
is currently available in print and ebook formats at amazon, Barnes&Noble, and
AbeBooks. For more of Friday's Forgotten Books, click on over to Patti Abbott's blog.
Further reading:
BITS reviews of other Elmore Leonard
westerns
Image credits:
Book cover and author’s photo, elmoreleonard.com
Book cover and author’s photo, elmoreleonard.com
Coming up: Glossary of frontier fiction
I always have like Leonard, haven't read near enough of his stuff. Love his list for writers.
ReplyDeleteIf more western writers practiced that list, I'd be satisfied.
DeleteThe Tall T, clearly one of the greatest westerns ever made, was based on a Leonard short story, The Captives. The film is available on Youtube, but that is not the ideal way to view it. Best so far, the Budd Boetticher collection, but I have the vibe a blu ray is coming as a stand alone title. Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Arthur Hunnicutt , Maureen O''Sullivan, all doing yeoman work.
ReplyDeleteTHE TALL T was one of my first Boetticher westerns. Time to go back now that I've seen so many of the others.
DeleteI once read an interview with Leonard where he said he didn't want to stop writing westerns but the market had changed so much that he couldn't make a living and had to switch to crime fiction.
ReplyDeleteOne door closes; another opens.
DeleteRead this not too long ago and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on goodreads are interesting. They show how Leonard was still cutting his teeth as a novelist.
DeleteThis is yet another reminder that I ought to read Elmore Leonard's westerns. The first edition cover is really nice.
ReplyDelete