Shane

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

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their utmost limits, grasping and grasping, it seemed, at the glory glowing in the sky.

You can’t get a more classic western story than this one.

Shane is the lone hero, an almost mythical figure. In the summer of 1889 he rides into the small Wyoming valley and befriends the Starret family in a time where their little homestead is threaten by an evil cattle-owner.

The tension slowly builds up to the inevitable gunfight. The story is told through the eyes of the young boy Bob Starret. The first half of the book is a character study of Shane and the Starret-family as their friendship and bond deepens. But there’s suspense under the surface. We know that they will not be left alone. Soon they will have to fight for their land and life. To the death. A great western, loved every page of it.

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The book wasn't exactly my favorite. The movie, which we had to watch after reading this book, was horrible to my eleven year old self. I kind of wished someone would shoot the kid after five minutes of 'Shay-un, come back!' Before anyone flames me for being uncultured or not appreciating the

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culture in which this book was set... ah, heck, flame me anyway. The book was okay, the movie was painful, I guess I'm too dense for the deeper messages.

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This afternoon I picked up and read Shane, a book I'd heard about but had not read before. I'd seen the movie years ago, but could not recall enough details to spoil the plot.

I can see how the plot has been used and reused by others since this book was published in 1949: mysterious stranger shows

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up, and helps those who befriend him. I can see similarities to plots by one of my favorite authors, Louis L'Amour. But Jack Schaefer's writing has more depth and nuances than L'Amour, and was a great pleasure to devour in an afternoon.

Five stars, highly recommended.

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Like a companion to True Grit, but not as well written. The western told through the eyes of a young boy is still pretty unique a perspective.

Wow. I see why this is a classic - there's a lot of story in this little book. The device of showing events through the boy's POV is clever - we see _what_ happens, and hear the adults talking about things, but Bob doesn't really understand what's going on which allows for elegant vagueness. The

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funny thing is that it reminded me of a King Arthur story, but with a better ending - at least, it ends badly for the protagonists (all three, or four, of them), but at least they don't destroy their world on the way down. They build it up instead - make things stronger, and better, for the price paid.

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A simple, stunning raw story that I found more beautiful than I thought I would. Shane is THE man.

In some ways, the book is full of stereotypes. We have the staunch but beleaguered farmer, the evil land baron, the brave gunfighter, etc. Part of that is because that's the western formula and part because many stories post-1949 have emulated Shane. Regardless, Schaefer manages to transcend that

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for the reader, providing a excellent "in one sitting" read...the story is not long, more novella than novel.

Many people have commented how much this is like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns. I don't really see that connection other than the obvious one of both being westerns and the main characters having mysterious pasts. Eastwood's characters, though they may save the town, are rarely seeking redemption, nor is their departure at the end a reluctant one brought on by knowing they cannot leave their past behind. I see this book as closer in theme to O. Henry's "A Retrieved Reformation" where Jimmy Valentine uses his safe-cracker skills to save the child and then feels he must leave his new-found family.

This is definitely worth the short time it will take to read.

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One afternoon a mysterious stranger appeared in our valley. Suddenly I felt cold. I am not sure why because it was a warm day. I think it was a feeling caused by this stranger. The stranger´s name was Shane. He looked mysterious and dangerous.

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 Rider of the Purple Sage or Louis L'Amour's Hondo, even if I

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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's strength and weakness.

This was in the Young Adult section of the bookstore, and is told first person by an adult Bob Starrett reminiscing about a time when he was a boy on a 1889 Wyoming homestead with his father and mother. That might be part of the problem. The way Bob describes Shane is tinged with a hero-worship appropriate for a young boy, but for me clashes with the sophisticated insights and language of the man narrating. Or maybe I'm just too old and cynical for a tale I would have loved at fifteen. This misses being a favorite, even if I did find it an enjoyable and very quick read. (It's a short novel, I think about 50,000 words.) But I think it's the film that haunts this book. The film is superb--at quietly conveying Shane's heroic stature, and the slowly simmering sexual tension between him and Bob's mother Marian and the young boy's hero-worship. But I think the cries of "Shane" from that young boy in the film is going to haunt me far longer than any writing in the novel can.

(And I have to say, there's an almost sexual tension between Shane and Bob's father Joe. If this were a popular media hit, fanficers would be slashing them in a heartbeat. It might be one reason I couldn't be too impressed, because with all the long looks between them, my mouth kept twitching picturing the slashers having a field day.)

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This book provides a glimpse into a world we can only imagine; Struggling to survive in a landscape of shrewd, underhanded, violent types taking advantage of homesteader families. The boy in the story invigorates the story for me with his desire to see what is happening and his eventual discovery

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of the nature of a person he so looks up to and considers emulating.

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Wonderful short novel. I think it is safe to call this literature and a classic, at least from my view. I am sure that my long held appreciation of the film influenced my enjoyment of this book. The actors from the film were immediately in my mind as I read this. The tension in this book starts on

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the first page. The story is told from the viewpoint of the boy in the story, young Bob Starrett, but he is telling us this story as an adult looking back on his childhood. He very believably shows the hero worship a young boy can have for the strong men in his life.

I've read Shane before but seemed to really appreciate it more this time. This is very well written. Scenes small and large were vivid to me and lingered long after reading. Close to a perfect book, this will be one of my few favorites for this year. The best "western" I ever read was Larry McMurtry's 'Lonesome Dove'. It is also one of the best novels I have ever read, and just possibly THE best. Shane is a small book and can't be fairly compared to an epic like Lonesome Dove, but it does show that great writing and a great story can be found in unexpected places.

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The title piece remains a perfect evocation of a mythic figure. Not a word wasted, the every image sharp and still compelling. The movie was quite good as well. Can't remember the rest of the collection.

A wonderful example of the coming-of-age story. Many of the characters may be cliched today, but here they seem fresh and natural. Don't be deceived by the movie. Alan Ladd is terrific, but by using a very young Brandon DeWilde, they changed the focus from a young man on the cusp of adulthood, to a

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whiny little boy who doesn't understand what's going on!

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Classic Western story. Basis of the movie.

I suspect that just about every person who grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s has either read the novel or seen the film “Shane,” the story of intrepid homesteader pitted against ruthless cattle baron, of Might versus Right, of the invincible hero -- against great odds -- vanquishing Evil.

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Trite? Unrealistic? Yes. Entertaining? Definitely. All of us love it when Good triumphs.

The author, Jack Schaefer, demonstrating, I believe, average narrative skills, has tapped into our universal need to witness what rarely happens in life: victimizers of the weak and virtuous routed. If you have not read this book, I suggest that you go to the library or buy a copy. Finish it (168 pages) in one or two days. It will make you feel good.

Schaefer did structure his plot well. A mysterious rider stops by a homestead in a Wyoming valley in the year 1889 to ask for a drink of water. By chance he has come to property claimed by the leader of a collection of homesteaders who are fulfilling the federal land grant requirement that they live on and develop their plots a specific number of years to be granted full ownership. The stranger, Shane, and the homesteader, Joe Starrett, quickly bond; Shane agrees to work for Starrett until the approach of winter. Starrett’s previous worker had been run out of the valley by the cattle baron, Luke Fletcher, who wants to expand his herd to be able to receive a large beef contract from the government. Fletcher wants all the government land on both sides of valley-dividing river for grazing. He knows that if he can force Starrett to leave the valley, the other homesteaders will quickly follow.

We learn in the very first chapter that Shane has had a violent past that pains his conscience. He is secretive about it. We recognize soon that it involved gun fighting. Told by Starrett about what Fletcher is up to, Shane remarks: “It’s always the same. The old ways die hard.” Late in the novel, Shane tells Starrett’s young son that the boy has a father who is “a real man behind him, the kind that could back him for the chance another kid [presumably Shane] never had.”

The author gives Shane a super-hero aura. One example is found in the climatic scene in the novel.

"Belt and holster and gun … These were not things he was wearing or carrying. They were part of him, part of the man, of the full sum of the integrate force that was Shane. … Now that he was no longer in his crude work clothes, he seemed again slender, almost slight, as he did that first day. The change was more than that. What had been seeming iron was again steel. The slenderness was that of the tempered blade and a razor edge was there. Slim and dark in the doorway, he seemed somehow to fill the whole frame."

A series of violent events – I found them enjoyable -- involving Fletcher’s men, a hired gun fighter, and eventually Fletcher himself bring the story to its conclusion.

The author chose wisely to tell the story in first person from the young son’s point of view. Because the boy is mostly not able to tell us what his parents and Shane are thinking, we are limited throughout the book in what we know. What the author wishes us to know is parceled out, often inferentially. We continue to read to be better informed and to have our suppositions confirmed.

This is especially true of the romantic feelings Starrett’s loyal wife, Marian, and Shane have for each other. The boy recalls cautious words exchanged that imply feelings of love. We respect the integrity of each person and understand the cause. It is an element of the book that I especially liked. Here is an example.

After Shane has thrashed one of Fletcher’s bullies in the town saloon, Marian asks Shane to stay on. She knows that Fletcher will now resort to violence to defeat her husband.

“You thought it would just be a case of not letting him scare you away and of helping us through a hard time. You didn’t know it would come to what it has. And now you’re worried about what you might do if there’s any more fighting.”

“You’re a discerning woman, Marian.”

“You’ve been worrying about something else too.”

“You’re a mighty discerning woman, Marian.”

“And you’ve been thinking that maybe you’ll be moving on.”

“And how did you know that?”

“Because it’s what you ought to do. For your own sake. But I’m asking you not to.” Mother was intense and serious, as lovely there with the light striking through her hair as I had ever seen her. “Don’t go, Shane. Joe needs you. More than ever now. More than he would ever say.”

“And you? Shane’s lips barely moved and I was not sure of the words.

Mother hesitated. Then her head went up. “Yes, it’s only fair to say it. I need you too.”

“So-o-o,” he said softly, the words lingering on his lips. He considered her gravely. “Do you know what you’re asking, Marian?”

“I know. And I know that you’re the man to stand up to it. In some ways it would be easier for me, too, if you rode out of this valley and never came back.”

Here is what I did not like.

Clarity of expression is an essential part of good writing. Here are two of several examples where Mr. Schaefer’s narration was lacking.

"He was the man I saw that first day, a stranger, dark and forbidding, forging his lone way out of an unknown past in the utter loneliness of his own immovable and instinctive defiance."

"You could see now that for the first time this man who had been living with us, who was one of us, was complete, was himself in the final effect of his being."

Characterization also was deficient. The minor characters were not developed. They seemed little more than names. The major characters were pretty much stereotypes. Shane is a super hero. Joe Starrett is hard-working, stalwart, virtuous, self-sacrificing. Marian is the good wife and mother, entirely loyal, despite her affection for Shane. Fletcher is unbendingly avaricious and, eventually, homicidal. But then, maybe this novel was not intended to be realistic. Accidental or not, it is a tale that pits Good against Evil. And Good wins! How can I criticize that?

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This small little book packed a punch! I haven't read a western book in a long time... but now that I think about it, I don't think I have ever read a western... or maybe I have and just can't remember. Either way, I loved this book! There were many parts I reread just to ponder over what message

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Schaefer was trying to convey. He imparts wisdom, wise advice, and the character of a man throughout this book. One of my favorite quotes is when Shane is telling Bob that a gun is just a tool:
"Listen Bob. A gun is just a tool. No better and no worse than any other tool, a shovel-or an ax or a saddle or stove or anything. Think of it always that way. A gun is as good-and as bad-as the man who carries it. Remember that."
Wish more people felt this way.
Now I want to see the movie based on this book again. It's been awhile since I've seen it.
Special thanks to LibraryThings Member's Review Program for this free book and the opportunity to read and review it.

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My son was reading this in school as a class novel, and having seen the film (YEARS ago!), I thought I'd take a look. I didn't put it down until I'd finished it, at 2:30am. Put me in mind of Steinbeck; mythic and moving. Excellent introduction to literary fiction.

I don't think I've ever read a Western before, and whether the glorification of Shane as the quintessential cowboy was intentional by the author as the story is told from the adult POV of the main character as he reminisces about Shane, or if it just came across this way to me, I feel that this is

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the Wild West as told thru rose-tinted glasses. Still, for my first foray in Westerns, I suppose it could have been worse.

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So good. Great story and characterization. Pretty short but very impactful

A small book. Quick, easy read. Much of the story is about what isn't said.

(From Barnes & Noble)
Often described as the "perfect" western, Shane simultaneously reaffirms and transcends genre conventions. This 1953 film's basic premise -- the violent struggle between greedy cattlemen and intrepid homesteaders -- is as old as the horse opera itself and is depicted by

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director George Stevens in stark, unambiguous fashion. The characters, too, are familiar types: the courageous farmer (played by Van Heflin), the dutiful wife (Jean Arthur), the hired killer (Jack Palance), and so on. Shane himself, played with admirable understatement by Alan Ladd, is positively archetypal. A former gunfighter, he seeks his redemption by helping the homesteaders, only to find them in desperate need of his "professional" skills -- the use of which, he realizes, will make him an outcast. Under Stevens's masterful direction, and bolstered by the Oscar-winning cinematography of Loyal Griggs and Victor Young's evocative musical scoring, every cliché seems fresh and every emotion rings true -- an achievement that ensures Shane a permanent place in the pantheon of great westerns.
- Ed Hulse

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Good western novel, suitable for young people.

read this back when i was teaching; good story

A very short read - good for a few hours at least - but otherwise a great Western (if there is such a thing). The main triumph of this book for me was the amazing descriptions given of the fights and shooting scenes - to see the English language used so brightly and easily in what could easily have

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been dull or pedestrian passages was quite exhilirating.

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