If you haven't seen the 1966 movie take on Elmore 'Dutch' Leonard's book, HOMBRE then track it down and watch it. It is a western classic or perhaps a unique western, starring the late Paul Newman in a very good version of the book.

Saying that, read the book first because Leonard offers up a great story that is anything but a typical cowboy western. The premise is that raised among the Apaches John Russell has to readjust to 'civilized' life and finds out early on just uncivilized it can be.

Next to Valdez Is Coming and 3:10 to Yuma Leonard's Hombre makes us all look at the Old West with new eyes and perhaps a new appreciation of a talented writer early in his long career.

Although he went on to write modern best selling novels I'd sure like to see him go back and do another western. They may not have broad appeal since the public seems to look down on the genre (literally too, for that matter since one store where I buy my books has them situated at ankle level!) and probably don't sell as well as main stream works but many are better written and have stronger, more convincing storylines than most thrillers.

If you haven't read Leonard's westerns then try this book out for size and settle into a new realm of appreciation for a better brand of storytelling.

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Elmore Leonard is not nearly as well known for his Westerns as his hardboiled crime dramas, but in fact he is one of the finest writers in the genre of the past fifty years. This is partly because he is simply one of the finest American writers period. He is famous for writing some of the hardest hitting, purest prose during his lifetime. There is nothing flashy about his writing. My guess is that a glossary of all his words would tally less than 400 words in all. There probably aren't more than 20 words of more than two syllables in the entire book. Some paragraphs have few two syllable words. This apparent simplicity can mask what is in fact a stunning virtuosity. Leonard is known as a writers' writer and this will escape no reader who pays close attention to the deceptive sophistication of his style.

The story he tells here is a simple one. Leonard is hardly the first to depict a Western hero. Nor is he the first to depict a hero who possessed outsider status. John Russell, the "hombre" of the title (and "hombre" here really has a similar sense as "Mensch" in Yiddish), is a white man who was raised in his formative years as an Apache. He is the result of white, Apache, and Mexican cultures, yet doesn't completely fit in any of them, though he seems most comfortable as an Apache. Though treated with disdain by his fellow stage coach passengers (actually, they travel in a mud wagon), he becomes their only hope after bandits hold them up. Russell is striking for being treated as both heroic and extremely capable, but not impossibly skilled as many Western heroes are depicted. Though a good shot, he misses more than he hits his target. Though most of his decisions are good ones, he isn't infallible.

The novel is remarkable for how sympathetic Native Americans are depicted. Written in 1961, Leonard anticipates the far more positive treatment of Indian characters in the seventies and beyond. The central crime in the novel is one perpetuated against Indians, just as the protagonist is a product of Apache culture.

I highly recommend this novel. It is yet another example of Elmore Leonard's consummate ability as a writer, as well as being a first rate Western. It truly is Leonard at his very best.

John Russell was not welcome to ride in the coach with the other passengers but they all want him after they are robbed and left to walk. Th story tells of their trying to get away and the outlws trying to catch them. Enough action to keep you interested. If everyone had been like Hombre the book would have ended differently. Russell was a great character. I liked his Indian ways and his quite silent wat if getting things done. The book is a fairly quick read and will hold you attention. As Henry Mendez says in the book, "Take a good look at Russell. You will never see another one like him as long as you live."