Hondo

It's a western, and a pretty pulpy one at that, but I kinda liked it! It's got the things you expect; lots of flowery descriptions of the desert southwest, indian braves, backstabbing ne'er-do-wells, buffalo soldiers, a damsel in distress, and of course, a lone ranger, and his dog. The titular Hondo, can do no wrong. He's always trying to do the right thing with as few words as possible. Like a super hero in buckskin tights. It's a guilty pleasure, but I'm a white man and this book was written to pander to my masculine fantasies and I can't help but love it! I especially enjoyed the bits of Apache lore, though I take them with salt.

L'Amour has a professional style. He uses the Western as a backdrop to a character driven story. As in most Westerns there is quite a lot of violence. The romance is a wet dream where women live in function of men, but there is never a hint of explicitness. Angie is a terribly paper-thin character.

I worried about the representations of First Peoples but Vittoro comes of quite good. He is a noble leader who loves children and is honest. Silva is terrible, but what is most awful are the whites' opinion of Native Americans. I give it a full star for showing their hypocrisy and racism.