My mother and her father, my grandfather, were both huge
Louis L’Amour fans. I never had been until recently. A couple of older
gentlemen in my church have extensive collections of his novels, and they get
me reading them from time to time. I’ve long heard that his Sackett novels were
the best, so I engaged one of the gentlemen, Roy Smith, to supply me the
Sackett novels in order. He has generously done so.
This is actually the second of the Sackett novels, though
still concerned with the forefather of the family all the books are concerned
with – Barnabas Sackett. He is a man of action, both in terms of violence when
violence is called for and in a business/entrepreneurial sense. In this, he is
a man to be emulated. I am too often a person of thought and not enough of
action. One might think that thought is a good thing, and it normally is, in
balance with action. However, when one thinks on things too long without
acting, one invites fear and indecision in. These are things I struggle with,
and I would be more like Barnabas Sackett, in this way.
Religion plays an interesting role in this novel and in
L’Amour’s works in general. He shows Muslims in a good light, nearly always. I
saw this also in his novel, The Walking
Drum. However, he is also even handed toward Christians who are not too
attached to the organized church. It seems to me that L’Amour is one of those
who senses the reality of the spirit life but has rejected formal religion. I
wish this were not so.
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