Hombre: A Novel

This was a simple and short western novel, entertaining enough but with little to distinguish it from many other books in this genre. I much prefer Leonard's later and more ambitious caper novels to Hombre.

The crime and suspense novelist Elmore Leonard began as a writer of westerns. The Library of America has recently published a volume of four Leonard western novels and eight short stories. I enjoy both westerns and Leonard and have been working through the volume.

"Hombre" is probably Leonard's best-known novel and is a fitting work for inclusion in the LOA. First published in 1961 as a paperback original, "Hombre" became a 1967 film starring Paul Newman. The novel tells the story of John Russell, 21, who through most of the book is known simply as "Hombre". The book is unique among Leonard's output in that it is recounted by a first person narrator, a technique which adds a great deal to the story. The narrator, Carl Everett Allen, also 21, is something of a naive young man. He recounts the origins of his story in a brief preface to the reader which explains how he came to write the book and that Russell's nickname of "hombre" or "man" best describes his character. Early in his story and at its conclusion, Allen recounts how his boss, Henry Mendez, had told him to "Take a good look at Russell. You will never see another like him as long as you live." The story vindicates Mendez' assessment.

The book is set in 1884 in the Arizona territory. Russell is a white person who spent much time in his youth with the Apache. When Russell becomes a passenger with five other people on a chartered stagecoach, the other individuals don't want him to ride in the coach because they believe he is Apache. When the stagecoach is held up, the passengers need Russell's help and familiarity with weaponry and terrain in order to survive.

The book develops many different characters including Mendez, the driver, and the passengers, Brandon, Dr. Favor, the corrupt superintendent of an Indian reservation, his young wife, a 17 year old, "McClaren girl" who also has been held by the Apache and is returning home, and the narrator, Carl Allen, who is seeking a new job and success. The story explores the characters' varied reactions to the precarious situation in which they find themselves in the Arizona desert pursued by outlaws.

The main interest in the book lies in Hombre. He is taciturn and stays within himself. At the outset of the book, he is disinclined to become involved in the business of others. As the story progresses with increased threats from the outlaws and dissension among the band on the stagecoach, Hombre makes decisions which often seem harsh and morally questionable. The book explores different perspectives, at several points, on the moral necessity of helping other people in dire straits. Hombre's perspective on these situations is frequently juxtaposed with that of the tender-hearted "McClaren girl".

The book has excellent descriptive passages of the stark Arizona desert, a great deal of violence, and a growth of dramatic tension as the story works to a climax. It reads quickly and held my interest throughout. But the primary value of the book lies in its depiction of character, its portrayal of racial prejudice and in its consideration of the many ethical dilemmas that arise in the course of the story. John Russell emerges as an enigmatic but heroic figure. "Hombre" is far more than simply a genre western.

Robin Friedman

Who knew that the author of dark, comedic crime novels like Get Shorty and Raylan also wrote pretty darn good westerns too. This little book is often sited as one of the top 25 crime novels, and as I've been trying to read some of the books on that list, I read this one. My love of Lonesome Dove has started this quest. Although this book doesn't have the scope of Lonesome Dove, it has a lot going for it. It's short, but full of action and full of realism. It all begins with the introduction of one of the toughest guys you'll ever see in a western - John Russell. He looks like an Apache, but he has startling blue eyes. Russell had chosen to live with the Apaches for a time when he was young, but he was adopted by a white rancher when he was about 12. The rancher has died and left John his ranch, and the book begins with him trying to get back to claim his inheritance. He's thrown in with a motley crew of white people as they take a stage to the town closest to the ranch he's heading for. The stage is robbed and the rest of the book is a battle of wills between the robbers and John Russell. As Mendez says at the beginning of the book to his employee Carl - "Take a good look at Russell. You will never see another one like him as long as you live." And by the end of the book we still don't know John Russell, but we know what he was made of. It's an edge of your seat little western thriller that is packed full of action and human interaction.

Hombre, Elmore Leonard, 184 pages. “At first I wasn’t sure at all where to begin,” to quote the narrator of this novel. I’m not sure because this novel is much more of a character study than a western. And I suppose that the genre “western” invokes cacti, gunfights, and general bravura clichés. There are cacti and gunfights, and there is also bravura. But you can forget about clichés in Hombre. First off, Leonard takes a risk by creating a narrator, Carl Everett Allen, who isn’t particularly likeable. He’s so because he’s too much of an Everyman—a bumbler, a romantic dreamer, and something of a coward to boot. But he does have a story to tell, and that is about John Russell, a part Mexican, part white man who was kidnapped and consequently lived with the Apaches for several years, then “rehabilitated” (in the white man’s eyes), and finally returned to live with them on his own. Conflict first arises in a bar, where two white men are giving two Apaches a racist hard time. Russell slams the barrel of his rifle into one man’s mouth, telling him to leave money for the mescal that the man knocked form the Apache’s hand. Then another conflict: Russell has inherited the boarding house that his adoptive father left him. Should he take it, as his Mexican friend Mendez suggests, or should he simply remain with the Apache? He sells it. And then comes the stagecoach ride with the infamous hold-up. There is this twist, however: the stage is being held up because a government reservation agent has bilked money from the nearby Apache reservation, shortchanging them on beef, leaving the Apaches half-starving. The agent is carrying this money, and the cowhand whose mouth Russell smashed knows it because he works for the cattle ranch supplying the beef.
Overall a very moody read because the narrator, Allen, continuously wonders about all the characters, especially John Russell. But everyone’s motives, including the narrator’s, come under inspection, and that makes this novel well worth the read, even if you’re not a fan of Westerns. Come on, be adventurous . . .

HOMBRE by Elmore Leonard is a modern day masterpiece of historical fiction. It not only celebrates the life of an imaginary hero, but it brings to the reader’s attention all that is good, gracious and upstanding about what it means to be American. The book starts out relatively slowly but it possesses one of the most riveting, suspenseful climaxes you will ever find yourself attached to.

The reader may well find themselves unsure about the qualities that comprise this man “Hombre”. We learn a little of his past, and a little of his past associations as the story unveils itself. But even though the book is named after this character, it is really only at book’s end do we find out why.

Mr Leonard’s writing style and his immense talents are used to maximum effect here. On one level we are reading what life must have been like in a frontier town, but then you realise how multi faceted that phrase really is. Frontier of civilisation? Frontier of reasonableness? Frontier of morals? Frontier, even, of sanity? Yes to all of the above.

Elmore Leonard was known as a member of the Crime Fiction Royal Family and his heritage in that genre almost shines through in this one. A not entirely unexpected event happens to a stage coach in the middle of a hot and windy desert, but with an apparently unassuming cast of characters playing the innocent “victims” it is not long before you realise the book you are holding is something of a chameleon.

This is a great read. The ending is brilliant, emotional, awe inspiring stuff that may well change the directions of your reading patterns for months on end. But hey - that is what books are for!

Full marks for this beauty.

BFN Greggorio.

Hombre deserves its reputation as one of the best Western novels ever written. The fifth and last of Elmore Leonard's early-career oaters, it spins off the premise of the classic John Ford movie Stagecoach, which offers a motley group of disparate characters on a dangerous stage ride in the Old West. In Leonard's tale, the antagonists are outlaws instead of Indians, but the idea of a disparate group under siege while dealing with its own inter-character conflicts persists.

The main character is John Russell, the "Hombre" of the title, a white man raised by Apache Indians who is looked down on by the other passengers until they get in trouble and he is the only one who can lead them out of it. But Russell is hardly an idealized "noble savage" and that's what elevates Leonard's tale. There are a number of incidents later in the book where another character poses real ethical challenges to Russell and the others. That plus Leonard's taut, gripping narrative that keeps the tension high, makes this an intense and superior reading experience.

This is my favorite Elmore Leonard story — great character study.

Jack Russell (aka: Hombre) is half-white, half-Mexican, but looks, dresses and acts like an Apache — except for his blue eyes. After living with the Apaches for many years, including serving as a member of the tribal police on the San Carlos reservation, he inherits property from the man who gave him his name: Russell.

Jack gets a haircut and puts on white-man clothes to go settle the legal matter. He ends up on a mud wagon (lightweight stagecoach), travelling with the Indian agent and the man’s wife, and a few others. Bandits stop the coach to rob the Indian agent. In a showdown with the bandits, Russell risks his life to see that justice is done.

In the movie version (which ends sooner than the book), Paul Newman plays Jack Russell.

A stagecoach trip gone sour.
Why? Bandits hold it up.
Why? There is a bag of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Why? That is the part of the mystery.
The mystery and suspense were the best part of this book. This seemingly random bunch of people, on a stagecoach ride to nowhere town in the middle of the desert, all have hidden secrets or strange connections to one another. The more I read the more I found out. I started to wish I could speed read and just get to the end already! There were lots of surprises that popped up and I really had no idea what was going to happen next. Very well written in that way.
The first person narrative, from a somewhat naive sounding clerk, helped with the suspense - he didn't have the life experience or the brains to really have any solid predictions, which made everything a surprise.
Also, the way this clerk built up other characters was great. He stereotyped everyone; the Doctor (who could do no wrong), the cute girl (who could do no wrong), the ruffian (who could do wrong), but, best of all the 'Hombre'. He build up this man to be a bigger than life superhero and made it seem like everyone was in good hands...but, were they?
All of the characters were different and showed their true colours as the story progressed. It was very entertaining to see them all 'break down' at some point. Another part of the book that was very well written.
I've heard Elmore Leonard mentioned over and over again in the Western circles, but, I've never gotten around to reading anything by him. Now that I know how great he writes I will be sure to look into more of his books.

http://bookwormsfeastofbooks.blogspot.ca/

John Russell is in many ways an archetyypal hero of the Western movie and novel-tactiturn and laconic in demeanour,whipcord tough and a man of action -yet he is a man apart from most of those around him by virtue of having been raised by Apaches .He was captured by them as a boy and subsequently adopted by a white man, a supply wagon owner ,thus having experience of both the ways of the whites and the Apaches.
He is not the narrator of this tale however -a lot that falls on Carl allen ,a passenger on a stagecoach bound for Delgado where russell is going to see if he can fully embrace white customs and live as a white man .Allen is in awe of Russell but by no means uncritical of him or his manner .The journey is complicated by the presence on board the stage of an embezzling banker ,something which is known to a band of outlaws who lay siege to the coach and its passengers ,and are prepared to kill if need be to get their hands on the loot.

The result is grim chess match as standoffs and shootouts ensue but the emphasis is as much on the psychological and interpersonal tensions as it is on physical violence .The prose is lean ,mean and economical ,the action scenes punchy and direct and the characterisation way above normal for the genre .
Russell is a true ,if deeply flawed hero ,as he possess tha courage to do what he felt had to be done -others fall short of the mark.

Gripping and edgily compulsive reading -please dont miss it if you have any love for great storytelling

Prolific pulp and screen writer Elmore Leonard made his bones as a writer of clever crime and Western tales in the heyday of men's magazines, graduating from short stories in such venues to the silver screen as a script writer. Along the way he turned out numerous well-received longer works, too.

Hombre, which became the Western movie classic of the same name with Paul Newman, is one of Leonard's most well known tales in this group and one that has entered the mythos of modern Westernophiles, among whom I count myself. Although I tend to favor the Western in film more than in fiction, the novels and stories of this genre have long provided the seed and soil of the filmed tales. From Jack Schaefer's Shane to Lonesome Dove: A Novel and Broken Trail, it's to the books that Hollywood has so often looked for inspiration. Hombre is no exception.

Leonard's Western heroes are typically hard loners, isolated from the larger Anglo society around them either because of their Indian or Mexican heritage or other factors that have combined to set them apart. They just don't quite fit in. John Russell, the Hombre of this tale, is one of these. Three parts Anglo and one part Mexican he was kidnapped at the age of five or six and raised by the Apaches until the age of twelve when he is returned to white society, adopted by a lonely man named Russell and given his Anglo name, a name that, like the clothes he is forced to wear or the society he is forced to endure, never quite seems to suit him.

At seventeen he flees to the Apache reservation and works for a number of years as an Apache policeman where he wins the name "Tres Hombres" after a remarkable fight with bandits. All this is told quickly in the backstory because Leonard, a master of narrative movement, doesn't dither long over the past, giving us just enough to get our first fix on the character of the man and what he is likely to turn out to be as the story unfolds.

The best of Leonard's Westerns are character studies of a particular type, men like John Russell, a man who has returned to Anglo society only reluctantly after learning of the death of his benefactor and of the inheritance of land the man has left to him. It is this return that sets the stage for the action which will soon unfold, quickly, brutally and with deadly results.

Russell is a man the others in the small group on the "mud wagon", hired to take them all to a distant town, cannot fathom. A filthy Indian to several of them when they discover his background (he refuses to disavow having Indian blood), a dangerous enigma to the hardened Frank Braden who is fresh out of Yuma Prison on a mission of his own.

It's a tight tale taking place over a few weeks with most of the action occurring in the last few days as those traveling with Russell soon learn that he alone holds the key to their survival. His unique Apache mind and the life he has led sets him apart from his companions in the only way required by the hard land and circumstances in which they find themselves. When the small group is finally beleaguered by outlaws on the grounds of an abandoned mine it falls at last to Russell to decide whether he is more white than Indian. In the end the choice he makes is a white man's but the way he does it is all Apache.

This is a very fine Western though, perhaps, the film spoiled it for me. As when I read Dashiel Hammett's Maltese Falcon after seeing the film (The Maltese Falcon [Blu-ray]) and could not get the actors out of my head, I had the same experience here. Try as I might, I couldn't shake the picture of Paul Newman (Hombre) as I followed John Russell leading the stricken passengers in a desperate effort to save themselves after the abortive hold-up -- or of Fredric March as the crooked, pusillanimous Indian agent, despite the fact that he looked nothing like the description of Dr. Favor in the book. Or Richard Boone's sneering and overbearing Braden.

The novel and the movie are very close and, if Westerns are your thing -- or good, really tight writing is -- then Hombre should be, too.

Stuart W. Mirsky
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

Elmore Leonard, one of the finest storytellers of the old west, spins an interesting story of a white man raised by Apaches who decides to walk in the white man's ways. During a stagecoach run through the mountains and deserts, John Russell becomes the object of scorn and derision of white passengers who later must rely on Russell to lead them out of the wilderness to safety. The novel is a thrilling read of the old frontier days and the tension builds as Russell and his group have a showdown with outlaws at an abandoned mine. The book was filmed in 1967 and starred Paul Newman in the title role.

After having read almost all of Leonard's crime novels, I finally got to this, his best known western. Written in 1961, it was made into the 1967 Paul Newman movie. I was surprised at the differences here compared to recent Leonard novels. The anti-hero, John Russell, is a young white man raised by Apaches in 19th century Arizona. He inherits some property which requires taking a trip away from the reservation. On this trip a stage coach robbery goes wrong and Russell fights the robbers to the death. Like all other Leonard protagonists, Russell is a man of action and of few words. Unlike other Leonard heroes, he inexplicably sacrifices himself at the end of the book to save a women that neither he nor the others really care about. Chili Palmer, Frank Ryan, or Ernest Stickley would have never done a thing like that. Leonard employs an unusual device of having one of the minor characters narrate the story. Later books have either an omniscient narrator of the protaganist's inner dialogue serving as narrator. Very good but not as much fun as more recent hits.

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."

Elmore Leonard's HOMBRE is, irrespective of genre, an absolute classic of the novel form. In my opinion it's the best example since THE GREAT GATSBY of what I'd loosely term "self-effacing first person narrative", by which I mean narrative wherein the author so contrives things that the narrator - Carl Allen in HOMBRE - is not the main character or event in the story. Personally I think this tends to make for a greater semblance of objectivity since the person telling the story necessarily remains, like the reader, on the periphery of the central events.

I would unreservedly recommend Elmore Leonard's 's westerns to anybody interested in "a good read"- but especially to any reader who's completed his "modern" books. It's not that I'm a fan of the western genre in particular, but Elmore Leonard's output is infinitely superior to the norm. With great dialogue and memorable characters they make for a very tight read: more like Hemingway than Louis L'Amour.

There's a sort of underlying thematic quality to HOMBRE (to VALDEZ IS COMING, too) wherein the young United States is itself the hero - or heroine, as the case may be. For example, Gay Erin in VALDEZ shucks off her attachment to the small shopkeeper and the cattle baron in favour of the man of honour . . . and the man of honour (VALDEZ, HOMBRE), social outcast though he may temporarily be, is able to come into his own precisely because he was born in the Land of the Free.

You just know this ain't gonna happen in downtown Detroit or present day Dade County FLA.

Beats me why WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE had to reprise so many stories out of THE TONTO WOMAN when there are so many uncollected Elmore Leonard western stories out there just waiting to be corraled.

PS If you like the narrative voice in HOMBRE, mosey on over to Arkansas and Missouri and check out TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis. It's another classic of the western genre with a quite differently stunning first person narrative voice. Meanwhile, here's a spoof reprise of that scene from the film where Richard Boone stomps into the stagecoach office and confronts Paul Newman . . .

`Frank Braden,' he said. His hands spread out along the counter.
I said, `Yessir? As if I still worked for the Sweetmary Library Service. Hell, I shouldn't have been behind the counter but I'd dropped off to sleep reading the latest John Grisham (hate the books; love the movies).
`Write it down for EL's EO.'
`I'm sorry.'
`I said: "Write it down for Elmore Leonard's entire opus.'
`That's a special batch.'
`I heard. That's why I'm having it.'
I looked down at the four orange library cards on the counter, lining them up evenly. `I'm afraid that one's taken. Four here and those two. That's all we could get a-hold of.'
`You can get another one,' he said. Telling me, not asking. `Sunny side up, easy on the adverbs, exclamation points and hooptedoodle.'
`Well, I don't see how.'
`On top of what you ordered.'
`We got half a dozen is all. That's a library service rule. I was just telling these boys here. Certain people can read . . .'
`You say they've got 'em?'
`Yessir. Both of them.'
He turned without another word and walked over to John Russell with that clumpy thumping sound as the Max Brands, Louis L'Amours and Zane Grays hit the library floor. He still had the Jack Schaefers slung low in his left hand: SHANE, THE KEAN LAND, THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES. You can say what you want about Frank Braden but he was nobody's fool.
He said, "That boy at the counter said you got the Forty less One.'
`Uh?' said John Russell.
`Elmore Leonard's stuff.'
`John Russell opened his hand on his lap. `This?'
`That's it. And the others. You give them to me and grab a Stephen King.'
`I have to take them,' Russell said.
`No, you want is all. But it would be better if you waited. You can read Captain Corelli, get drunk. How does that sound?'
`I have to take these,' John Russell said. `I have to take these and I want to take them.'
`Leave him alone,' the ex-soldier said then. `We were first in line, you find your own batch of books.'
Frank Braden looked at him. `What did you say?'
`I said why don't you leave him alone.' His tone changed. All of a sudden it sounded friendlier, more reasonable. `He wants the Forty less One, let him take them,' the ex-soldier said.
You heard the clumpy thumping sound again as Frank Braden shifted to face the ex-soldier and Charles Portis' TRUE GRIT hit the ground. He scooped it up again, stacked it alongside the Schaefers, stared at him and said, `I guess I'll have your Forty less One instead.'
The ex-soldier hadn't moved, his big hands resting on his knees, his feet propped on the canvas bag that contained the thirty-nine books. `You just walk in,' he said, `and take somebody else's Forty less One?'
Braden's pointed hat brim moved up and down. `That's the way it is.'
`Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!' I said - exclaimed even - thinking I was still in the employ of the Sweetmary Library Service.

HOMBRE is an excellent read until the very end. The end is a WTF!!! moment. I conclude that Leonard wanted an ending with an O'Henry twist, and picked the worst possible twist to use for the job. Its definitely incongruent with the John Russell character. What was Leonard thinking? He wasnt.

The rest of the book is excellent.

Anyone curious about Elmore Leonard or the Western genre must read this book. Almost every page has a certain tension about it; you will be drawn to the next page and the next... There are no lenghty backstories about the characters but I guarantee you will know their essence. The writing is what I like to call "sparse"; no wasted words, no unnecessary motion. It reminds me of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road".

Best cliche to describe the book: gritty.

No writer chronicles the battles of misfits, underdogs, and renegades like Leonard. In Hombre, Leonard captures a land where the rich, the poor, and the wandering come together as equals __ and where honor is earned by courage and by blood.