Shane
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Shane
Narrated by:
Eric G. Dove
Buy Now for £7.99
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Narrated by:
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Eric G. Dove
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By:
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Jack Schaefer
About this listen
I had lain in my bed thinking of our visitor out in the bunk in the barn. It scarce seemed possible that he was the same man I had first seen, stern and chilling in his dark solitude, riding up our road. Something in father, something not of words or of actions, but of the essential substance of the human spirit, had reached out and spoken to him and he had replied to it and had unlocked a part of himself to us. He was far off and unapproachable at times even when he was right there with you.
The Starrett family's life forever changes when a man named Shane rides out of the great glowing West and up to their farm in 1889. Young Bob Starrett is entranced by this stoic stranger who brings a new energy to his family. Shane stays on as a farmhand, but his past remains a mystery. Many folks in their small Wyoming valley are suspicious of Shane, and make it known that he is not welcome. But as dangerous as Shane may seem, he is a staunch friend to the Starretts - and when a powerful neighboring rancher tries to drive them out of their homestead, Shane becomes entangled in the deadly feud. This classic western, originally published in 1949, is a profoundly moving story of the influence of a singular character on one boy's life.
©2017 Jack Schaefer (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The only real flaw in the whole thing is the tendency of the author to stray from his first person perspective (the entire story is told as the recollection of an adult reflecting on the events he witnessed as an innocent, naively hero worshiping boy) into the internal monologues of the characters. It’s quite jarring at times to hear a pre-teen’s almost Freudian capacity for ascribing motives and internal struggles of the grownups about him, especially just after he so frequently tells us that he was just a boy and didn’t understand at the time.
But, looking past that repeated error, and the occasionally juvenile exposition dumps, there is still a great novel that will reward the patient listener. The climax is superbly written and leads this listener to wonder if the idea for the novel sprang from that last couple of brilliantly written chapters at the end?
Published in the late 1940’s, you can really feel the need for this type of hero figure in American culture, as the introduction suggests. But what the author does with that notion was to take it into an almost supernatural realm: the Christ-like perfection of the character of Shane, his self sacrifice and nobility express a yearning from deep within the American psyche, going a long way toward explaining the enduring passion for westerns in pop culture.
Also, clearly laid out in this original tale is the template for what would become a familiar trope in the Western genre, of the mysterious stranger who rides into the midst of a troubled town, sets things right, usually at great personal risk, seeing off the elements of evil, before riding off again into an equally mysterious future, like an avenging angel, leaving the town and its people forever changed. Clint Eastwood’s fascination with that idea - the paragon of conservative virtue - has manifested repeatedly throughout his career.
So this book still has the power to enthral even though the prose style may strike some as being a little unsophisticated by today’s standards. And it also has the power to be genuinely moving, which is always of value to this listener.
Fans of westerns will eat it up and ask for seconds. Fans of classic literature will appreciate the occasional flashes of brilliance and the originality of the author, who seems to be the first that I know of to tell this story in this way. Fans of the movie will find that the film was faithful to the original novel, more than enough for their satisfaction. And they will probably enjoy the insights into the characters.
Certainly worth your time if you’re in any of the above categories. If you’re just looking for a good story, well told, you’re also in the right place.
It is flawed, but like a dusty relic in a museum, it’s still a classic, even if it could use a little polish.
A Flawed Masterpiece
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still a classic
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Often unfairly overshadowed by the equally moving movie, which was made a couple of years after the novel's publication and released in 1953, Alan Ladd is not the Shane of this Novel. But the film is still good after all this time because the source material is near perfect. Both book and film are worth knowing well. The film is a masterpiece, but do not let that stop you reading (or listening to) the novel. Schaefer’s story is an historical snapshot and an enduring allegory of modern post war America.
Shane - the novel - is also, as it has matured and grown in meaning over the last 70 years, arguably the most left wing western ever written. It existed as fable of a faltering American dream in the aftermath of WW2 as the Cold War, The McCarthy witch hunts and the Korean war loomed. But today it remains utterly on message: A rage against the brutal dictatorship and fascism of corporate America; corrupt, unlawful authority and institutions run by gangsters welding the threat of violence. Shane as the champion of the underdog who must sacrifice his own way of life to save the more peaceful and possible future.
It’s a strange quirk the Schaefer once said he wished he’d made the homesteaders the bad guys and the ranchers, with their beef cattle, the heroes. Ronald McDonald would have approved but if that had happened the novel would now be consigned to the dustbin of anachronistic, politically incorrect garbage. (The type of novels made into John Wayne movies). The novel's sympathies - whilst open to debate - allow it to be timeless. Whilst westerns about 'cowboys' killing "Indians' are now rightly sees as morally repugnant, novels about the rich and powerful crushing the poor and unrepresented still have real validity.
Shane is set in the ‘time of the Preacher. When the lesson is over and the killing’s begun’ (to quote Willie Nelson's opus)
And the ‘preacher’ is the Gun. Sadly, in America of the 21st century as in the Frontier of 1889 the Gun is still preaching the loudest. In the middle of the last century Shane's words in film and novel (they are the same) could be taken as a defence for the right to bear arms. But, now, those same words have a dark and chilling irony.
Shane - which I believe Hemingway would have been proud to have written - is up there in the high sierra of great American novels. more than half a century on it still has a voice and it’s narrative enfolds layer upon layer of meaning and insight.
However many books you read. You must read Shane. It has it all. Broken dreams, struggle, passion, environmental sensitivity, historical analysis, redemption, hope and pity. You will take something away from readying this magnificent story.
The novel that created an unbreakable 'mold'
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