{"id":17510,"date":"2022-11-15T19:20:26","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T00:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17510"},"modified":"2022-11-15T19:20:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T00:20:26","slug":"monument-rock-by-louis-lamour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=17510","title":{"rendered":"‘Monument Rock,’ by Louis L’Amour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A deal came up<\/strong> for a Louis L\u2019Amour book on Kindle, and I thought, \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve read L\u2019Amour. I really dug him, way back when I was in radio. Let\u2019s see how he holds up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, for this reader, Monument Rock<\/a><\/em> didn\u2019t stack up all that well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book is actually a collection \u2013 six short stories plus the novel, Monument Rock<\/em>, which is the final installment in the \u201cKilkenny\u201d series. This volume is billed as the final published collection of previously unpublished L\u2019Amour western stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was a bit disappointed. My first complaint was the seemingly formulaic quality of the stories. Each of them (at least in memory) was built on the same basic plot \u2013 a mysterious, dangerous stranger rides into town (or onto the ranch), where bad guys are doing bad things. Often a woman is threatened. Often the stranger has a secret connection to the place, to be revealed at the end. The stranger (who is exactly like all the other stranger heroes in all the stories) is dangerous and fast with a gun, and can\u2019t be intimidated. The climax is a shootout, where he triumphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s a reason narrative formulas exist. They work. It\u2019s just that when you clump them all together like this, the upholstery looks a little threadbare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the writing wasn\u2019t as good as I hoped. L\u2019Amour was a great storyteller, but he wasn\u2019t a top wordsmith. (I suppose I\u2019ve become a literary snob in my old age.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final novel, Monument Rock<\/em>, pleased me more than the stories. The longer form provided scope for some narrative variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing really wrong with Monument Rock<\/em>. L\u2019Amour fans will enjoy it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A deal came up for a Louis L\u2019Amour book on Kindle, and I thought, \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time since I\u2019ve read L\u2019Amour. I really dug him, way back when I was in radio. Let\u2019s see how he holds up.\u201d Sadly, for this reader, Monument Rock didn\u2019t stack up all that well. The book is … Continue reading ‘Monument Rock,’ by Louis L’Amour<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[4432,4433],"class_list":["post-17510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-louis-lamour","tag-monument-rock"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17511,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17510\/revisions\/17511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}