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Hombre
Set in Arizona mining country, Hombre is the tale of a white man raised by Indians, who must come to the aid of people who hate him when their stagecoach is attacked by outlaws.
184 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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About the author
Elmore Leonard
202books3,514followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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July 7, 2023
UOMO BIANCO Vs MONDO
Paul Newman è Hombre. Nel film il gioco dell’età si perde completamente.
La situazione di partenza è archetipica del genere western: un gruppo di persone messe insieme da un viaggio in diligenza.
Cambia poco che invece di una normale diligenza si tratti di un carro adattato al trasporto di persone; e anche che la corsa sia per così dire eccezionale, l’ultima possibile, dato che la compagnia ha deciso di chiudere quella tratta perché anche la miniera è stata chiusa.
Gli indiani non ci sono, non attaccheranno la diligenza, e neppure il carro: ma la loro presenza è palpabile anche nell’assenza, in qualche modo è come se fossero loro i veri protagonisti.
Paul Newman Hombre in versione apache.
Altrettanto archetipica è la rapina: il carro/diligenza viene fermato da un piccolo gruppo di ladri armati che vogliono derubare i passeggeri.
Cambia poco che uno dei ladri sia tra i passeggeri, e che per occupare quel posto abbia in qualche modo eliminato un soldato (spaventandolo al punto da farsi cedere il suo biglietto).
Cambia poco che il denaro della rapina appartenga tutto a una sola persona che si è ben guardata dal dire che lo trasporta, ha inventato altre storie e scuse per giustificare la fretta e necessità del suo viaggio.
Altrettanto archetipica è la caccia che si mette in moto, attraverso il sud dell’Arizona, combattendo con caldo rovente di giorno e freddo intenso di notte, respingendo la sete � l’acqua diventa strumento di vita o morte.
Caccia che inizia perché la rapina non segue il piano previsto e i passeggeri riescono a scappare col denaro.
Ma devono farsela a piedi. E sono inseguiti da ladri a cavallo. E ladri che per forza di cose maneggiano le armi meglio della maggior parte dei passeggeri fuggitivi.
Ma anche in una situazione così archetipica, Leonard spariglia le carte e introduce la sua poetica.
Divide in due con una linea di demarcazione piuttosto netta i suoi passeggeri: da una parte i cattivi, o corrotti, o indecisi. E sono tutti al di sopra di una certa età: diciamo 30. Ma forse anche 25.
Tra loro, ovviamente, i rapinatori, la persona che trasporta il denaro, uomo corrotto: è l’agente governativo incaricato della locale riserva indiana che ha preso mazzette e sottratto soldi agli acquisti alimentari, in pratica affamando gli apache. Sua moglie flirta col capo dei ladri. L’uomo della compagnia di trasporto che guida il carro, che non sa agire, che non ha nerbo.
Dall’altra parte i tre giovani del gruppo, tutti sotto i 21 anni.
Il protagonista, quello a cui il titolo si riferisce, ventunenne, rapito dagli apache chiricahua quando era bambino, cresciuto da e con loro, poi tornato alla “civiltà�. Il suo nome è quello dell’uomo che lo ha per così dire adottato una volta che è stata “liberato� dalla schiavitù indiana, e lo ha reso erede di un piccolo ranch. È un bianco, ma viene scambiato per un indiano, perché ha la pelle abbronzata e ha i modi degli apache, prima di tutto l’abitudine a essere silenzioso.
Poi c’� la ragazzina di diciassette anni, anche lei ha subito sorte analoga, ma per qualche settimana invece che anno: è stata appena liberata e sta tornando in famiglia. È la coscienza critica della storia. Ci lascia capire che gli apache non sono stati affatto teneri e rispettosi con lei, né gli uomini né le donne. Elmore Leonard è lontano abissi dal mito del buon selvaggio: il fatto è che, buoni o cattivi, gli indiani esistono, abitavano la terra prima dell’arrivo dei bianchi, e i bianchi con armi e imbrogli li stanno sterminando.
Il terzo “buono� è il giovane narratore che lavora per la compagnia di trasporto, non ha mai sparato, e si sforza di raccontare la storia per come l’ha vista e vissuta.
I tre “buoni� sono portatori di un’integrità morale che non viene né sbandierata né proclamata. Un’integrità morale che si mostra in modo pragmatico: fare la cosa giusta. Senza sentimentalismi né false illusioni (wishful thinking).
Leonard presenta personaggi di questo tipo nel 1961, anticipando il western revisionista, e in qualche modo anticipando il grosso del movimento per i diritti civili (e umani). Semplicemente scegliendo di raccontare anche gli emarginati, i deboli, gli sfruttati. Scegliendo di raccontare il razzismo: Hombre è uno dei passeggeri � ma quando l’agente della riserva e sua moglie scoprono che è mezzo indiano, pretendono che non viaggi con loro ma stia seduto a cassetta col postiglione.
Leonard, senza enfasi né retorica, sceglie di mostrare l’umanità che il razzismo cancella: qui nei confronti degli indiani, in Arriva Valdez includendo anche messicani e afroamericani. In entrambi la donna appartiene alle categorie marginalizzate da “proteggere�.
Il film (1967) è altrettanto memorabile soprattutto grazie alla performance di Paul Newman, che è difficile scambiare per un apache, ma che si porta dietro con grazia naturale l’aura di giusto e buono. E anche quella sensazione che, nonostante il destino gli sia contrario, lotterà fino alla fine per fare la cosa giusta. Senza lanciare proclami. Sottotraccia.
Lo ha diretto Martin Ritt, una delle vittime delle black list nate per combattere l’invasione comunista degli Stati Uniti d’America.
Paul Newman è Hombre. Nel film il gioco dell’età si perde completamente.
La situazione di partenza è archetipica del genere western: un gruppo di persone messe insieme da un viaggio in diligenza.
Cambia poco che invece di una normale diligenza si tratti di un carro adattato al trasporto di persone; e anche che la corsa sia per così dire eccezionale, l’ultima possibile, dato che la compagnia ha deciso di chiudere quella tratta perché anche la miniera è stata chiusa.
Gli indiani non ci sono, non attaccheranno la diligenza, e neppure il carro: ma la loro presenza è palpabile anche nell’assenza, in qualche modo è come se fossero loro i veri protagonisti.
Paul Newman Hombre in versione apache.
Altrettanto archetipica è la rapina: il carro/diligenza viene fermato da un piccolo gruppo di ladri armati che vogliono derubare i passeggeri.
Cambia poco che uno dei ladri sia tra i passeggeri, e che per occupare quel posto abbia in qualche modo eliminato un soldato (spaventandolo al punto da farsi cedere il suo biglietto).
Cambia poco che il denaro della rapina appartenga tutto a una sola persona che si è ben guardata dal dire che lo trasporta, ha inventato altre storie e scuse per giustificare la fretta e necessità del suo viaggio.
Altrettanto archetipica è la caccia che si mette in moto, attraverso il sud dell’Arizona, combattendo con caldo rovente di giorno e freddo intenso di notte, respingendo la sete � l’acqua diventa strumento di vita o morte.
Caccia che inizia perché la rapina non segue il piano previsto e i passeggeri riescono a scappare col denaro.
Ma devono farsela a piedi. E sono inseguiti da ladri a cavallo. E ladri che per forza di cose maneggiano le armi meglio della maggior parte dei passeggeri fuggitivi.
Ma anche in una situazione così archetipica, Leonard spariglia le carte e introduce la sua poetica.
Divide in due con una linea di demarcazione piuttosto netta i suoi passeggeri: da una parte i cattivi, o corrotti, o indecisi. E sono tutti al di sopra di una certa età: diciamo 30. Ma forse anche 25.
Tra loro, ovviamente, i rapinatori, la persona che trasporta il denaro, uomo corrotto: è l’agente governativo incaricato della locale riserva indiana che ha preso mazzette e sottratto soldi agli acquisti alimentari, in pratica affamando gli apache. Sua moglie flirta col capo dei ladri. L’uomo della compagnia di trasporto che guida il carro, che non sa agire, che non ha nerbo.
Dall’altra parte i tre giovani del gruppo, tutti sotto i 21 anni.
Il protagonista, quello a cui il titolo si riferisce, ventunenne, rapito dagli apache chiricahua quando era bambino, cresciuto da e con loro, poi tornato alla “civiltà�. Il suo nome è quello dell’uomo che lo ha per così dire adottato una volta che è stata “liberato� dalla schiavitù indiana, e lo ha reso erede di un piccolo ranch. È un bianco, ma viene scambiato per un indiano, perché ha la pelle abbronzata e ha i modi degli apache, prima di tutto l’abitudine a essere silenzioso.
Poi c’� la ragazzina di diciassette anni, anche lei ha subito sorte analoga, ma per qualche settimana invece che anno: è stata appena liberata e sta tornando in famiglia. È la coscienza critica della storia. Ci lascia capire che gli apache non sono stati affatto teneri e rispettosi con lei, né gli uomini né le donne. Elmore Leonard è lontano abissi dal mito del buon selvaggio: il fatto è che, buoni o cattivi, gli indiani esistono, abitavano la terra prima dell’arrivo dei bianchi, e i bianchi con armi e imbrogli li stanno sterminando.
Il terzo “buono� è il giovane narratore che lavora per la compagnia di trasporto, non ha mai sparato, e si sforza di raccontare la storia per come l’ha vista e vissuta.
I tre “buoni� sono portatori di un’integrità morale che non viene né sbandierata né proclamata. Un’integrità morale che si mostra in modo pragmatico: fare la cosa giusta. Senza sentimentalismi né false illusioni (wishful thinking).
Leonard presenta personaggi di questo tipo nel 1961, anticipando il western revisionista, e in qualche modo anticipando il grosso del movimento per i diritti civili (e umani). Semplicemente scegliendo di raccontare anche gli emarginati, i deboli, gli sfruttati. Scegliendo di raccontare il razzismo: Hombre è uno dei passeggeri � ma quando l’agente della riserva e sua moglie scoprono che è mezzo indiano, pretendono che non viaggi con loro ma stia seduto a cassetta col postiglione.
Leonard, senza enfasi né retorica, sceglie di mostrare l’umanità che il razzismo cancella: qui nei confronti degli indiani, in Arriva Valdez includendo anche messicani e afroamericani. In entrambi la donna appartiene alle categorie marginalizzate da “proteggere�.
Il film (1967) è altrettanto memorabile soprattutto grazie alla performance di Paul Newman, che è difficile scambiare per un apache, ma che si porta dietro con grazia naturale l’aura di giusto e buono. E anche quella sensazione che, nonostante il destino gli sia contrario, lotterà fino alla fine per fare la cosa giusta. Senza lanciare proclami. Sottotraccia.
Lo ha diretto Martin Ritt, una delle vittime delle black list nate per combattere l’invasione comunista degli Stati Uniti d’America.
July 16, 2017
Elmore Leonard is synonymous with capers, cons and contemporary sharpies chasing bags of cash, but in the 1950s and '60s, in the days of pulp magazines, John Wayne at the picture show and Gunsmoke on the small screen, Leonard operated in the western genre. His beat was the Arizona Territory of the 1870s and his frontier pieces were more war stories or tales of survival than oaters. One of the more popular is Hombre, published in 1961. Novella length, this slim volume lacks the superlative humor or finesse of his crime novels and is clunky in fits, but is harrowing and stayed with me once it was over.
The tale is the first person account of Carl Allen, a young clerk with the Hatch & Hodges stage line. Stationed in Sweetmary, his office and all stagecoach service out of it has been closed due to competition from the railroads. And it seems that everyone wants out of town. There's 18-year-old Kathleen McLaren, rescued after one month's captivity by the Apache and returning to her family. Dr. Alexander Favor is a reverend by title contracted as an Indian agent by the government to sell beef to the reservations. His wife Mrs. Audra Favor is fifteen years in his junior and doesn't think much of Indians.
Anticipating he might learn something from Dr. Favor on the road to Bisbee and maybe get familiar with "the McLaren girl," the narrator proposes to his boss Henry Mendez that their "mud wagon" be conscripted into a stagecoach. Mr. Mendez volunteers for the job as driver, hoping the trek will compel a young mustanger named John Russell to accept some sound business advice Mendez has advised him to accept. Only 21 years old, Russell is a veteran of the Indian police and known as Tres Hombres for his fighting prowess. Though fluent in English, Spanish and Apache, he speaks little, letting his .56-56 Spencer rifle do his talking for him.
According to Mr. Mendez he was most likely three-parts white, as I have said, and the rest Mexican on his mother's side. John Russell himself had no memory of his father and only some memory of living in a Mexican village. Probably in Sonora. At that time they say the Apaches were forever raiding the little pueblos and carrying off whatever they needed, clothes, weapons, some women, and sometimes boys young enough to be brought up Apache-style. Which is what must have happened to John Russell. Piecing things together, he must have lived with them about from the time he was six to about age twelve.
Insisting he also be sold a ticket on the mud wagon is Frank Braden, a tough hombre who mistakes Russell for an Indian and tries bullying him out of his passage. Getting nowhere, Braden locks in on weaker prey, an ex-soldier trying to get home to his wife. Carl regrets not standing up for the soldier but when he asks Russell why he didn't do anything either, it's obvious that Tres Hombres is preoccupied with looking after A-Number One and letting someone else be a hero. In the stage, Braden makes some ungentlemanly comments to the McLaren girl concerning her experience with the Apaches, but Carl stops short of reprimanding the tough customer.
Stopping to refresh the horses at Delgado's station, the travelers are notified that three riders stopped earlier in the night. Dr. Favor presents concern and compels Mendez to alter their route to an old road past the abandoned San Pete Mine. Carl is dubious that bandits present a danger to their unscheduled charter, but Mendez agrees to change the route rather than argue about it. Sure enough, two armed men hold up the stage, assisted on the inside by . The target of their heist is an ill-gotten gain of $12,000 that Dr. Favor embezzled from the United States and from the Indians he was supposed to be buying beef for.
Russell is content to let the four bandits--which include two white trash ranch hands he's brawled with before and a Mexican--steal their horses and Mrs. Favor, but when one of them returns for their water, Russell does some talking with his Spencer rifle. Russell grabs his blanket roll and canteen and heads off in the opposite direction, leaving the others to do whatever pleases them. They follow him. Convinced that the three remaining bandits will be along for their water, tensions escalate, with no one save the enigmatic Tres Hombres sure of what they're capable of or what they'll have to do in order to survive.
"Finish it," I said, understanding him, but I guess not believing what he was asking us to do. "You mean try and kill them?"
"If they get close enough," Russell said, "they're going to kill you."
"But they didn't harm anybody before. Why would they want to now?"
"Do you want to give them your water?"
"They got water."
"Two canteens which they were drinking out of all day yesterday. Do you want to give them yours?"
"No, but--"
"Then they'll kill you for it."
Until then it seemed just a matter of running and getting away or running and being caught and they getting the money after all. But kill them or they would kill us? It was a terrible thing to think about and you couldn't help but looking for other ways. Run or hide. Run or hide. Those ways kept popping into your head while Russell just sat there looking down the draw and waiting.
Hombre is loaded to bear with mortal danger that Elmore Leonard does a terrific job of conveying to the reader. In addition to getting lost, running out of water or tiring out your ponies on the way to Bisbee, there's Frank Braden, a frontier menace. Braden reminded me of Lee Marvin as the title character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and his harassment escalates the existential crisis for the protagonists. As opposed to being nonstop action, Leonard's story exposes six characters to their mortality and each respond to it in different ways. The author's prose is spare and provided just enough description to make me trust that he knew this world and how it operated.
That said, Leonard could not have written a more passive narrator than the greenhorn at the center of this one. Russell barely acknowledges Carl, as if he knows this white man is useless, and even the McLaren girl he's sweet on doesn't mistake him for a man to depend on. Told in flashback as Carl gives his version of a survival story which has been spread throughout the west by newspapermen, Leonard foreshadows one event too many and deflates much of the suspense in the process. The action, though thrilling becomes a bit long in the tooth, with the long distances the characters are covering and their trepidation of getting too close to each other dragging out a story.
What I found compelling about Hombre was how visceral it is, with Death jumping the characters and pursuing them until the end. The title character who proves so vital to the survival of each character remains barely known to them, complicating their feelings about survival. The novel was the basis for a 1967 film adapted by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr., directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, all of whom collaborated bringing Larry McMurtry's novel Horseman Pass By to the screen as Hud in 1963. Well received critically and commercially, time has not been as kind to Hombre and it was not embraced by its author.
The tale is the first person account of Carl Allen, a young clerk with the Hatch & Hodges stage line. Stationed in Sweetmary, his office and all stagecoach service out of it has been closed due to competition from the railroads. And it seems that everyone wants out of town. There's 18-year-old Kathleen McLaren, rescued after one month's captivity by the Apache and returning to her family. Dr. Alexander Favor is a reverend by title contracted as an Indian agent by the government to sell beef to the reservations. His wife Mrs. Audra Favor is fifteen years in his junior and doesn't think much of Indians.
Anticipating he might learn something from Dr. Favor on the road to Bisbee and maybe get familiar with "the McLaren girl," the narrator proposes to his boss Henry Mendez that their "mud wagon" be conscripted into a stagecoach. Mr. Mendez volunteers for the job as driver, hoping the trek will compel a young mustanger named John Russell to accept some sound business advice Mendez has advised him to accept. Only 21 years old, Russell is a veteran of the Indian police and known as Tres Hombres for his fighting prowess. Though fluent in English, Spanish and Apache, he speaks little, letting his .56-56 Spencer rifle do his talking for him.
According to Mr. Mendez he was most likely three-parts white, as I have said, and the rest Mexican on his mother's side. John Russell himself had no memory of his father and only some memory of living in a Mexican village. Probably in Sonora. At that time they say the Apaches were forever raiding the little pueblos and carrying off whatever they needed, clothes, weapons, some women, and sometimes boys young enough to be brought up Apache-style. Which is what must have happened to John Russell. Piecing things together, he must have lived with them about from the time he was six to about age twelve.
Insisting he also be sold a ticket on the mud wagon is Frank Braden, a tough hombre who mistakes Russell for an Indian and tries bullying him out of his passage. Getting nowhere, Braden locks in on weaker prey, an ex-soldier trying to get home to his wife. Carl regrets not standing up for the soldier but when he asks Russell why he didn't do anything either, it's obvious that Tres Hombres is preoccupied with looking after A-Number One and letting someone else be a hero. In the stage, Braden makes some ungentlemanly comments to the McLaren girl concerning her experience with the Apaches, but Carl stops short of reprimanding the tough customer.
Stopping to refresh the horses at Delgado's station, the travelers are notified that three riders stopped earlier in the night. Dr. Favor presents concern and compels Mendez to alter their route to an old road past the abandoned San Pete Mine. Carl is dubious that bandits present a danger to their unscheduled charter, but Mendez agrees to change the route rather than argue about it. Sure enough, two armed men hold up the stage, assisted on the inside by . The target of their heist is an ill-gotten gain of $12,000 that Dr. Favor embezzled from the United States and from the Indians he was supposed to be buying beef for.
Russell is content to let the four bandits--which include two white trash ranch hands he's brawled with before and a Mexican--steal their horses and Mrs. Favor, but when one of them returns for their water, Russell does some talking with his Spencer rifle. Russell grabs his blanket roll and canteen and heads off in the opposite direction, leaving the others to do whatever pleases them. They follow him. Convinced that the three remaining bandits will be along for their water, tensions escalate, with no one save the enigmatic Tres Hombres sure of what they're capable of or what they'll have to do in order to survive.
"Finish it," I said, understanding him, but I guess not believing what he was asking us to do. "You mean try and kill them?"
"If they get close enough," Russell said, "they're going to kill you."
"But they didn't harm anybody before. Why would they want to now?"
"Do you want to give them your water?"
"They got water."
"Two canteens which they were drinking out of all day yesterday. Do you want to give them yours?"
"No, but--"
"Then they'll kill you for it."
Until then it seemed just a matter of running and getting away or running and being caught and they getting the money after all. But kill them or they would kill us? It was a terrible thing to think about and you couldn't help but looking for other ways. Run or hide. Run or hide. Those ways kept popping into your head while Russell just sat there looking down the draw and waiting.
Hombre is loaded to bear with mortal danger that Elmore Leonard does a terrific job of conveying to the reader. In addition to getting lost, running out of water or tiring out your ponies on the way to Bisbee, there's Frank Braden, a frontier menace. Braden reminded me of Lee Marvin as the title character in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and his harassment escalates the existential crisis for the protagonists. As opposed to being nonstop action, Leonard's story exposes six characters to their mortality and each respond to it in different ways. The author's prose is spare and provided just enough description to make me trust that he knew this world and how it operated.
That said, Leonard could not have written a more passive narrator than the greenhorn at the center of this one. Russell barely acknowledges Carl, as if he knows this white man is useless, and even the McLaren girl he's sweet on doesn't mistake him for a man to depend on. Told in flashback as Carl gives his version of a survival story which has been spread throughout the west by newspapermen, Leonard foreshadows one event too many and deflates much of the suspense in the process. The action, though thrilling becomes a bit long in the tooth, with the long distances the characters are covering and their trepidation of getting too close to each other dragging out a story.
What I found compelling about Hombre was how visceral it is, with Death jumping the characters and pursuing them until the end. The title character who proves so vital to the survival of each character remains barely known to them, complicating their feelings about survival. The novel was the basis for a 1967 film adapted by Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr., directed by Martin Ritt and starring Paul Newman, all of whom collaborated bringing Larry McMurtry's novel Horseman Pass By to the screen as Hud in 1963. Well received critically and commercially, time has not been as kind to Hombre and it was not embraced by its author.
March 10, 2017
It's always a tricky thing reviewing an Elmore Leonard novel. His writing is usually so efficient and effortless that it doesn't seem like he's doing much but his stories sneak up on you anyway. I always struggle to go into detail about why I like the books, other than to say that I really enjoyed the story. He was able to buff and polish his style until the form became invisible and only story shined through. Donald Westlake was the same way in his work. Although there haven't been any Leonard books so far that have blown me away, I can definitely say I've enjoyed the five that I've read. Hombre, considered one of Leonard's classics, is no different. It's a simple plot, about a group of travelers in a mud wagon stagecoach who are stalked by road agents after a satchel of stolen money. Leonard's spare style and his use of first-person (his only novel to use that POV), is effective at lending the story it's mythic tone. It's deceptively uncomplicated and well-paced, right up to it's great final act.
January 5, 2025
Fans of Elmore Leonard's later works, mostly crime and police procedurals, may be surprised to learn that the expertly crafted dialogue and characterizations of his later books and stories began in a western setting.
Here, Leonard describes the laconic and quietly heroic John Russell, the eponymous Hombre. Russell had been raised by people of the Apache nation and members of the local Arizona territory community are not sure what to do with him or how to treat him. When outlaws rob a stagecoach, Russell finds himself in the awkward position of assisting the same people who earlier would not give him the time of day.
But even in 1961, Leonard was too good to just tell this straight and he mixes in plenty of backstory and subplots to keep this already slim volume moving. He explores crime and cruelty and justice and also the harsh realities of the west. Told from a first person perspective of a fellow passenger, we have a third party describing the accolades due to Russell and shame at how he was treated, though Leonard provides an objective narrative on plenty of human rights violations all around.
An excellent, literary western.
Here, Leonard describes the laconic and quietly heroic John Russell, the eponymous Hombre. Russell had been raised by people of the Apache nation and members of the local Arizona territory community are not sure what to do with him or how to treat him. When outlaws rob a stagecoach, Russell finds himself in the awkward position of assisting the same people who earlier would not give him the time of day.
But even in 1961, Leonard was too good to just tell this straight and he mixes in plenty of backstory and subplots to keep this already slim volume moving. He explores crime and cruelty and justice and also the harsh realities of the west. Told from a first person perspective of a fellow passenger, we have a third party describing the accolades due to Russell and shame at how he was treated, though Leonard provides an objective narrative on plenty of human rights violations all around.
An excellent, literary western.
March 31, 2022
Oh, Man...
January 12, 2025
Leonard deftly explores themes of prejudice, cruelty and justice in the starkest of terms. He viscerally illustrates the thin veneer of civilized society in a barren, harsh setting. While many folk may rationally comprehend what's required to survive in a desperate kill-or-be-killed situation, actually accepting and acting on such knowledge goes beyond what most are capable of. Not the Hombre.
November 13, 2023
who he really was
🏜️A powerful story about a standoff in the desert - the men who want the money from a stagecoach, money that belongs to the Apache of the San Carlos Reservation; the passengers hiding with it up a small hill; the men surrounding them.
The one passenger prepared to fight the men to the death is John Russell who was raised by the Apache. No matter what, he is going to make sure that money gets back to where it belongs.
That is the story. Those who thought they knew him didn’t, but by the end the other passengers found out who he really was.
🏜️A powerful story about a standoff in the desert - the men who want the money from a stagecoach, money that belongs to the Apache of the San Carlos Reservation; the passengers hiding with it up a small hill; the men surrounding them.
The one passenger prepared to fight the men to the death is John Russell who was raised by the Apache. No matter what, he is going to make sure that money gets back to where it belongs.
That is the story. Those who thought they knew him didn’t, but by the end the other passengers found out who he really was.
May 9, 2023
Why John Russell Is Hombre
The crime and suspense novelist Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) began as a writer of westerns. The Library of America has recently published a volume of four Leonard western novels, including "Hombre", and eight short stories to accompany its three earlier volumes of Leonard's crime fiction.
Although an early work, "Hombre" may be Leonard's best-known novel. First published in 1961 as a paperback original, "Hombre" became famous in the 1967 film adaptation starring Paul Newman as John Russell, 21, who through the book and the film is known simply as "Hombre". The story turns on the nature of the nickname "Hombre" and on why John Russell has earned it.
The book is stylistically unique among Leonard's output in that it is recounted in the first person. The narrator, Carl Everett Allen, 21 as is Russell, is a naive, callow young man. He recounts the origins of his story in a brief preface to the reader which explains that Russell's nickname of "hombre" or "man" best describes Russell's character. Early in his story, 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." Allen repeats Mendez' words at the conclusion of his story, after the reader has come to know Russell for him or herself.
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 Tribe. 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 an Apache. But when outlaws hold up the stagecoach. the passengers realize that they need Russell's help and familiarity with weaponry and terrain in order to survive.
In the course of the stagecoach journey, the novel develops many different characters. These include Mendez,the driver who has told the narrator about Russell that "you will never see another like him as long as you live". The passengers include include 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 Apaches and is returning home, the narrator, who travels in search of a new job and success, a mysterious, sinister figure named Brandon, and Russell, the "Hombre" himself. The story explores the characters' varied reactions to the precarious situation in which they find themselves in the Arizona desert pursued by outlaws.
Hombre 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 danger from the outlaws, dissension among those on the stagecoach, and threats to the groups' survival, Hombre assumes the role of the decision maker. His decisions 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 tough-minded perspective is frequently juxtaposed with that of the tender-hearted "McClaren girl".
The book describes the starkness of the Arizona desert. It includes a great deal of building dramatic tension and violence as the story works to a climax. The book is taut and reads quickly. 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 enigmatic but heroic and ultimately as a tragic figure.
Leonard's story of Russell and of how he earns the name "Hombre" has many aspects of the formulaic Western, but it also shows the genre at its best. The book amply deserves its inclusion in the Library of America.
Robin Friedman
The crime and suspense novelist Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) began as a writer of westerns. The Library of America has recently published a volume of four Leonard western novels, including "Hombre", and eight short stories to accompany its three earlier volumes of Leonard's crime fiction.
Although an early work, "Hombre" may be Leonard's best-known novel. First published in 1961 as a paperback original, "Hombre" became famous in the 1967 film adaptation starring Paul Newman as John Russell, 21, who through the book and the film is known simply as "Hombre". The story turns on the nature of the nickname "Hombre" and on why John Russell has earned it.
The book is stylistically unique among Leonard's output in that it is recounted in the first person. The narrator, Carl Everett Allen, 21 as is Russell, is a naive, callow young man. He recounts the origins of his story in a brief preface to the reader which explains that Russell's nickname of "hombre" or "man" best describes Russell's character. Early in his story, 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." Allen repeats Mendez' words at the conclusion of his story, after the reader has come to know Russell for him or herself.
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 Tribe. 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 an Apache. But when outlaws hold up the stagecoach. the passengers realize that they need Russell's help and familiarity with weaponry and terrain in order to survive.
In the course of the stagecoach journey, the novel develops many different characters. These include Mendez,the driver who has told the narrator about Russell that "you will never see another like him as long as you live". The passengers include include 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 Apaches and is returning home, the narrator, who travels in search of a new job and success, a mysterious, sinister figure named Brandon, and Russell, the "Hombre" himself. The story explores the characters' varied reactions to the precarious situation in which they find themselves in the Arizona desert pursued by outlaws.
Hombre 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 danger from the outlaws, dissension among those on the stagecoach, and threats to the groups' survival, Hombre assumes the role of the decision maker. His decisions 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 tough-minded perspective is frequently juxtaposed with that of the tender-hearted "McClaren girl".
The book describes the starkness of the Arizona desert. It includes a great deal of building dramatic tension and violence as the story works to a climax. The book is taut and reads quickly. 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 enigmatic but heroic and ultimately as a tragic figure.
Leonard's story of Russell and of how he earns the name "Hombre" has many aspects of the formulaic Western, but it also shows the genre at its best. The book amply deserves its inclusion in the Library of America.
Robin Friedman
February 5, 2024
04/2021
From 1961
Seemed to have the structure, set in a classic Western world, of The Great Gatsby. Just in that the first person narrator, here Carl Allen, tells the story of the hero, the titular Hombre, John Russell. You know, like Nick Carroway and Jay Gatsby. So at some point I was like, I think I know how this has to end.
From 1961
Seemed to have the structure, set in a classic Western world, of The Great Gatsby. Just in that the first person narrator, here Carl Allen, tells the story of the hero, the titular Hombre, John Russell. You know, like Nick Carroway and Jay Gatsby. So at some point I was like, I think I know how this has to end.
October 23, 2014
An excellent book made into a movie that followed it very closely starring Paul Newman. It just doesn't get any better than that. It's a western, very realistic & gritty.
Leonard's characters are all flawed in such interesting ways. The hero is a halfbreed who resents the hell out of the world & makes life hard on himself because he won't communicate. It's not stupid, but understandable the way Leonard writes it. The logic of each character is remorseless. Like a train wreck, you can see it coming but it is inexorable, so all you can do is watch in fascination & wonder about the details.
Leonard's characters are all flawed in such interesting ways. The hero is a halfbreed who resents the hell out of the world & makes life hard on himself because he won't communicate. It's not stupid, but understandable the way Leonard writes it. The logic of each character is remorseless. Like a train wreck, you can see it coming but it is inexorable, so all you can do is watch in fascination & wonder about the details.
July 9, 2014
Okey, dokey guys. This is the first western I've ever read and I loved it. However, it's by Elmore Leonard and there are not many books by EL that I haven't enjoyed.
I will read again; it went right back on my "to read again" shelf because I wasn't feeling well and mind wandered.
Can't believe that 1) I read a western; 2) I loved the main character; and 3) there was a story to tell, a well-crafted story. No surprises there, it was by the Master, Elmore Leonard.
I will read again; it went right back on my "to read again" shelf because I wasn't feeling well and mind wandered.
Can't believe that 1) I read a western; 2) I loved the main character; and 3) there was a story to tell, a well-crafted story. No surprises there, it was by the Master, Elmore Leonard.
January 20, 2019
"You can look at something for a long time and not see it until it has moved or run off."
- Elmore Leonard, Hombre
Book two in Library of America's: . Hombre, published in 1961, has the feel almost of a locked-room mystery. Except instead of a room, it is a mud coach (think a lighter version of a stage coach). The hero is John Russell, an Apache-raised white man. The story is narrated by a young, innocent man whose vision of Russell changes (along with the rest of the coach passengers) after the coach is held-up and the passengers are left for dead.
One of Leonard's big themes in this book is predudice and our expectations of others based on class and background. Like many of Leonard's novels, this one was made into a movie (starring Paul Newman) in 1967.
- Elmore Leonard, Hombre
Book two in Library of America's: . Hombre, published in 1961, has the feel almost of a locked-room mystery. Except instead of a room, it is a mud coach (think a lighter version of a stage coach). The hero is John Russell, an Apache-raised white man. The story is narrated by a young, innocent man whose vision of Russell changes (along with the rest of the coach passengers) after the coach is held-up and the passengers are left for dead.
One of Leonard's big themes in this book is predudice and our expectations of others based on class and background. Like many of Leonard's novels, this one was made into a movie (starring Paul Newman) in 1967.
February 9, 2013
Hombre means man! Paul Newman is Hombre! - Movie tagline
Elmore Leonard wrote westerns?! The cool guy responsible for the great 90s movies Jackie Brown, Out of Sight and Get Shorty used to write in an old man's genre? Incredible. It was news to me when they remade 3:10 To Yuma and over the past several months I've dabbled with the genre a little, this being my eighth experience. I've heard it said that Leonard did this stuff better than anybody and Hombre is perhaps his finest work within the western field, if that is true I think I may be done with Westerns now.
This is the novel that was faithfully adapted in to a fine revisionist movie starring Paul Newman as Hombre. Essentially it is the story of a stagecoach holdup written by one of the passengers some months after the events. John Russell is a white man who was raised by Apaches and is shunned by the white folk on board but events conspire to leave their fates in his hands.
Leonard set his story against a vividly evoked landscape and captured a sense of the wild and unforgiving nature of the people and the land they inhabit with multiple well rounded characters, interesting people yet all flawed in some way, John Russell especially. This is your traditional western tale of good and evil but it is not so clear cut who is good and who is evil, and the concept of morality is murky at best and that is what makes this and other revisionist westerns so much more interesting than your Louis L'Amour's et al.
I don't watch John Wayne movies but I do watch Clint Eastwood's, there's a very real difference between the two and the same can be said for Leonard's western novels when placed against the majority of the genre.
This is was an entertaing read, enjoyable distraction with the kind of message that will make you question your own beliefs and morals if you feel like interacting with the text to that degree, but if this is the best the genre has to offer (True Grit aside) I just don't feel the need to come back when there's so many impressive, powerful novels in other genres that will take my breath away.
Elmore Leonard wrote westerns?! The cool guy responsible for the great 90s movies Jackie Brown, Out of Sight and Get Shorty used to write in an old man's genre? Incredible. It was news to me when they remade 3:10 To Yuma and over the past several months I've dabbled with the genre a little, this being my eighth experience. I've heard it said that Leonard did this stuff better than anybody and Hombre is perhaps his finest work within the western field, if that is true I think I may be done with Westerns now.
This is the novel that was faithfully adapted in to a fine revisionist movie starring Paul Newman as Hombre. Essentially it is the story of a stagecoach holdup written by one of the passengers some months after the events. John Russell is a white man who was raised by Apaches and is shunned by the white folk on board but events conspire to leave their fates in his hands.
Leonard set his story against a vividly evoked landscape and captured a sense of the wild and unforgiving nature of the people and the land they inhabit with multiple well rounded characters, interesting people yet all flawed in some way, John Russell especially. This is your traditional western tale of good and evil but it is not so clear cut who is good and who is evil, and the concept of morality is murky at best and that is what makes this and other revisionist westerns so much more interesting than your Louis L'Amour's et al.
I don't watch John Wayne movies but I do watch Clint Eastwood's, there's a very real difference between the two and the same can be said for Leonard's western novels when placed against the majority of the genre.
This is was an entertaing read, enjoyable distraction with the kind of message that will make you question your own beliefs and morals if you feel like interacting with the text to that degree, but if this is the best the genre has to offer (True Grit aside) I just don't feel the need to come back when there's so many impressive, powerful novels in other genres that will take my breath away.
July 10, 2011
Loved it. Certainly a classic Western as it's often touted, Hombre was published in 1961. It is Elmore Leonard's only first person point-of-view novel, according to his 1989 Introduction to The Armchair Detective Library edition I read. Believe it or not, my local public library still shelved it in their holdings. The Apache-raised white John Russell is a perplexing protagonist given his stoic, pragmatic outlook. I liked the narrator's voice, brisk pace, steady build up, and gut-felt climax. Did I say I dug Hombre? I've seen the movie Hombre with Paul Newman, also, which is also quite excellent.
November 25, 2019
``Echa un buen vistazo a Rusell. No volverás a ver a otro como él en tu vida´´. Aquel primer día, en la posta de Delgado, Henry Mendez lo había dicho todo.
Diligencias, forajidos descorazonados, héroes silenciosos y estoicos, apaches, sol, desierto, agentes indios, botines de miles de dólares, minas abandonadas... Estos y muchos más elementos del western clásico son conjugados con maestría por Elmore Leonard alrededor de un pequeño grupo de personajes. Todos ellos deben recorrer tres noches de distancia hacia el sur de la frontera en Arizona. Lo que les ocurrirá durante el viaje no lo olvidarán nunca, poniendo al límite su instinto de supervivencia. En esa diligencia viaja Jonh Rusell, Hombre, un anglomexicano, que ha pasado toda su infancia con los indios apaches, aprendiendo todo de ellos. Todos los viajeros agradecerán al terminar su aventura que Hombre decidiera montarse en ella aquel día soleado en Sweetmary.
Es un hombre callado, de respuestas lacónicas, cruel por fuera, profundamente justo y abnegado en su interior. Un hombre que tendría justificación para tener todos los prejuicios que quisiese, sin embargo, no tiene ninguno. Extremadamente severo en sus comportamientos y sus declaraciones, sin jamás importarle lo que el resto piense de el. Lo que lejos de hacerlo un desalmado, lo hace justo, de hondas convicciones, estoico y tremendamente inteligente para sacar adelante lo que muy en su interior cree que es correcto y bueno. Sin alardes. Sin postureos. Todo él destila autenticidad, seguridad, abnegación y tenacidad. Exactamente lo que es para mi este y muchos otros westerns, relatos como excusa para mostrar y honrar las mas hondas virtudes del alma humana. Larga vida al western.
Diligencias, forajidos descorazonados, héroes silenciosos y estoicos, apaches, sol, desierto, agentes indios, botines de miles de dólares, minas abandonadas... Estos y muchos más elementos del western clásico son conjugados con maestría por Elmore Leonard alrededor de un pequeño grupo de personajes. Todos ellos deben recorrer tres noches de distancia hacia el sur de la frontera en Arizona. Lo que les ocurrirá durante el viaje no lo olvidarán nunca, poniendo al límite su instinto de supervivencia. En esa diligencia viaja Jonh Rusell, Hombre, un anglomexicano, que ha pasado toda su infancia con los indios apaches, aprendiendo todo de ellos. Todos los viajeros agradecerán al terminar su aventura que Hombre decidiera montarse en ella aquel día soleado en Sweetmary.
Es un hombre callado, de respuestas lacónicas, cruel por fuera, profundamente justo y abnegado en su interior. Un hombre que tendría justificación para tener todos los prejuicios que quisiese, sin embargo, no tiene ninguno. Extremadamente severo en sus comportamientos y sus declaraciones, sin jamás importarle lo que el resto piense de el. Lo que lejos de hacerlo un desalmado, lo hace justo, de hondas convicciones, estoico y tremendamente inteligente para sacar adelante lo que muy en su interior cree que es correcto y bueno. Sin alardes. Sin postureos. Todo él destila autenticidad, seguridad, abnegación y tenacidad. Exactamente lo que es para mi este y muchos otros westerns, relatos como excusa para mostrar y honrar las mas hondas virtudes del alma humana. Larga vida al western.
January 13, 2016
3.5 actual rating
The early western works of Elmore Leonard read like one of the old spaghetti westerns on tv. It was an easy read and good overall but there was just not enough action taking place for me to give it a full 4 stars.
The early western works of Elmore Leonard read like one of the old spaghetti westerns on tv. It was an easy read and good overall but there was just not enough action taking place for me to give it a full 4 stars.
July 9, 2016
Hombre is a unique book when taken in context with the other books that I’ve read by Leonard. His writing style felt like it was adjusted to match the dryness of the Arizona desert as well as the solitude of its main character, John Russell. Both, the character and his setting seemed to be intertwined through the pages, serving each other throughout the story.
The story is thought provoking. Leonard gambles with the lives of all his characters and in doing so, repeatedly pits the value of one life against another. He makes it easy to fall into this gambit and once inside it’s impossible to climb back out. He makes the end a relief but the end also provokes the biggest question of the book: John Russell.
With John Russell, Leonard once again creates a distinct human persona. The intrigue with Russell is associated with his actions, which were the final outcome of a host of personal feelings. Various portions of selfishness, kindness, disgust, and pity shaped his every move creating a complexity that mirrors real life. This complexity is maintained until the very end, when one of the supporting characters, the narrator of the story, thinks he has John Russell figured out, but even now, I still have my doubts.
The story is thought provoking. Leonard gambles with the lives of all his characters and in doing so, repeatedly pits the value of one life against another. He makes it easy to fall into this gambit and once inside it’s impossible to climb back out. He makes the end a relief but the end also provokes the biggest question of the book: John Russell.
With John Russell, Leonard once again creates a distinct human persona. The intrigue with Russell is associated with his actions, which were the final outcome of a host of personal feelings. Various portions of selfishness, kindness, disgust, and pity shaped his every move creating a complexity that mirrors real life. This complexity is maintained until the very end, when one of the supporting characters, the narrator of the story, thinks he has John Russell figured out, but even now, I still have my doubts.
November 4, 2021
Man, this is a tight story that builds tension with each new paragraph. Leonard was a master. He created a believable voice in the Carl's first person and structured the narrative to boil over just in the last couple of pages.
Lean and mean. Tough to beat.
Lean and mean. Tough to beat.
November 10, 2014
HOMBRE was a huge leap forward for Elmore Leonard, in my opinion. His first four novels were all solid, well-written Westerns, but with very little that made them stand out from the hundreds of other Westerns at the time. I'm a fan of those early ones for their remarkable compactness and directness of style, but HOMBRE is the first one that feels really different, not just in its themes but in the way Leonard approaches the characters.
It's unique also in that it's the first (and only) one written in first person. Later, Leonard would vow never to write in first person again, but it works really well in this one. It's narrated by a former stage coach company clerk, riding along on an emergency journey with a disparate group of people-- his former boss Mendez, a fiery tempered young woman who has just been rescued from captivity by Apaches, a shady Indian Affairs agent named Favor and Favor's wife, an even shadier gunman with dubious intentions named Braden, and the "Hombre" of the title: the taciturn John Russell.
Russell is a source of anxiety for the passengers, being a white man who was raised Apache but is now about to give a shot at living in the white man's world. He is barely tolerated by the bigoted Mr. and Mrs. Favor, until the gunman Braden reveals his true intentions; he is part of a gang lying in wait to steal the money Favor had embezzled from his post as an Indian Affairs agent. With their lives on the line, Russell must lead the group to safety across the hostile landscape of Arizona, with the outlaws in close pursuit.
There's some very good action in HOMBRE, but more than anything else this novel is a character study. Of all the central characters, but most especially of John Russell. He is an enigma to the others, a silent and stoic presence who refuses to submit to the opinions of the others or to placate them with false pretensions. They hate him, they fear him, but they NEED him. And by the end of HOMBRE, they finally learn what kind of man he actually is. And it's something none of them could ever even aspire to.
Mark this as one of my favorites of Elmore Leonard's Westerns. Looking at his bibliography, it seems he took a break from writing fiction for several years after this, some eight years, and when he did return to fiction he concentrated mostly on modern day crime thrillers. But between 1970 and '79, he wrote three more Westerns, all far superior to his earlier work in the genre. That great streak started with HOMBRE.
It's unique also in that it's the first (and only) one written in first person. Later, Leonard would vow never to write in first person again, but it works really well in this one. It's narrated by a former stage coach company clerk, riding along on an emergency journey with a disparate group of people-- his former boss Mendez, a fiery tempered young woman who has just been rescued from captivity by Apaches, a shady Indian Affairs agent named Favor and Favor's wife, an even shadier gunman with dubious intentions named Braden, and the "Hombre" of the title: the taciturn John Russell.
Russell is a source of anxiety for the passengers, being a white man who was raised Apache but is now about to give a shot at living in the white man's world. He is barely tolerated by the bigoted Mr. and Mrs. Favor, until the gunman Braden reveals his true intentions; he is part of a gang lying in wait to steal the money Favor had embezzled from his post as an Indian Affairs agent. With their lives on the line, Russell must lead the group to safety across the hostile landscape of Arizona, with the outlaws in close pursuit.
There's some very good action in HOMBRE, but more than anything else this novel is a character study. Of all the central characters, but most especially of John Russell. He is an enigma to the others, a silent and stoic presence who refuses to submit to the opinions of the others or to placate them with false pretensions. They hate him, they fear him, but they NEED him. And by the end of HOMBRE, they finally learn what kind of man he actually is. And it's something none of them could ever even aspire to.
Mark this as one of my favorites of Elmore Leonard's Westerns. Looking at his bibliography, it seems he took a break from writing fiction for several years after this, some eight years, and when he did return to fiction he concentrated mostly on modern day crime thrillers. But between 1970 and '79, he wrote three more Westerns, all far superior to his earlier work in the genre. That great streak started with HOMBRE.
July 25, 2024
"If he tries to leave with nothing, shoot him once. If he takes the saddle bag, shoot him twice. If he picks up the water, empty your gun."
Continuing my complete reading of Elmore Leonard. A great early novel and my second Western overall. It's more like crime fiction disguised as a western! Of course 'the crime' is only the backdrop for a great character driven story told through a rare first person narrator for Leonard.
Thrilling when it needed to be and takes off best when our main characters interaction with each other directly. Some of the foreshadowing provided by our narrator takes takes bit of the suspense out toward the end, but it's a great read overall. I can see why it holds up as one of the best in the Western genre and signs of great things to come for Leonard the author.
Continuing my complete reading of Elmore Leonard. A great early novel and my second Western overall. It's more like crime fiction disguised as a western! Of course 'the crime' is only the backdrop for a great character driven story told through a rare first person narrator for Leonard.
Thrilling when it needed to be and takes off best when our main characters interaction with each other directly. Some of the foreshadowing provided by our narrator takes takes bit of the suspense out toward the end, but it's a great read overall. I can see why it holds up as one of the best in the Western genre and signs of great things to come for Leonard the author.
April 26, 2009
A really exciting western novel. The lead character is part Apache and all gunslinger. He's the ultimate reluctant hero. One of Leonard's best westerns.
February 25, 2014
Somehow I thought this was Elmore Leonard's first novel. In fact, it was his fifth. He began publishing Westerns in 1953 with The Bounty Hunters. But for me Hombre is a good place to start.
Hombre was the name given to John Russell, a tough and fearless white man raised partly by Apaches. The story is set in Arizona mining country complete with stage coaches, outlaws, and a big pile of money over which the other main characters commit violence and crime.
I hadn't known that Leonard started out with Westerns. Though his style is not as flashy as it became, the voice is recognizable as is the timing of the plot and the hint of philosophy underlying it.
A movie version starring Paul Newman was released in 1967 but since I have not yet seen it, the climax in the novel came as a complete surprise to me. Hombre is a hero alright but with Elmore Leonard's brand on him.
August 30, 2013
In the middle of reading Singer's The Manor, hanging Around 19th century Poles, I sort of stumbled into Hombre on my Nook at the doctor's office. A few pages and I was hooked. What wonderfully crafted language and characters, along with a plot that's impossible to put down.
Always a big Paul Newman fan, I vaguely remember the movie, in which he played the title character. It was good, but I don't think it began to define the characters the way the book does.
It's only about a hundred pages, and I got it very chap from BookBub, I think, although I don't know if it's still available. Now back to Poland...
Always a big Paul Newman fan, I vaguely remember the movie, in which he played the title character. It was good, but I don't think it began to define the characters the way the book does.
It's only about a hundred pages, and I got it very chap from BookBub, I think, although I don't know if it's still available. Now back to Poland...
February 24, 2016
Brutal western about a stagecoach robbery.
May 7, 2021
Rightfully so, Elmore Leonard is best known for his crime fiction, but Leonard was not always a mystery writer. He began his career, in fact, as a writer of western novels and short stories, and he made significant contributions to that genre. And, just as with his crime novels, several of Leonard’s westerns were chosen by Hollywood producers to become major movies of the day. Hombre, written in 1961, was one of those so chosen, and in 1967 it became a feature film starring Paul Newman as “Hombre,� a white man who had been raised by his Apache kidnappers.
“Maybe he let us think a lot of things about him that weren’t true. But as Russell would say, that was up to us. He let people do or think what they wanted while he smoked a cigarette and thought it out calmly, without his feelings getting mixed up in it. Russell never changed the whole time, though I think everyone else did in some way. He did what he felt had to be done. Even if it meant dying. So maybe you don’t have to understand him. You just know him.�
As a boy, John Russell was taken from his family by Apaches who made him one of their own. Now, Russell so easily passes for Apache that the light color of his eyes is the only startling thing about his physical appearance. Russell continued to live with the tribe even when it was eventually forced onto the reservation, so for all practical purposes he considers himself to be Apache - not white. But now, John Russell, sporting a fresh haircut and dressed as a white man, is on a personal mission of his own, and he finds himself on a small stagecoach making its final run across that part of Arizona.
When the other passengers realize who John Russell really is, they want nothing to do with him � even to forcing him to ride atop the coach with its driver. The passengers include a young woman who has just been recaptured from the Apaches who had held and abused her for several weeks, another woman and her Indian Agent husband who has a secret of his own, and an intimidating cowboy who bullied his way into the stage at the last minute. Russell, who has little other choice, tolerates the abuse, but he’s listening to their words � and he’s taking notes.
But then everything changes.
Suddenly, the passengers are begrudgingly depending on John Russell to keep them alive. And John Russell is probably just as surprised as they are to find himself defending a bunch of people who hate him so much.
Bottom Line: Hombre is significant in the degree to which it exposes the exploitation and deadly abuse suffered by the Indian tribes at the hands of those who continually invaded their lands, and it is highly sympathetic to that point of view. It is also a novel about the foolishness and hypocrisy of any kind of racism that happens to have been written in the midst of America’s civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties � and the timing was no accident. This is a reminder of just how good and impactful a western novel can be, and I highly recommend it.
“Maybe he let us think a lot of things about him that weren’t true. But as Russell would say, that was up to us. He let people do or think what they wanted while he smoked a cigarette and thought it out calmly, without his feelings getting mixed up in it. Russell never changed the whole time, though I think everyone else did in some way. He did what he felt had to be done. Even if it meant dying. So maybe you don’t have to understand him. You just know him.�
As a boy, John Russell was taken from his family by Apaches who made him one of their own. Now, Russell so easily passes for Apache that the light color of his eyes is the only startling thing about his physical appearance. Russell continued to live with the tribe even when it was eventually forced onto the reservation, so for all practical purposes he considers himself to be Apache - not white. But now, John Russell, sporting a fresh haircut and dressed as a white man, is on a personal mission of his own, and he finds himself on a small stagecoach making its final run across that part of Arizona.
When the other passengers realize who John Russell really is, they want nothing to do with him � even to forcing him to ride atop the coach with its driver. The passengers include a young woman who has just been recaptured from the Apaches who had held and abused her for several weeks, another woman and her Indian Agent husband who has a secret of his own, and an intimidating cowboy who bullied his way into the stage at the last minute. Russell, who has little other choice, tolerates the abuse, but he’s listening to their words � and he’s taking notes.
But then everything changes.
Suddenly, the passengers are begrudgingly depending on John Russell to keep them alive. And John Russell is probably just as surprised as they are to find himself defending a bunch of people who hate him so much.
Bottom Line: Hombre is significant in the degree to which it exposes the exploitation and deadly abuse suffered by the Indian tribes at the hands of those who continually invaded their lands, and it is highly sympathetic to that point of view. It is also a novel about the foolishness and hypocrisy of any kind of racism that happens to have been written in the midst of America’s civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties � and the timing was no accident. This is a reminder of just how good and impactful a western novel can be, and I highly recommend it.
June 15, 2020
Apparenly i have read this novel before when i became Leonard fan early 2010s.
I was impressed by the high quality of the western short stories in his complete Western short stories collection. For a writer whose greatness i first saw in the crime,noir novels of his with lowlifes.
Hombre is pretty simple story but the writing,the character of John Russell is much more memorable to me this time. I saw more in the clean,unaffected prose style than the first time i read this book. Back then i hadnt read much westerns, didnt know usually those writers are not in the same league as EL. I saw more in the prejudice of the other white characters in the story to Russell. Just because he grew up among the Apaches. The politics of that time toward the native americans was not hidden in EL short novel about a good man. I found it fascinating when Kathleen McClaren couldnt understand how Russell compared the lives of poor native americans in the Reservation to the lifes, death of "good",white people like her, Dr Favor's wife,Carl Allen, Dr, Favor.
I read this in the great Hardcover edition by Library of America, Leonard's westerns. I got it mostly to read Valdes is Coming, collect his best westerns. Next im reading Valdes is Coming, i hope he isnt as unlucky as poor John Russell.
I was impressed by the high quality of the western short stories in his complete Western short stories collection. For a writer whose greatness i first saw in the crime,noir novels of his with lowlifes.
Hombre is pretty simple story but the writing,the character of John Russell is much more memorable to me this time. I saw more in the clean,unaffected prose style than the first time i read this book. Back then i hadnt read much westerns, didnt know usually those writers are not in the same league as EL. I saw more in the prejudice of the other white characters in the story to Russell. Just because he grew up among the Apaches. The politics of that time toward the native americans was not hidden in EL short novel about a good man. I found it fascinating when Kathleen McClaren couldnt understand how Russell compared the lives of poor native americans in the Reservation to the lifes, death of "good",white people like her, Dr Favor's wife,Carl Allen, Dr, Favor.
I read this in the great Hardcover edition by Library of America, Leonard's westerns. I got it mostly to read Valdes is Coming, collect his best westerns. Next im reading Valdes is Coming, i hope he isnt as unlucky as poor John Russell.
June 3, 2024
If you’ve seen the 1967 movie, it’ll be tough not to have have stamped in your mind Paul Newman as John Russell. This is a taut, economical read with an all-consuming final chapter.
May 4, 2011
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but when I was staring down the shelf of Western paperbacks, trying to find one that could fill a class requirement while causing me a minimum of mental agony, you’d better believe I was trying. A muted color scheme with simple, commanding fonts versus a cacophony of color and an overly-stylized typeface? A “classic� with blurbs from high-browed literary institutions versus #248 in a series? And most importantly, a solitary horseback rider in a barren landscape versus a swooning bargirl (complete with garter and bustier) and a mustachioed hero?
Oh, I was judging.
And I was judging ALL westerns, not just the pulp series that I quickly rejected. This was an academic exercise to be endured. Westerns are formulaic, mindless morality plays, where the good guys kill the bad guys (who are, often as not, those pesky "Injuns"), rescue gold-hearted prostitutes, and generally ooze testosterone from their very pores�
…r?
Well, sort of. There are definitely characteristics that make a western a western, and themes of justice and morality are definitely central to the genre. However, in the hands of talented authors, good and evil are not clear cut, and the concept of morality can be murky at best. The setting is most often the historical west, the dialogue sparse, and the most prosaic passages saved for describing the land. But beyond these basics, there is wide range of literary talent—as is true with any genre. The book I ultimately chose to read, Elmore Leonard’s Hombre, is a fine example of a writer working within the genre conventions, while playing with traditional concepts.
The story of John Russell (the titular “hombre�) is related through the eyes of young librarian Carl Allen. Allen is a passenger on an ill-fated stagecoach with the infamous Russell. As a white man raised by Apache during his youth, Russell has ties to multiple communities—Caucasian, Native American, and eventually the Mexicans—without ever truly fitting in to any one. When Russell joins the stagecoach, it’s to go to the land that his white relatives left him, yet his white fellow passengers largely insist that he sit with the driver. Later, when the coach is ambushed and a fellow rider is partly to blame, the same stranded passengers realize that Russell may be their best chance of surviving. Russell’s nuanced response to his treatment and Allen’s quickly dwindling naiveté take what could be a preachy and predictable story of racism and make it engrossing and thoughtful. The straight-forward plot (ending with a burst of action) make Hombre a quick read, but one worth trying. Has Leonard turned me into a Western fan? Not quite. But he’s made me less likely to paint all westerns with the same broad strokes.
Oh, I was judging.
And I was judging ALL westerns, not just the pulp series that I quickly rejected. This was an academic exercise to be endured. Westerns are formulaic, mindless morality plays, where the good guys kill the bad guys (who are, often as not, those pesky "Injuns"), rescue gold-hearted prostitutes, and generally ooze testosterone from their very pores�
…r?
Well, sort of. There are definitely characteristics that make a western a western, and themes of justice and morality are definitely central to the genre. However, in the hands of talented authors, good and evil are not clear cut, and the concept of morality can be murky at best. The setting is most often the historical west, the dialogue sparse, and the most prosaic passages saved for describing the land. But beyond these basics, there is wide range of literary talent—as is true with any genre. The book I ultimately chose to read, Elmore Leonard’s Hombre, is a fine example of a writer working within the genre conventions, while playing with traditional concepts.
The story of John Russell (the titular “hombre�) is related through the eyes of young librarian Carl Allen. Allen is a passenger on an ill-fated stagecoach with the infamous Russell. As a white man raised by Apache during his youth, Russell has ties to multiple communities—Caucasian, Native American, and eventually the Mexicans—without ever truly fitting in to any one. When Russell joins the stagecoach, it’s to go to the land that his white relatives left him, yet his white fellow passengers largely insist that he sit with the driver. Later, when the coach is ambushed and a fellow rider is partly to blame, the same stranded passengers realize that Russell may be their best chance of surviving. Russell’s nuanced response to his treatment and Allen’s quickly dwindling naiveté take what could be a preachy and predictable story of racism and make it engrossing and thoughtful. The straight-forward plot (ending with a burst of action) make Hombre a quick read, but one worth trying. Has Leonard turned me into a Western fan? Not quite. But he’s made me less likely to paint all westerns with the same broad strokes.
January 30, 2009
Classic novel about a white man raised by Apaches coming to try to live in the world of his people. He gets caught up in a stage robbery and the rest depend on him for survival, even though they previously didn't even want him in the coach with them.
January 20, 2019
Se lee de una sentada. Imprescindible para los amantes / aficionados al Western. Muy interesante para cualquier autor, desde el punto de vista narrativo. La forma en que se desarrolla el desenlace no me ha acabado de gustar, pero ni siquiera eso le quita méritos a esta joya.
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