“He rode into our valley in the summer of ’89… ‘Call me Shane,’ he said.”
As we gathered round a table in Paradise on Monday night, the general consensus of our little group was that while we don’t generally like westerns- and we probably aren’t going to start reading westerns- we liked this novel and would recommend it to our friends. Here’s what we had to say about it:
“It puts me in a tombstone state of mind.”
“THE western to read. It’s not the gun-slinging, guy’s book I thought it was.”
“Gateway to the Westerns: a good book to read to get you into westerns.”
“I was surprised by the good story line. I’m not into westerns, but I recommend this one.”
“There are elements of a typical western, but the point of view & descriptions go deeper.”
I think Shane was a perfect pick for our book club. We want to challenge our perspectives and see the world through someone else’s eyes all through the reading of good literature. This little book gave us the opportunity to watch as little Bob’s family and town were rocked by the arrival of a mysterious stranger. Besides being a wonderfully entertaining story, the book gave us a good picture of life in the West, and left us all craving biscuits and a bottle of cherry soda pop.
I loved that the author, Jack Schaefer, was really descriptive at times, but he still left much to the imagination. We were full of theories on Shane’s past. Who was he really? What event haunted him as he rode from town to town? It was fun to guess, and our discussion was as hearty as Marian’s deep dish apple pie.
See, the book suited everyone’s tastes š
“He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done rode back whence he had come and he was Shane.”
Broadened Horizons Book Club 