- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (3 Nov 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753819120
- ISBN-13: 978-0753819128
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 112,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Valdez is Coming
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Product Description
Book Description
The Wild West comes alive in the hands of America's greatest storyteller.
Product Description
No writer chronicles the battles of misfits, underdogs and renegades like Elmore Leonard ...
VALDEZ IS COMING is a stunning stale of morality and justice in which a simple, honest man is transformed into a killer - and begins a long journey of revenge against those who scarred his soul for ever.
Elmore Leonard's Western novels stand as some of the most vivid writing of his career. With all of his trademark sharp dialogue and set against a beautifully evoked landscape, this is a classic work that captures the wild and glorious spirit of the American West.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm new to the Western genre. I started with a few L'Amours, then a friend said that Leonard had written Westerns. I hadn't read Leonard yet, and knew only of his crime novels, by reputation, and I did see "Get Shorty" and thought it was great.
So I picked this one up first. It's very fine.
He used to be Roberto Valdez, Apache Hunter (but they don't know that). Now he's Bob Valdez, town constable, condescended-to by the Anglo townsmen. They involve him in an injustice. He seeks to put it right. They laugh at him. Then they try to humiliate them. Then they hurt him. But they should have killed him, because now they all have to die.
This is a revenge tale, always a theme that appeals because it reflects our own revenge fantasies, which if we are honest, we will acknowlege persist beyond adolescence! This is up there with other great revenge stories, from the Count of Monte Christo to the Demon Prince novels of the inimitably great Jack Vance, though of course it is not as monumental as those works.
Valdez is Coming has a very powerful and perfect ending. I read the last 2 or 3 pages several times.
Louis L'Amour is a solid 3-star Western writer; this is praise, not denigration. But as time is short, folks need to know there are many finer Western writers out there. Being introduced to Leonard by this book and by Hombre, I won't be going back to L'Amour until I've finished Leonard, and some others.
So I picked this one up first. It's very fine.
He used to be Roberto Valdez, Apache Hunter (but they don't know that). Now he's Bob Valdez, town constable, condescended-to by the Anglo townsmen. They involve him in an injustice. He seeks to put it right. They laugh at him. Then they try to humiliate them. Then they hurt him. But they should have killed him, because now they all have to die.
This is a revenge tale, always a theme that appeals because it reflects our own revenge fantasies, which if we are honest, we will acknowlege persist beyond adolescence! This is up there with other great revenge stories, from the Count of Monte Christo to the Demon Prince novels of the inimitably great Jack Vance, though of course it is not as monumental as those works.
Valdez is Coming has a very powerful and perfect ending. I read the last 2 or 3 pages several times.
Louis L'Amour is a solid 3-star Western writer; this is praise, not denigration. But as time is short, folks need to know there are many finer Western writers out there. Being introduced to Leonard by this book and by Hombre, I won't be going back to L'Amour until I've finished Leonard, and some others.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone familiar with the writing of Leonard knows he creates characters who are cool/ calm, comfortable in their own skin and self assured without being cocky. His dynamics and interactions with characters are a pleasure to read and the slow build of the narrative is deceptively meandering. At numerous points the story snaps to life and things sharply diverge.
This is light reading in some respects. Leonard uses violence to further a story, but doesn't indulge in it. Some of the scenarios could be written darkly, but he evades misery in favor of endurance and the relish of justifiable revenge.
If you've enjoyed Leonard's crime writing you'll be both familiar and comfortable with reading his Westerns- and Valdez is Coming is the best of his Western oeuvre. That he wrote this novel early in his career is remarkable given how consistent it is with his overall style.
This is at once cinematic and sparse literary genre writing at its best.
This is light reading in some respects. Leonard uses violence to further a story, but doesn't indulge in it. Some of the scenarios could be written darkly, but he evades misery in favor of endurance and the relish of justifiable revenge.
If you've enjoyed Leonard's crime writing you'll be both familiar and comfortable with reading his Westerns- and Valdez is Coming is the best of his Western oeuvre. That he wrote this novel early in his career is remarkable given how consistent it is with his overall style.
This is at once cinematic and sparse literary genre writing at its best.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The only western I've read before was another Elmore Leonard "Hombre", and that was so good I thought I would give another title a go. I wasn't disappointed. No quite as clever a storyline as "Hombre", but once you got into the book, you really couldn't put it down until you knew the final outcome. A good holiday read, without being too over-complicated.
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