Why is this one called Galloway when it's mostly about Galloway Sackett's brother Flagan? I mean, Galloway is in it, lots -- but it starts out from Flagan's point of view, and he gets to narrate it in first person here and there, whereas Galloway's chapters get told in third person. I'm not saying the title makes no sense, because Galloway does play a key role here -- but it's really Flagan's story. That's Flagan on the cover, even. Huh. I wonder if the publisher titled this one, or L'Amour himself.
Anyway, I liked this book a LOT. Flagan Sackett escapes from some angry Apaches, stark naked and on foot, and manages to not only evade them, but survive in the mountains alone, and eventually find other people... and more trouble, which is where the actual plot takes place -- there's a mean guy and his mean followers who want to take over and control a whole section of the country, and Flagan and Galloway Sackett like the looks of that area and want to ranch there too, and so other people take sides, and more Sacketts get involved, and there's not quite a range war, but it gets close to one. Since one Sackett is a whole lot of Sacketts, and there are four involved here, it's pretty clear who will win in the end. The fun is in seeing how they do it.
Particularly Good Bits:
Back up at the forks of the creek in Tennessee they don't raise many foolish children, and the foolish men don't live long enough to get knee-high to a short sheep (p. 26).
There's a saying in the mountains that if you harm a cricket his friends will come and eat your socks (p. 28) (This made me laugh so much!)
I had lived long enough to know that nothing lasts forever, and men torture themselves who believe that it will. The one law that does not change is that everything changes (p. 46).
There's a saying that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns (p. 52).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some brief discussions of torture, scenes of survival in harsh conditions, a little mild cussing, and western violence.
This is my 14th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge.
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