I'm not even joking.
Jean LaBarge grows up in the swamps of Pennsylvania before heading off into the wilderness and ending up a young man on the California coast. He spends a lot of time on sailing ships. He gets big and tough and true-hearted, like all the best L'Amour heroes. He keeps in touch with his childhood best friend, who stays in the East and becomes an important politician.
And he obsesses over Alaska.
Now, having been obsessed with Alaska myself since I was 11 years old, I understand that last bit. There's something kind of magical about even just the name. Alaska.
I actually bought my copy of this book while in Alaska last August. (I bought it in Skagway, not Sitka, but that doesn't matter.) It took me thirty-four years to get there -- quite a bit longer than it takes Jean LaBarge. He gets there while it still belongs to Russia and helps to open up to the possibility of Russia selling it to the United States. He also spends several months crossing Russia from the Pacific to the Atlantic. He falls in love with a Russian princess, with a sort of classic Medieval courtly love, since she's already married to a really great guy. He makes enemies and defeats them. Lots of really exciting stuff happens in the best style of L'Amour's sweeping epics.
It took me six months to read the first 60 pages of this book, and three days to read the last 250. Make of that whatever you want.
Particularly Good Bits:
It gleamed there on his calloused palm, heavy as sin in the heart of a man. "If that isn't gold, what is it?" (p. 55).
To a fool time brings only age, not wisdom (p. 78).
It was a pity, he reflected, that the men of good will are so poorly armed, for at times it was a handicap not to hate (p. 169).
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for some brawling and other non-gory violence, some references to bawdy houses, alcohol consumption by adults, scenes of children in peril, and mild innuendo about men's intentions toward women.
This is my first book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list!
I keep discovering more and more amazing L'Amour novels that I haven't read whose premise sounds like the coolest thing ever--and I've BEEN reading his novels for years!! Ever since I was a teen! That man just does not run out of great stories to tell.
ReplyDeleteKatie, saaaame! And I have only really been reading them quite a bit for the past few years. So I have a lot to catch up on.
DeleteI have yet to read a L’Amour book, but this sounds nothing like I was expecting a L’Amour book to be. I mean, a Russian princess?? Funny story, though, recently I was waiting in line next to a lost and found area and was scanning the items and there was a L’Amour book there, so in my head I SUPER dramatically said, “Louis L’Amour!” then was laughing at myself because I thought I was hilarious. Next thing I know, the guy behind me in line said out-loud to his friend, “Louis L’Amour!” with the exact inflection I had just used. We were on the same wave-length, I guess. XD
ReplyDeleteChloe, L'Amour definitely wrote some surprising books! Particularly this one, and Sackett's Land , which is a swashbuckler :-D
DeleteAnd haha, that's a fun story. I learned recently that his family had changed the spelling of their last name from the French L'Amour to the Americanized LaMoore, and he ended up changing it back when he became a writer. I used to think it was a funny last name for a guy who wrote cowboy books, but I think he was the sort of person who loved so many things so enthusiastically that it actually suits him well.
(Ooops, looks like I forgot to close my italics tag in that one...)
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