Shane: By Jack Schaefer

by Marjorie Stelmach

60 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Cam Torrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shane is just a great western. It meets my personal definition of a classic as I’ve described above, but really it’s a story about good guys and bad guys and one man who’s faced with the problem of “if not me, then who?” Vivid settings. Excellent character development. A satisfying ending. Reading Shane is like a mid-afternoon beer during a college football game. Ain’t life grand?

[Paul F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Shane" by Jack Schaeffer is one of those books that when you finish it, you almost want to go back to the beginning and start reading it all over again. Shane, as he calls himself, appears to be a drifter from nowhere, headed to nowhere in particular. He just happens upon a farm owned by one Joe Starrett, a man with a nascent backbone. Shane attaches himself to the Starrett family, especially young son Bob, and he works as a farmhand, enticed by wife Marian Starrett's cooking abilities. There are some very subtle hints here and there that there is an attraction between Marian Starrett and Shane, which mercifully is never developed. Instead, the author focuses upon a rather stock-in-trade plot involving the conflict between a cattle baron, one Luke Fletcher, and the incoming farmers, including Joe Starrett ("nesters", the cattlemen call them). Fletcher wants the farmers to leave, so that he can appropriate their acreage for his cattle and the supply contract for the army that he has. We are never told directly what Shane's background is--that's part of the mystery of the novel--but the story takes place in 1889 Wyoming Territory, as the Wild West is not so wild anymore. Shane appears to be a former gunman trying to get away from his past. Together with Joe Starrett, Shane confronts Fletcher and his cowhands, with the intimidated farmers other than Joe Starrett content to let Starrett and Shane do the heavy lifting vis-a-vis Fletcher. Experienced readers can probably guess how this plays out without another word here.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book that I probably wouldn't have picked up without it being presented in my daughter's studies. However, it was a really great read. It was not a long book, but packed a punch in regards to loyalty & doing the right thing despite its sufferings. It really left me wanting to know more about the back story. We had the critical edition, but unfortunately, I didn't have time to put into reading the rest of the materials provided.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic western read.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never read this classic before, and still have not seen the iconic movie based on the book. I was ultimately charmed and moved by the unabashed simplicity of the morality tale.

Shane is a very special book because not only is the world of the western frontier in which it is set a vanished one, but the world of moral certainty in which it was written (the late 1940's) is vanished, too.

But each time period was remarkable in its own way. And if you can set your cynicism aside, embracing the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives and fights for the right before slipping away into the night is time well spent.

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book waaaaaaayyyyy back in my bookshelf. The books was from my husband's college days for a lit. class. It was surprisingly good.