Early in 2024, I stumbled upon Library of America’s – The Western. This is a compilation of four tales of which Shane is the second. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark (could he have a longer name?) is the first story in this collection. It’s good but it didn’t move me the way the great books of other genres have. Thus, it took me a while to finally approach Shane.
I finished Shane in August, but it is not finished with me. Shane is a short novella – of similar length to Of Mice and Men or A Christmas Carol – but it packs a huge emotional punch. This work has grown my excitement to further explore the Western genre, so please feel free to share your recommendations on where I should go next.
Summary
A stranger rode out of the heart of the great glowing West, into a small Wyoming valley in the summer of 1889. It was Shane, who appeared on the horizon and became a friend and guardian to the Starrett family at a time when homesteaders and cattlemen battled for territory. While trying to leave his gunslinging days behind him, this mysterious stranger is tested. In Shane, Schaefer explores themes of virtue, the human condition, boyhood, and a man’s search for self.
Writing Style
Schaefer quickly sets the tone and creates the atmosphere from the opening paragraph:
Schaefer’s prose is simple but artful. Every word is intentional. Like song lyrics, every phrase flows into the next. The writing in this book is both accessible and beautiful. Many times the prose urged me to pause my silent reading and take a moment to read a few sentences aloud and truly savor them.
Story
Genre aside, if you like a well-told story, you will enjoy this book. The story is told by a man reminiscing on his boyhood. From the beginning we know that Shane won’t be sticking around long, but the quick relationships he forms with this boy and his parents compel us to keep reading anyway. The ending doesn’t matter, it’s the journey there that readers must encounter.
The narrative unfolds with a quiet intensity that we know is building towards a climactic showdown. And the showdown does not disappoint. It is bloody, thrilling, and poignant.
Shane the story is a myth; an American myth. Shane the character is an archetype; the Lone Hero returned from the frontier. He shares the values of civilized people, but is capable of the destruction of the Outlaw. Did people like Shane actually exist? It doesn’t matter, we readers love myths all the same.
Shane contains a simple scene early in the story that is sublime. In this scene, Shane and the narrator’s father are hacking away at the roots of a huge ironwood tree stump with axes. These men just met one another and even though there is zero dialogue in this scene, we see that they’re sizing each other up. It takes every ounce of strength and teamwork that they posses to remove this last blemish on the farmer’s land. Once they do, what else is there left for them to tame besides the cattle wranglers encroaching on their farm?
This is my favorite scene of the whole book. It draws you into the story early on and Schaefer never lets you go after that. Shane is a masterpiece of storytelling.
This book is timeless. I encourage anyone who hasn’t encountered this one yet to give it a chance. As I mentioned earlier, I encountered this story in the Library of America’s – The Western compilation. That is the version I would recommend. It looks beautiful on the shelf and is a sturdy copy that can sustain the many re-reads I intend to subject it to.
by betterbooks_