Customer Reviews

Shane

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Howdy everyone, this is James Drury. I used to play The Virginian on NBC television, for those of you who can't remember that far back. It's that time again, time to read Shane. I'm only into it up to chapter six, and already those old memories have flooded back, and I recall why I love this book so much. It is timeless, to use a perhaps overused word. It is nearly a flawless book, although for the first time I've noticed that a few of his time elements are incredible, such as, for example, the time it takes Marion to bake a pie in the book. But this is such a good book that things like this don't matter. The only Western author I can truly say I enjoy as much as Jack Shaefer is Kirby Jonas, a young author whose books I read on audio for Books In Motion, who can be located at Booksinmotion.com . But in my opinion Shane can never be topped nor matched by anyone. If you are a young person and feel forced into reading this book, I wish I could tell your teachers, "Don't force Shane on anyone!" This book should be read in your leisure time, when YOU want to, to be truly enjoyed. I hope you will give it an honest chance.

Unlike the reviewer "Barb from Oregon," I believe everything she found detestable in Shane is what makes it a great western. Her firts complaint was to the shallow development of the Shane character. I believe the author intentionally left his past dim, his motivations unkown, as part of the "hero" motif. As to violence--it's a western story depicting a range war, not a court proceeding. The author shows Joe's muscles ripping his shirt in the bar fight for a reason. From the perspective of his son, it was vitally important that he see his father as strong, otherwise his admiration of Shane may have overshadowed his father.

Wild Bill recommends this book for any reader interested in a portrayal of the wild west in its legendary form.

The book shane was about a man, that was trying to get away from his past and by doing this was wondering throughout the country and he stumbled into a family, the starrett's the took him in Shane helped them on there farm. The Wealthy land owner Fletcher wanted to buy the land of the Starrett's and Joe Starrett didnt want to sell his land, so Fletcher made it a war between the two and hired a hit man to kill Shane and Joe. His name was Wilson, Wilson a well known gunfighter came in and picked a fight with Shane and Joe.... and im not going to give away the whole book espicially the ending.

I really enjoyed this book, i thought Shane was a good mystery character, the book, was well written by jack Schaefer. I thought it was hard to put down the book and when i did it wasnt for that long. The ending I would of never expected and for that i recommend this book to everyone, that enjoys the twists and turns in a book.

After finishing this book, I was totally surprised. This is the "classic western novel" that everyone has been raving about? "Shane" lacks the elements of a good story almost completely. There is frighteningly little character development, and I find it a little strange that the reader knows next to nothing about the title character. Since other reviwers have already mentioned that pretty much nothing happens in this book, I will focus on the lack of information about Shane. The only concrete fact about Shane is that he has a mysterious past. Anything else that might be said about him is inferred,(as are most traits attributed to members of the Starrett family). Also, I believe that Schaefer pushed the whole "Shane's past haunts him" thing a little too far. The reader is constantly reminded of how "poor Shane had something bad happen to him". This started to get old about 30 pgs in, and to add insult to injury, we are never told exactly what this "bad thing" was. Within literature it is sometimes for the best to leave things ambiguous, but usually, the piece of information that is never going to be told to the reader is not hinted at and/or alluded to every other page. It seemed to me that Shane's past was a vital part... scratch that, one of the only parts of his overall character. Ultimately, reading this book felt like watching the sequal to a movie I'd never seen, mostly because of the huge gaps in information about the characters. Without interesting characters, even a story with excellent prose and plot can fall flat. Shane, which had neither of these to begin with, was utterly dissapointing.

When my teacher first told us that we were going to be reading the book Shane i had never heard of it. Then when she said that it was a western it made me want to read it less. But once i started reading in i started to enjoy it. The further in the book the more I liked it. I think it is a very good book and that it should be read by all.

Shane by Jack Schaefer is a well-written classic that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This story takes place in the West during the 1800's.
Shane, a man of a mysterious unknown past, rides into the Starrett's farm while farmers turn to examine him intently. He is a man of medium build, dark skin, and a thin, tight face with a body as hard as steel. But the thing that catches the eye the most is his clothes. He has a nice shirt, jeans, a handkerchief around his neck, and a big, black hat. Definitely, his nice clothes are uncommon in such a plain farm community as this. He is a gunslinger, but something in his past keeps him from wearing a gun.
The whole town wonders about him, and even more so when he ends up working as a farmhand for the Starretts. However, they do not know how deeply involved he would become when Fletcher, a cattle rancher who lived across the river from the farmers, tries to take the farmer's land for his cattle to graze. When Fletcher hires an expert gunslinger to "convince" the farmers to back down, only Shane can stop him, but will he?
Shane is a wonderfully written story that depicts the conflict that farmers and ranchers faced in fighting for land in the West. This Western novel will not disappoint you with its interesting characters and nail-biting plot. I recommend this book to any one 10 or older that likes Westerns and classic novels.

From The Scarlet Letter to Wise Blood, American literature is known for its short novels, and this is a great one. Schaefer took the simple, direct prose style of Twain and Hemingway and used it perfectly, carefully weighing every single word for emotional effect.
The book is usually kept in the children's section of bookstores because the vocabulary is basic. It was the first I ever read, when I was seven or eight. But it is a great book for anyone, crackling with tension. The first page alone is worth the price.
If you like Shane, you might try The Oxbow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark.

Apparently I was tainted by the classic 1952 film before I read this book. In the movie Alan Ladd plays the eponymous hero, and although the audience can see he represses whatever mysterious past he has, the film shows a reluctant gunfighter trying to fit into Homesteader life. The end of the film shows Shane facing down a "stacked deck," finally revealing how deadly his nature is, as he kills the villains in the story. I love the tension between two personas, as well as the conflict between the Starrett band of homesteaders versus the Rikker cowboys.

I saw the movie so many times, I felt it was time to take on the book. The easy reading kept me occupied just over an hour, and was so disappointing. I was expecting more psychological tension between the lifestyles, more insinuated romance between Shane and Starrett's wife; perhaps more build up to the end of the greatest Western ever filmed. Instead I read this ego-trip version of Shane who knows how good he is and doesn't bother with modesty. His stint as a farmer seems more like killing time between gunslinging. The subtle romance of the movie, seems to spawn from the book's adulterous "could-have-been's". There is this cheezy scene our narrator catches between Shane and Starrett's wife about upholding honor over lust, and respect Joe Starrett as the proper husband. By the end of the book we already know how great Shane is, and expect him to win all the gunfights (though again, I did see the movie first).

This book seems to have flat, one-dimensional characters. The plot of a drifting gunfighter landing into the hands of a family struggling against hired guns is still entertaining, but not enough to recommend the book. I recommend the movie, it's much more entertaining and date-compatible.

I first read this book at about 14 years of age. Now, perhaps I loved it because it was not assigned to me, but because I checked it out of the school library.

At any rate, I doubt a better novel will ever be written. The only novel to equal Shane is Old Yeller.

I'm working on my own novel, Hear Me Whimper, Feel My Pain (about Arabia after T.E. Lawrence) and can only hope to elicit a small portion of the emotion from readers that either Shane or Old Yeller yanked out of my heart.

To be sure, there are a lot of good, heart-wrenching stories available. Where The Red Fern Grows, Gentle Ben come quickly to mind. Shane, though, and Old Yeller, are the top two stories of all time. In print, audio, or video, either of them will touch any open-minded person's heart.

Three reasons this Critical Edition is superior to the usual trade paperback edition. First, there are dozen of good essays written by book and film critics included within the pages. Second, this edition is true to the original, in the sense that it wasn't edited, and was printed in the original layout format. And finally, the artwork on the front book cover is supreme, it's a very good portrait of Shane; a rugged and mysterious man, not one of those cheesy cowboys as presented on the other editions.