We finished reading "Hondo,"* by Louis L'Amour. We thought it was a really good, well written story that took away our previous thoughts that Mr. L'Amour was more of a pulp writer than a novelist. However:

We watched the movie "Hondo," and were dismayed to find that all of the dialogue in the movie was also in the book. Or, vice versa. The book was a “novelization” of the screenplay written by James Edward Grant (1953). The screenplay was loosely based on Louis L’Amour’s short story “The Gift of Cochise” (31 paperback pages), but Mr. Grant changed the name of the main character from Ches Lane to Hondo Lane, and added several subplots. In a postscript to the “Hondo” paperback, Mr. L’Amour’s son Beau L’Amour says that the “Hondo” name comes from his father’s story “One Night Stand,” but we read that story and don’t see a Hondo in it.

We were conflicted about what was Mr. L’Amour’s work in the book and what was Mr. Grant’s. We know that L’Amour fleshed out the cavalry massacre. Mr. Grant must have added the dog.

There were some passages in the book that we admired. Mr. L’Amour was good at musings and expressing truths:

“There was something big and hard and sure about him, something in the way he moved, or something from inside of him.” (p. 32)

“Somewhere along the tangled trail of his thoughts he dropped off and slept, and while he slept the rain roared on, tracks were washed out, and the bodies of the silent men of Company C lay wide-eyed to the rain and bare-chested to the wind, but the blood and the dust washed away, and the stark features of Lieutenant Davis stared at the sky, where the lightning played and the fury of the storm worried its way out. Lieutenant Creyton C. Davis, graduate of West Point, veteran of the Civil War and the Indian wars, darling of the Richmond dance floors, hero of a Washington romance, dead now in the long grass on a lonely hill, west of everything.” (p. 69)

“A man might drift, but a woman must belong somewhere, if it was no more than a hovel on a hillside. A woman must have a home […].” (p. 114-115)

“He decided that Lowe was weak…weak and jealous. He would always, Phalinger decided, strike at what was stronger and better than himself.” (p. 126)

“Under a quiet sky the planet turned, and horses ate, and men slept, and death waited for the morning.” (p. 129)

*“Hondo” by Louis L’Amour, 2019 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition, Copyright 1953 by Louis & Katherine L’Amour Trust

On Monday, October 17, 2022 at 1:19:20 PM UTC-4, NancyGene wrote:
> We finished reading "Hondo,"* by Louis L'Amour. We thought it was a really good, well written story that took away our previous thoughts that Mr. L'Amour was more of a pulp writer than a novelist. However:
>
> We watched the movie "Hondo," and were dismayed to find that all of the dialogue in the movie was also in the book. Or, vice versa. The book was a “novelization” of the screenplay written by James Edward Grant (1953). The screenplay was loosely based on Louis L’Amour’s short story “The Gift of Cochise” (31 paperback pages), but Mr. Grant changed the name of the main character from Ches Lane to Hondo Lane, and added several subplots. In a postscript to the “Hondo” paperback, Mr. L’Amour’s son Beau L’Amour says that the “Hondo” name comes from his father’s story “One Night Stand,” but we read that story and don’t see a Hondo in it.
>
> We were conflicted about what was Mr. L’Amour’s work in the book and what was Mr. Grant’s. We know that L’Amour fleshed out the cavalry massacre. Mr. Grant must have added the dog.
>
> There were some passages in the book that we admired. Mr. L’Amour was good at musings and expressing truths:
>
> “There was something big and hard and sure about him, something in the way he moved, or something from inside of him.” (p. 32)
>
> “Somewhere along the tangled trail of his thoughts he dropped off and slept, and while he slept the rain roared on, tracks were washed out, and the bodies of the silent men of Company C lay wide-eyed to the rain and bare-chested to the wind, but the blood and the dust washed away, and the stark features of Lieutenant Davis stared at the sky, where the lightning played and the fury of the storm worried its way out. Lieutenant Creyton C. Davis, graduate of West Point, veteran of the Civil War and the Indian wars, darling of the Richmond dance floors, hero of a Washington romance, dead now in the long grass on a lonely hill, west of everything.” (p. 69)
>
> “A man might drift, but a woman must belong somewhere, if it was no more than a hovel on a hillside. A woman must have a home […].” (p. 114-115)
>
> “He decided that Lowe was weak…weak and jealous. He would always, Phalinger decided, strike at what was stronger and better than himself.” (p. 126)
>
> “Under a quiet sky the planet turned, and horses ate, and men slept, and death waited for the morning.” (p. 129)
>
>
> *“Hondo” by Louis L’Amour, 2019 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition, Copyright 1953 by Louis & Katherine L’Amour Trust

"Hondo" is a really good movie (in 3-D). It's not a great film, but it's an enjoyable one -- and one that captures the Duke persona at its best.