Shane Paperback – June 1, 2017

This ranks as one of the finest novels in my considerable reading experience. Not a word wasted by the author. Spare,and exquisitely beautiful in description of the characters,the themes, and the feelings of a young boy who incorporated Shane as an additional father figure. It is too limiting to simply describe this book as a western. It transcends genre. It is a splendid example of the finest of American literature. No one should miss this novel. I saw the movie as a small child around five years old,and I can still remember being fascinated by the lessons taught and explained in the movie. I still watch it when I can. However, this novel had a much more profound effect on me than the movie. It should be required reading in schools across our country. To miss this book is to miss an opportunity to read a priceless example of an American treasure.

I ordered this book because it is one of the books my daughter has to read for 6th grade Lit/Comp. This is year I have decided to read the assigned books myself so I know what she's reading, and we can talk about them and hopefully get her more engaged and have our own discussions.I did not have hope or excitement when I picked this up for the first time, which was wrong of me. Why did I assume a western would be boring? I don't think I had even read a western before. From the beginning I got sucked into the mystery of Shane, and then the suspense of the story as tensions and threats grew in their town. After finishing the book I watched the movie yesterday, but I felt the book was much better. Perhaps because with books you can let your imagination make the characters and setting your own.I always thought westerns made people out to be the good guy/bad guy, simple as that. But as in life, the characters in the book show that it's not so simple to judge, and a person can change. That sometimes the good vs bad, right vs wrong judgements aren't so simple either. The book shows a time in our history, being that it starts in 1889, and gives you a much more personal idea of what it was like back then.

This was the last book (I believe) that I read for the Winter 2018 Biannual Bibliothon.This is the first Western I've ever read, and I had no idea what to expect beyond the very vague theme of "cowboys". I really enjoyed this! Shane is told from the perspective of a young boy (and at first, I thought this book would span over a larger period of his life...mostly because I can't remember the last book I read from the perspective of a kid who wasn't tasked with saving the world or something equally as wild), and the titular Shane is a mysterious man who comes to his farm and ends up staying with his family for a time. Shane has a dark past, which is only really referenced in his ability to kick anyone and everyone's ass when necessary.The villain of this novel is a rancher(?) who wants the homesteaders (like our narrator Bob and his family) off of his land; this villain is so different from the majority of villains in books I've read recently, as he's just a man and a realistic one at that.I definitely read the relationship between Bob's parents and Shane as bordering on polyamorous. I doubt this was intentional at the time, but they all seemed to fall in love with each other (and when Bob's father thought he was going to die, he gave Shane and Bob's mother his blessing).

I unashamedly loved this. To my mind the quintessential western. Wouldn't be too many readers I suspect who haven't heard of Shane. The story of a lone gunman who comes to the rescue of the Sharratt family and against unbeatable odds takes on the "bad guys" and triumphs.A simple style of writing that suited the story. Found this one to be a bit of a "tear jerker" actually. Not a lengthy read by any means. The author managed to convey much with a minimum of fuss. Loved it to bits. Time and money well spent.

I am a HUGE fan of westerns and I devour Louis Lamour books repeatedly. I was excited when I read the reviews about this book being an excellent western even for kids and as a homeschool mom snatched this up quick. I was disappointed with some of the elements in it. It brought up real issues of land grabbing and was well written but also dove into real issues of a wife of a hard working man falling for this stranger (Shane) that comes along. She stays faithful to her husband and Shane fights her husband’s fight in essence for her and there was nothing dirty in it. I get that emotional issues are real and this showed it was noble to stick to your promises but I wouldn’t give it to a kid to read unless you think they are ready to discuss issues of spouses being tempted to leave each other. I still prefer Louis Lamour who did an excellent job of writing a clean novel that lightly touches real relationship issues but focuses more on a great plot with historical facts well woven in.

It’s a simple story, but Schaefer does a great job telling it, with more psychological depth than some other westerns of the time.Shane is a man with a dark past that he’d like to forget. He stops at a small farm for water for his horse when Joe Starrett and young son Bob prevail upon him to stay awhile. He extends that stay, at their kind urging and quickly comes to view them as a kind of surrogate family and a strong bond forms between them.But it wasn’t to last. A Rancher, Luke Fletcher, intends to buy, or, if necessary, steal the land from the homesteaders, who are unofficially led by Starrett.Confrontation ensues. Read the book. ;-)The story is seen through the eyes of 8-year-old Bob Starrett, so it’s superficially an unsophisticated narrator, but we soon become aware that it is an older, wiser Bob who is actually recounting it from memory.That allowed for both fresh, innocent eyes, and a more sophisticated understanding behind it.In a forward by Jack Schaefer, he remarks that, though he initially sided with the farmers, in later years he regretted the loss of those vast open ranch lands. That Revenge of the Sith sequel was never written.