Book Review: "Road to Reckoning" by Robert Lautner

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

"I, to this day, hold to only one truth: if a man chooses to carry a gun he will get shot. My father agreed to carry twelve."

Thomas Walker is 12 years in 1837. An only child, he has lived a sheltered life, never leaving New York City, and following the death of his mother, he is homeschooled by his aunt and doesn't get the opportunity to interact with children his age. But when his mild-mannered, spectacles-selling father takes a traveling salesman job for Samuel Colt, selling his revolutionary new "Improved Revolving Gun," he decides to take Thomas on the road with him, much to his aunt's chagrin—and Thomas' delight.

"Even at twelve I knew that I would have no limit of things to do out beyond the mountains. My own thoughts of danger were less important than having the opportunity to be away from my aunt's lavender chiffon and her yardstick rule, which I never saw measure anything except how much blame my knuckles could take."

Not long after Thomas' father made his first sale, a run-in with a group of robbers turns their travel adventure to tragedy. Orphaned and alone, with no money and few possessions save a wooden model of the Colt revolver, he can think only of getting back home to New York and the comfort and security of his only living relative, his aunt. He then encounters Henry Stands, a cantankerous, larger-than-life former Indiana Ranger, who has little use for people except when they can provide him food, ammunition, and rum.

Stands, on his way to a Philadelphia prison to see if they need help tracking down escaped prisoners, is reluctantly pressed into helping Thomas find his way home. He cares little for coddling the boy, and wants only to leave him in the first town they come across. Thomas, though intimidated by Stands' surliness, finds security in his not-quite-fatherly presence, and fears that he will abandon him on the road. The two forge a strange alliance, one that grows a bit stronger after the two encounter the band of robbers who killed Thomas' father. Yet Stands isn't completely enamored of being the boy's protector, and Thomas wants desperately for Stands to treat him less as an obligation and more as a child.

As the pair make their way back to New York, their partnership—and their lives—are tested several times. Both realize there is more to their traveling partner than meets the eye, and while they have different desires for the resolution of their journey, it is a journey that shapes them both.

I really enjoyed this book a great deal. I thought Robert Lautner perfectly embodied the voice of a 12-year-old boy caught between bravado and vulnerability, and Thomas as narrator was tremendously effective. The book surprised me at times and was more than simply a story about an unlikely pair on an important journey—it was also a commentary on how the Colt revolver, and guns in general, shaped America in the mid-19th century and beyond. The characters were more complex than met the eye, and Lautner knows how to tell a good story.

Some of the blurbs I've seen about Road to Reckoning equate it with True Grit, and while there may be some similarities between the two, I think the comparison actually sells this book a bit short. Henry Stands is more Lonesome Dove's Gus than Rooster Cogburn, and Thomas is a more vulnerable character than Mattie Ross, but no less appealing. This is a different story about a different kind of partnership, and it is a compelling and entertaining one.

"When I first met Henry Stands I imagined he was a man of few friends. When I last knew of him I was sure he had even fewer. But, it could be said, just as true, that he had fewer enemies because of it. And as I get older I can see the wisdom of that."

Movie Review: "Django Unchained"

While there are a number of things you'll nearly always find in a Quentin Tarantino movie—characters who epitomize both evil and cool (sometimes simultaneously), lots of can't-watch-but-can't-look-away violence, an homage to different film genres, a cameo from the director, and Samuel L. Jackson in one form or another—his films are never dull, nor are they retreads of previous films. Although it drags on a little bit too long, Django Unchained is a tremendously worthy entry in the Tarantino pantheon.

It's 1858, somewhere in Texas. A group of slaves is being marched over rough terrain, through difficult weather conditions, when they are met by dentist-turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, in full Waltz-ian mode). He is looking for a dastardly trio known as the Brittle Brothers. The only person who knows who they are is one of the slaves, Django (Jamie Foxx), so Dr. Schultz decides he'll help himself to Django, whether his owners like it or not. (They don't.) After Dr. Schultz and Django make their escape, he enlists Django to help him track down the Brittle Brothers; if he does, he'll pay him and give him his freedom.

The exploits of this unlikely yet bad-ass duo take them to the plantation of Big Daddy (Don Johnson, looking a little like Colonel Sanders), after which they have an encounter with an early, much less menacing version of the Klan. And as they travel through the winter hunting down criminals, the pair unites to rescue Django's wife, Broomhilda (Scandal's Kerry Washington, luminous as ever) from the plantation she was sold to.

They track Broomhilda to the plantation of Francophile Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who doesn't speak French but likes to be referred to as Monsieur Candie. Django and Dr. Schultz hatch an elaborate plan, but run afoul of longtime family slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson, looking like a cross between Uncle Remus and Uncle Ben), who is a lot more perceptive than he pretends to be. And of course, plans go rather awry.

Combining an homage to the old spaghetti westerns with the blaxploitation theme Tarantino loves to revisit, Django Unchained is amazingly violent (more so than Inglourious Basterds but less so than Kill Bill), hysterically funny, surprisingly astute, and unbelievably foul-mouthed. (I don't know if I've ever heard the "N" word used so many times in one movie.) While the movie runs a little more than two and a half hours, trimming at least 20-25 minutes from the end would have made it even more effective, although the conclusion was worthwhile.

I've never been a huge Jamie Foxx fan, more for his off-screen posturing than his acting, but he does a terrific job as Django, bringing cool and heart to his character. Waltz is once again absolutely fantastic; his character gets some amazing dialogue and his delivery is spot-on. Leonardo DiCaprio is at his most odious yet his most playful; he apparently was so appalled by his character he had to play him, and he is fantastic. Samuel L. Jackson does his best Samuel L. Jackson, and once again, Tarantino brings back some 1970s and 1980s favorites throughout the film—Johnson, Tom Wopat, Lee Horsley (Matt Houston), even Dennis Christopher (Breaking Away), who plays Candie's lawyer, Mr. Moguy. And of course, Tarantino has a small part toward the end.

I am constantly amazed by Tarantino's creativity, his ear for dialogue, and his thirst for bloody violence. Clearly some have been offended by this movie, and if you don't take it in the spirit with which it was intended, it's certainly understandable. But for me, Django Unchained is another great movie to stand as a part of a growing list of Tarantino's great movies.

Book Review: "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick deWitt

It is the 1850s in Oregon, and brothers Charlie and Eli Sisters have garnered a reputation for take-no-prisoners violence as henchmen for a local business tycoon known as "The Commodore." One day, The Commodore sends Charlie and Eli to San Francisco to hunt down and kill Hermann Kermit Warm, who is mining for gold. Eli and Charlie don't know why The Commodore wants Warm dead, but it's their job to carry out his orders. Charlie relishes this life, and leads Eli to track Warm down, but Eli isn't so sure this is the life he wants to lead, although his whole life has been spent following his brother.

The journey to San Francisco is a colorful and eventful one, laden with violence and whiskey. They encounter an odd bunch of people, and Eli even thinks about his desire for a romantic relationship at some point. But Charlie keeps drawing them back to their ultimate purpose, and doesn't want to discuss with Eli the possibility of living a different type of life. And when they arrive in San Francisco, everything gets far more complicated than either of them imagined.

I stumbled upon this book as I was looking at another, but I'm grateful to have found it. This isn't quite a "western," but more the story of a relationship between brothers as well as a man exploring what he should do with his future when his entire life has been pointed toward doing one thing in particular. I found Eli's character to be tremendously complex, Charlie's not as much so, and at times I felt the violence to be a little excessive, although I recognize this is a book about a pair of killers! All in all, I thought this was an enjoyable and captivating story definitely worth reading.