A review by bergsteiger
Shane by Jack Schaefer

3.0

About halfway through this book I realized it was categorized as teen fiction. This made the story a little more palpable, but still hard to get past the woodenness of the archetypal characters. Shane is the name of the protagonist who is a deadly man, trying to walk the straight and narrow with the narrator's father. The narrator is a boy of ten (Bob) and is in awe of both his father and Shane. There are some great scenes of the family working together on the land, but as the novel descends into conflict its weaknesses rise to the surface. Shane as enigma and as unstoppable force are both over the top. You don't even have a chance to dislike the antagonists as they are deposed moments after they are introduced. There is no simmering conflict that reveals the true nature of the main rival (Fletcher), nor elicits any true desire for the "good guys" to win. It was a quick short read, that went quickly, but was not nearly what I'd hoped for. If you really like Westerns then this is a decent one to pick up but otherwise just leave it on the shelf. Probably more like 2.5 stars but I'm feeling generous :)