So what did I do? I ditched two of the books I'd planned to bring on the trip, and brought these two instead.
The Young Duke,
by Howard Kazanjian
Yes, that IS a smoking-hot 20 year old John Wayne on the cover. And yes, that very loud sound you heard about three weeks ago was my jaw crashing through the floor of Powells when I saw this picture of him. Hubba HUBBA.
In spite of the "young" in the title, it's not just a biography of John Wayne's early years. It covers almost his entire career, although the emphasis is on the his life up to his 50s. I found it nicely informative, although the author was definitely a huge admirer of Wayne's and tended to gloss over some of his more scandalous actions (the affairs, the chain smoking and drinking, his two divorces, etc).
But as an easy introduction to the life of one of my new favorite stars, it was a good read. I read it during our days at sea, sitting on our balcony with my feet up. It kept me from going into withdrawal. And whenever my eyes started to cross from the lack of good looking men on the ship, I just pulled the book out and stared at the cover.
Hondo,
by Louis L'Amour
Of the ten or so John Wayne movies I've seen now, Hondo is one of my favorites. I really loved his character in it, the eponymous Hondo Lane, so I was eager to give the book upon which the movie was based a try.
It was my second Louis L'Amour book. The first, Down the Long Hills was assigned reading in 6th or 7th grade and I liked it so much that I bought my own copy. This one......ehh. The movie and the book are almost EXACTLY alike, down to word-for-word lines. But the book just didn't have the charm for me that the movie did, and L'Amour had a few authorly quirks that annoyed me. He repeatedly called Hondo by his full name, even multiple times within a paragraph, and it came off like he was in love with his own name-choosing cleverness.
The right way to write a paragraph:
"John Wayne was a smoking hot actor who was primarily known for his Westerns and war movies. Although Wayne died several decades ago, he's still an immensely popular actor and his movies are still very much enjoyed by audiences today. Wayne is buried in an unmarked grave in southern California."
The wrong way to write a paragraph:
"Hondo Lane looked over the edge of the cliff to see a group of Apache riding through the canyon. Hondo Lane crept quietly backwards to his horse. There was no one in the territory who could walk as quietly as Hondo could. Hondo Lane had learned the hard way how to survive."
Am I right or is that just plain annoying? Okay, that's not a verbatim passage from the book---I don't have it on me and had to paraphrase. But that's almost exactly like how L'Amour writes.
Anyway, the plot is thus: Hondo is a messenger for the US Cavalry, based in the southwestern territories during the Apache uprising. He's part Apache himself, and spent a period of his life living with them; thus, he knows their ways and is able to use that to help save the lives of a number of white settlers.
During his rides, he meets a young woman and her young son and quickly falls in love with her. Inadvertantly, he ends up killing her never-do-well husband and this, of course, throws their perspective relationship into turmoil. This is complicated by the Apache uprising, the Apache chief's fondness for the little boy, and the Cavalry's decision to evacuate all settlers from the area.
I'm home now and will probably stick to John Wayne movies instead of books, but these two were for the most part enjoyable!
