Journal of the Gun Years

All this time I have been telling myself that the skills I have to offer continue to be of value. Now I wonder if this is so.

It's only after finishing this book and doing some preliminary research that I realize that the author of My Very First Western is actually the same author as I Am Legend. Wild.

Anyway, so after talking with some library co-workers about video games and my obsession with Red Dead Redemption 2, I realized I had never, everevereverever, read a western. My grandpa had the obligatory wall of Louis L'Amor that I remember as a kid, and even though I was a voracious reader that read anything between two covers I never touched them. I asked my co-workers if there were any westerns that weren't so....pulpy. My coworkers thought that was a funny question, because of course all westerns are pulpy. Everybody knows that. Not willing to say die, I turned to some literary friends of mine, and was rewarded with a whole slew of book suggestions. From those suggestions I followed Goodreads' suggestions for even more. This was one of those “even more” suggestions, and I was delightfully surprised with how it turned out.

First, let's talk format. As the title indicates, this is told in journal format. Normally this sort of format sort of annoys me because of how choppy the story ends up being, but I think the author does a good job of smoothing that over by including the commentary from the person presenting the journal. The book sort of takes that “found journal” trope, where in the first chapter the finder runs into the journal writer, Clay Halser, late in his life, and after a drink and a sudden turn of luck, finds himself in possession of Clay Halser's journal he kept meticulously since he was young and in the war. The finder then “presents” this journal to us, the readers, by hand selecting entries throughout Clay's life that portray the man as a man and not the legend that he had become, and includes some commentary about the passages themselves and Clay's life in general. The author's attention to detail led to the early, young entries being poorly written and rather superficial, while the late in life ones are much longer, better written, and introspective. I thought that was a nice touch as well.

So Clay Halser leads a rough life. He spent time at war as a teenager, came back to his family home and just never really fit in again, and left home to find his fortune. He drifts around awhile, bartending, stagecoach guarding, and falls in with several men who had an impact on how Clay develops as he gets older. He becomes a great shot, and it's thanks to his shooting and an overzealous reporter that Clay Halser, The Legend, is born in the eyes of the public. Clay then, unknowingly, starts chasing this legend that has been made of him, leading him first into fame, and then into failure. The late in life journal entries in particular are sad to read, as Clay confronts the man he's become.

I really enjoyed this book! It obviously had your stagecoach robberies, your gunfights, your “I'm Marshal Of This Town Now” segments, but it also had a lot of quiet moments where Clay ruminates on what it means to be a gunslinger. I like getting into the minds of main characters a lot, and really enjoyed watching Clay mature through the eyes of his journal. I'm glad this was my first western, because now I feel motivated to seek out more.