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Last Stand at Saber River
A quiet, haunted man, Paul Cable walked away from a lost cause hoping to pick up where he left off. But things have changed in Arizona since he first rode out to go fight for the Confederacy. Two brothers—Union men—have claimed his spread and they're not about to give it back, leaving Cable and his family no place to settle in peace. It seems this war is not yet over for Paul Cable. But no one's going to take away his land and his future—not with their laws, their lies, or their guns.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
Elmore Leonard
240 books3,295 followersElmore John Leonard lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before settling in Detroit in 1935. After serving in the navy, he studied English literature at the University of Detroit where he entered a short story competition. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.
Father of Peter Leonard.
Father of Peter Leonard.
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August 3, 2019
“And she thought if you don't have the desire to fight or wait for something there's no reason for being on earth.”
First edition paperback original copy of the book.
The Confederacy claims the lower half of New Mexico and Arizona as one of their states. The upper halves are still considered Union territory. Paul Cable homesteads on the Union side of Arizona, but despite the geography, he is originally from Texas and signs up to fight for the Confederacy.
He joins the 8th Texas Cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest is an aggressive commander and a gifted tactician who believes a good defense is a better offense. ”Never stand and take a charge...charge them too.” Cable is shot several times in various campaigns, and the last time it is severe enough that, if he had been fighting in Vietnam, it would have been called a “good wound,” which is any wound that allows the soldier to go home.
After he recovers, he picks up his wife and kids in Texas and heads back to the homestead on the Sabre River, but when they arrive, like most of the South and West, things have changed. Men are living in their cabin, and a large horse herd is grazing on their land. They soon discover that their land will only be theirs if they are willing to take it back. Cable’s wife Martha is not a hothouse flower. She has grit to spare. She proves this when some Chiricahuas Apaches attack their spread. ”He stood waiting with a revolver in each hand. Martha stood behind him with the shotgun. And when the door gave way he fired six rounds into them in half as many seconds. Two of the Apaches fell and Martha stepped over them to fire both shotgun loads at the Apaches running for the willows. One of them went down. ”
The important words for me are…”Martha stepped over them”. She isn’t squeamish and handles herself as well as any man. As the plot uncoils, I start to realize that in many ways Martha is more level headed than her husband and certainly weighs every situation carefully before making a decision. She is a true partner to him, not the housecleaner and baby machine that many women were in this era. All the women in this book are women to be reckoned with. Lorraine Kidston, who is the daughter of one of the men opposing the Cables, is strong willed and sure of herself, even though she is difficult to like. She is intent on wedging herself between Paul and Martha, not because she is attracted to Paul, but because she is bored and enamored with her power over men.
Do you fight for what is yours, or do you move on?
So the Kidston brothers are on one side, and the Cables are on the other side. In the middle is the one armed man named Janroe who runs the general store in town. He is a man who could have stepped onto the screen of Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece Pulp Fiction and been perfectly at home. He lost his arm in the war. I could say that the war changes a man, but I have a feeling that Janroe was a psycho SOB before the war. The war just gives him an opportunity to let loose the demon inside. He is the key element of this book that keeps it from just being another western. He manipulates both sides of the conflict against each other. When things don’t move quickly enough, he does something to keep things agitated. He wants the Kidston brothers dead because they sell horses to the Union. He wants Cable dead because he wants Martha in his bed. He is smart, calculating, and ruthless.
Once you get the jist of him, he is a hard man to stomach.
Elmore Leonard wrote nine westerns, eight of them before he really started writing the great crime fiction novels that Hollywood fell in love with. They all have elements that reveal the writer he is going to be. I can’t help liking a guy who gets his start in Westerns and ends up writing some of the best noirish crime novels of his generation. The Library of America has decided that his novels deserve to be immortalized on acid free paper in their beautifully designed slip case or black dust jacketed books. They have released three collections so far. Over the weekend, I wrote them and asked if they had plans to collect his Westerns into a Library of America edition. They confirmed that they will be doing so in 2018.
A movie of the same name as the book was made in 1997 starring Tom Selleck and Suzy Amis.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
First edition paperback original copy of the book.
The Confederacy claims the lower half of New Mexico and Arizona as one of their states. The upper halves are still considered Union territory. Paul Cable homesteads on the Union side of Arizona, but despite the geography, he is originally from Texas and signs up to fight for the Confederacy.
He joins the 8th Texas Cavalry under the command of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest is an aggressive commander and a gifted tactician who believes a good defense is a better offense. ”Never stand and take a charge...charge them too.” Cable is shot several times in various campaigns, and the last time it is severe enough that, if he had been fighting in Vietnam, it would have been called a “good wound,” which is any wound that allows the soldier to go home.
After he recovers, he picks up his wife and kids in Texas and heads back to the homestead on the Sabre River, but when they arrive, like most of the South and West, things have changed. Men are living in their cabin, and a large horse herd is grazing on their land. They soon discover that their land will only be theirs if they are willing to take it back. Cable’s wife Martha is not a hothouse flower. She has grit to spare. She proves this when some Chiricahuas Apaches attack their spread. ”He stood waiting with a revolver in each hand. Martha stood behind him with the shotgun. And when the door gave way he fired six rounds into them in half as many seconds. Two of the Apaches fell and Martha stepped over them to fire both shotgun loads at the Apaches running for the willows. One of them went down. ”
The important words for me are…”Martha stepped over them”. She isn’t squeamish and handles herself as well as any man. As the plot uncoils, I start to realize that in many ways Martha is more level headed than her husband and certainly weighs every situation carefully before making a decision. She is a true partner to him, not the housecleaner and baby machine that many women were in this era. All the women in this book are women to be reckoned with. Lorraine Kidston, who is the daughter of one of the men opposing the Cables, is strong willed and sure of herself, even though she is difficult to like. She is intent on wedging herself between Paul and Martha, not because she is attracted to Paul, but because she is bored and enamored with her power over men.
Do you fight for what is yours, or do you move on?
So the Kidston brothers are on one side, and the Cables are on the other side. In the middle is the one armed man named Janroe who runs the general store in town. He is a man who could have stepped onto the screen of Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece Pulp Fiction and been perfectly at home. He lost his arm in the war. I could say that the war changes a man, but I have a feeling that Janroe was a psycho SOB before the war. The war just gives him an opportunity to let loose the demon inside. He is the key element of this book that keeps it from just being another western. He manipulates both sides of the conflict against each other. When things don’t move quickly enough, he does something to keep things agitated. He wants the Kidston brothers dead because they sell horses to the Union. He wants Cable dead because he wants Martha in his bed. He is smart, calculating, and ruthless.
Once you get the jist of him, he is a hard man to stomach.
Elmore Leonard wrote nine westerns, eight of them before he really started writing the great crime fiction novels that Hollywood fell in love with. They all have elements that reveal the writer he is going to be. I can’t help liking a guy who gets his start in Westerns and ends up writing some of the best noirish crime novels of his generation. The Library of America has decided that his novels deserve to be immortalized on acid free paper in their beautifully designed slip case or black dust jacketed books. They have released three collections so far. Over the weekend, I wrote them and asked if they had plans to collect his Westerns into a Library of America edition. They confirmed that they will be doing so in 2018.
A movie of the same name as the book was made in 1997 starring Tom Selleck and Suzy Amis.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
June 3, 2020
3.5 stars
"What would [General] Forrest do? That was a long time ago. But what would he do, Cable thought . . . Now think it out and do it, and maybe it will work. Whatever it is. What would Forrest do? Always back to him, because you know he'd do something. God, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, I need help - God's smile and Forrest's bag of tricks." -- the thoughts of protagonist Paul Cable, pages 84-85
Rugged and fairly quick-moving pulp Western novel from the salad days of Elmore Leonard's career - long before he earned the sobriquet 'The Dickens of Detroit,' and gained fame for his crime stories - centered on the laconic Civil War veteran Paul Cable. Cable and his family (a wife and three kids) are finally returning home to Arizona, still in its pre-state days as part of the New Mexico Territory, in the waning weeks of the divided nation's four-year conflict. Author Leonard wastes no time setting the plot into motion, with Cable learning in the opening pages that the area's general store is now run by the shifty Edward Janroe. Oh, and Janroe undiplomatically informs Cable that the family's homestead was appropriated by the Kidston brothers during Cable's war-related absence.
Of course this doesn't sit well with Cable - who just wants to quietly raise his family after the years of front-line combat - and, to add insult to prideful injury, he finds out that the two Kidstons (along with their small band of hired-goon gunmen) fought for the Union while Cable proudly served in the Confederacy. What follows is a standard 'horse opera' that is reminiscent of the Western B-movies regularly churned out by Hollywood in the 40's and 50's. While it may not be one of Leonard's classic books I liked that the character of Cable lived by a certain firm code akin to a knight, and tried to act as admirably or honorably as possible (he would not resort to outright murder or other thug-like activity in this conflict) under his difficult circumstances amidst the lawless frontier land.
"What would [General] Forrest do? That was a long time ago. But what would he do, Cable thought . . . Now think it out and do it, and maybe it will work. Whatever it is. What would Forrest do? Always back to him, because you know he'd do something. God, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, I need help - God's smile and Forrest's bag of tricks." -- the thoughts of protagonist Paul Cable, pages 84-85
Rugged and fairly quick-moving pulp Western novel from the salad days of Elmore Leonard's career - long before he earned the sobriquet 'The Dickens of Detroit,' and gained fame for his crime stories - centered on the laconic Civil War veteran Paul Cable. Cable and his family (a wife and three kids) are finally returning home to Arizona, still in its pre-state days as part of the New Mexico Territory, in the waning weeks of the divided nation's four-year conflict. Author Leonard wastes no time setting the plot into motion, with Cable learning in the opening pages that the area's general store is now run by the shifty Edward Janroe. Oh, and Janroe undiplomatically informs Cable that the family's homestead was appropriated by the Kidston brothers during Cable's war-related absence.
Of course this doesn't sit well with Cable - who just wants to quietly raise his family after the years of front-line combat - and, to add insult to prideful injury, he finds out that the two Kidstons (along with their small band of hired-goon gunmen) fought for the Union while Cable proudly served in the Confederacy. What follows is a standard 'horse opera' that is reminiscent of the Western B-movies regularly churned out by Hollywood in the 40's and 50's. While it may not be one of Leonard's classic books I liked that the character of Cable lived by a certain firm code akin to a knight, and tried to act as admirably or honorably as possible (he would not resort to outright murder or other thug-like activity in this conflict) under his difficult circumstances amidst the lawless frontier land.
January 20, 2019
“And she thought if you don't have the desire to fight or wait for something there's no reason for being on earth.”
― Elmore Leonard, Last Stand at Saber River
Last Stand at Saber River is the first book in Library of America's Westerns: Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories. A solid western published in the late 1950s with a lot of the same feel of Louis Lamour's pulps Westerns of the same period. My favorite description of Elmore Leonard's Westerns comes from Britian's New Musical Express, they called him "the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers" .
The book is set in the last year of the Civil War. The protagonist, Cable, comes home from to his land in Arizona to find that his land/homestead has been overun by two brothers (and their posse of 12 thug apostles) supplying the Union with horses. They have no intention of leaving. Cable, an officer under Bedford Forest, is between a hard rock and an adobe place. Lucky for Cable, he's got a heart of gold and a gun of steel, and an unyielding woman, yadda yadda.
No the prose isn't actually that bad. HOWEVER, I'm not very comfortable with the protagonist having come from Gen Bedford Forrest's 8th Texas Cavalry. This gives me pause. I recognize Forrest's genius, but also his many, many, many moral failings. So, utilizing as hero a Confederate soldier from that notorious Calvary comes with an automatic helluva lot of saddlebaggage. I see with Leonard was doing. He was showing morality stripped down. It wasn't about North or South. It was about man, taken away from War, deciding on whether it was right or wrong to kill another man. What limits do men place on themselves? In War? What happens when men place few limits? But I also don't think Leonard was writing a super-deep exploration of morality, war, and killing. Mostly, this was just a Wild West setting, with an interesting backstory, and a couple characters placed in each others way, and a young Elmore Leonard writing about the struggle and its inevitable conclusion. It was good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.as good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.
― Elmore Leonard, Last Stand at Saber River
Last Stand at Saber River is the first book in Library of America's Westerns: Last Stand at Saber River / Hombre / Valdez Is Coming / Forty Lashes Less One / Stories. A solid western published in the late 1950s with a lot of the same feel of Louis Lamour's pulps Westerns of the same period. My favorite description of Elmore Leonard's Westerns comes from Britian's New Musical Express, they called him "the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers" .
The book is set in the last year of the Civil War. The protagonist, Cable, comes home from to his land in Arizona to find that his land/homestead has been overun by two brothers (and their posse of 12 thug apostles) supplying the Union with horses. They have no intention of leaving. Cable, an officer under Bedford Forest, is between a hard rock and an adobe place. Lucky for Cable, he's got a heart of gold and a gun of steel, and an unyielding woman, yadda yadda.
No the prose isn't actually that bad. HOWEVER, I'm not very comfortable with the protagonist having come from Gen Bedford Forrest's 8th Texas Cavalry. This gives me pause. I recognize Forrest's genius, but also his many, many, many moral failings. So, utilizing as hero a Confederate soldier from that notorious Calvary comes with an automatic helluva lot of saddlebaggage. I see with Leonard was doing. He was showing morality stripped down. It wasn't about North or South. It was about man, taken away from War, deciding on whether it was right or wrong to kill another man. What limits do men place on themselves? In War? What happens when men place few limits? But I also don't think Leonard was writing a super-deep exploration of morality, war, and killing. Mostly, this was just a Wild West setting, with an interesting backstory, and a couple characters placed in each others way, and a young Elmore Leonard writing about the struggle and its inevitable conclusion. It was good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.as good, but not great. Elmore Leonoard would develop A LOT over the years. This one wasn't bad, just wasn't great.
May 10, 2023
An Early Elmore Leonard Western
Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) had a prolific career as a writer and is best-known for his crime novels. Leonard began as a writer of westerns. The Library of America has recently published a volume of Leonard's western novels and stories. The collections begins with the novel "Last Stand at Saber River", originally published in 1959 as a Dell paperback.
The novel is set in the Arizona territory at the end of the Civil War. The major character, Paul Cable, is returning to his home in Arizona after being discharged from a Confederate hospital. Cable had served as an office with Confederate cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Cable has a wife, Martha, and three small children. While Cable has been away, his home has been occupied and annexed by the two Kidstrom brothers who own the adjacent ranch. The use the property to supply cattle and horses to the Union Army. The story turns on Cable's efforts to recover his property. It involves a great deal of violence and intrigue.
Another Confederate veteran plays a prominent role in the story, a one-armed operator of a general store, Edward Janroe, who is involved in smuggling weapons to Confederate armies. Janroe is a highly sinister middleman between Cable and the Kidstroms.
The novel moves with a great deal of tension after a slow opening. The characters are types but also are individually developed. The taciturn, hard Cable seeks to reclaim his life and maintain a loving family relationship with his wife and children. Leonard develops a good deal of ambiguity in the character of the Kidstrom brothers resulting in some shifting alliances as the novel progresses. From the outset, Janroe is a thoroughly detestable figure.
The book offers a good portrayal of the Civil War and of its impact on the soldiers. It also shows the problems facing the combatants upon their return to civilian life, even in a place far removed from most of the action such as Arizona. Most of the characters are believably portrayed. In the book, violence does not end with the end of the Civil War but rather pervades this novel in the story of Cable, the Kidstroms and their hired hands, and Janroe. There is a toughness to this genre western and a sense of the need to fight for what one believes in and holds dear, in war and thereafter.
The writing is spare and direct, of the sort Leonard would develop further in later work. The book includes several sub-plots and many characters which make it difficult to follow particularly in the opening pages.
The novel is an excellent American genre western with a focus on character. I was glad to get to know it in the Library of America.
Robin Friedman
Elmore Leonard (1925 -- 2013) had a prolific career as a writer and is best-known for his crime novels. Leonard began as a writer of westerns. The Library of America has recently published a volume of Leonard's western novels and stories. The collections begins with the novel "Last Stand at Saber River", originally published in 1959 as a Dell paperback.
The novel is set in the Arizona territory at the end of the Civil War. The major character, Paul Cable, is returning to his home in Arizona after being discharged from a Confederate hospital. Cable had served as an office with Confederate cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Cable has a wife, Martha, and three small children. While Cable has been away, his home has been occupied and annexed by the two Kidstrom brothers who own the adjacent ranch. The use the property to supply cattle and horses to the Union Army. The story turns on Cable's efforts to recover his property. It involves a great deal of violence and intrigue.
Another Confederate veteran plays a prominent role in the story, a one-armed operator of a general store, Edward Janroe, who is involved in smuggling weapons to Confederate armies. Janroe is a highly sinister middleman between Cable and the Kidstroms.
The novel moves with a great deal of tension after a slow opening. The characters are types but also are individually developed. The taciturn, hard Cable seeks to reclaim his life and maintain a loving family relationship with his wife and children. Leonard develops a good deal of ambiguity in the character of the Kidstrom brothers resulting in some shifting alliances as the novel progresses. From the outset, Janroe is a thoroughly detestable figure.
The book offers a good portrayal of the Civil War and of its impact on the soldiers. It also shows the problems facing the combatants upon their return to civilian life, even in a place far removed from most of the action such as Arizona. Most of the characters are believably portrayed. In the book, violence does not end with the end of the Civil War but rather pervades this novel in the story of Cable, the Kidstroms and their hired hands, and Janroe. There is a toughness to this genre western and a sense of the need to fight for what one believes in and holds dear, in war and thereafter.
The writing is spare and direct, of the sort Leonard would develop further in later work. The book includes several sub-plots and many characters which make it difficult to follow particularly in the opening pages.
The novel is an excellent American genre western with a focus on character. I was glad to get to know it in the Library of America.
Robin Friedman
March 8, 2023
This short novel is the best western I've read so far among those in this most recent genre list (though not nearly as good at classic Van Tillberg's classic The Oxbow Incident). There's reason, I suppose, Leonard was the writer dujure for many movies in the 1990s. This work includes full characters, an engaging plot (with cliff hangers at the end of each chapter), and historical tie-ins. I was thoroughly entertained and wanting to read more than I am by a lot of fiction these days. The only thing disappointing was the end, which was sudden—I could have actually wished for a coda or an epilogue, though in a way that would have dissuited a work that was generally full of suprises. Still, without the coda, a certain amount of emotional payoff seemed absent.
The work concerns Paul Cable, a Confederate veteran returning to his home in the Arizona territory. In his absence, some Union-leaning ranchers have taken his property. Family (wife and three young kids) in tow, Cable needs his farm back, but the ranchers aren't about to surrender it. Meanwhile, the local general store has change hands. The new owner is himself a Confederate veteran but something seems off about him. Indeed, as Cable soon discovers, he's about as untrustworthy as most of the Yanks. For both, the Civil War looms large, even out here on the territory, where the war is far away.
The work concerns Paul Cable, a Confederate veteran returning to his home in the Arizona territory. In his absence, some Union-leaning ranchers have taken his property. Family (wife and three young kids) in tow, Cable needs his farm back, but the ranchers aren't about to surrender it. Meanwhile, the local general store has change hands. The new owner is himself a Confederate veteran but something seems off about him. Indeed, as Cable soon discovers, he's about as untrustworthy as most of the Yanks. For both, the Civil War looms large, even out here on the territory, where the war is far away.
December 2, 2017
Reading an Elmore Leonard book can be unsettling. His writing seems to speak privately to the reader’s mind where nothing is sacred and anything can happen. He plays with perceptions. He takes advantage of the human tendency to believe in one’s own righteousness while simultaneously suppressing truths to the contrary. He quietly forces the reader to acknowledge that there is never a "hero" in a Leonard book that is completely worthy of that distinction.
To this end, Last Stand at Saber River is Leonard at his typical best. Good and bad characters abound, but good is divided from bad based on the breadth of the character’s ability to see reality for what it is. As such, the good characters may perform evil acts, but they also recognize those acts for what they are. And the bad characters are those that simply placate their desires even if their desires produce positive results. This may sound confusing, but it’s not. In fact, the end result is life as it has always been.
The setting brings life to an old west that consisted of remote ranches located along remote riverbanks that supported life. This aspect of the book gives Last Stand a quiet and peaceful undertone that is contrary to other books of the genre that are filled with wooden plank towns, their bars with swinging doors, and rowdy brawls that spill out into the muddy streets. Picture instead cobbled streams of cool water fringed with willows and upper highlands of pinyon pines. Leonard paints a landscape and then places his story in the foreground.
The only detraction was one of the minor characters, the daughter of rancher that was transplanted from the eastern US. She added color to the plot, but she did not truly fit into the overall content of the book. Nevertheless, I’ve grown to depend upon Leonard to provide a refreshing reading experience and this book did not disappoint.
To this end, Last Stand at Saber River is Leonard at his typical best. Good and bad characters abound, but good is divided from bad based on the breadth of the character’s ability to see reality for what it is. As such, the good characters may perform evil acts, but they also recognize those acts for what they are. And the bad characters are those that simply placate their desires even if their desires produce positive results. This may sound confusing, but it’s not. In fact, the end result is life as it has always been.
The setting brings life to an old west that consisted of remote ranches located along remote riverbanks that supported life. This aspect of the book gives Last Stand a quiet and peaceful undertone that is contrary to other books of the genre that are filled with wooden plank towns, their bars with swinging doors, and rowdy brawls that spill out into the muddy streets. Picture instead cobbled streams of cool water fringed with willows and upper highlands of pinyon pines. Leonard paints a landscape and then places his story in the foreground.
The only detraction was one of the minor characters, the daughter of rancher that was transplanted from the eastern US. She added color to the plot, but she did not truly fit into the overall content of the book. Nevertheless, I’ve grown to depend upon Leonard to provide a refreshing reading experience and this book did not disappoint.
August 6, 2023
Elmore Leonard is able to take a simple and, at times, tropey, Western genre concept and find some pleasing depth to each of his characters. He imbues them with personal histories and tragedies that will later inform their motivations, and he also provides some early insight into wartime PTSD.
The tension is so tightly - yet subtly - wound that when the bullets do fly, you breathe relief.
The tension is so tightly - yet subtly - wound that when the bullets do fly, you breathe relief.
September 13, 2017
Leonard isn't the author to go to if you want a deep immersing sense of the Old West, and his dialogue could belong to modern characters. But he's definitely one to go to for a story driven by tension and characters who step off the page with larger-than-life personalities, which is at least one part of the great mythology of the Western. A few of the twists were expected (in Western trope fashion, which I happen to enjoy or I wouldn't keep reading Westerns), but a few of them were unexpected too. I enjoyed this as a typical Leonard read: I got to root for the good guy and anticipate the explosive climax of death for everybody else; I plowed through it fast and sighed with relief on the final page. No doubt I'll read him again.
May 15, 2019
Watching Elmore develop with each book is a pleasure. This western is more a suspense novel with horses. But, without fingerprints, without organized law enforcement, set on the frontier, this is still a Western.
September 23, 2014
Paul Cable, having fought on the Confederate side during the war, has returned with his family to his homestead on the Saber River, only to find that his land has been taken by the Kidstons', two wealthy brothers loyal to the Union. Cable thought he'd left the fighting behind him, but it seems he's now in the for fight of his life, not just for his home, but for the lives of his family as well. He has a possible ally in Southern sympathizer and gun-runner Janroe, but Janroe, who would like to see the Kidston's dead, may turn out to be Cable's worst enemy in disguise.
This one is very strongly about the concept of honor and family; Cable is reluctant to kill, even though Janroe makes an argument that it's STILL a war that's being waged, only without uniforms. LAST STAND AT SABER RIVER has a somewhat relaxed pace for the first 3/4s, even though there are some startling moments of action and violence. It really gets moving, though, in the last fourth, when revelations come to light and loyalties shift.
There are three female characters-- Cable's wife Martha, Luz, the girl who works at the store Janroe has taken over, and Duane Kidston's bored daughter Lorraine-- but all of them are remarkably well-drawn and believable for a Western written in the 1950's. Especially Martha. That was pretty refreshing. Yes, a rescue of Martha and the children takes place at the climax, but Martha has a hand in rescuing herself as significant as her husband.
Not my favorite Leonard Western, but very solid nonetheless.
This one is very strongly about the concept of honor and family; Cable is reluctant to kill, even though Janroe makes an argument that it's STILL a war that's being waged, only without uniforms. LAST STAND AT SABER RIVER has a somewhat relaxed pace for the first 3/4s, even though there are some startling moments of action and violence. It really gets moving, though, in the last fourth, when revelations come to light and loyalties shift.
There are three female characters-- Cable's wife Martha, Luz, the girl who works at the store Janroe has taken over, and Duane Kidston's bored daughter Lorraine-- but all of them are remarkably well-drawn and believable for a Western written in the 1950's. Especially Martha. That was pretty refreshing. Yes, a rescue of Martha and the children takes place at the climax, but Martha has a hand in rescuing herself as significant as her husband.
Not my favorite Leonard Western, but very solid nonetheless.
January 21, 2017
Confederate Soldier Paul Cable leaves the Civil War and returns home with his wife and family to Saber River. However since he’s been away the Kidston brothers Vern and Duane, along with their henchmen, have taken over his home and land. Can Cable trust the one-armed storekeeper and war veteran Janroe, who may not be what he seems, to help him get his home back? The path is set for what on the surface appears to be a formulaic Western showdown but as the author of Last Stand at Saber River is Elmore Leonard the narrative has many twists and turns. Tension slowly builds through a series of confrontations leading to an exhilarating climax. Once again Leonard creates strong complex characters even within the confines of the Western genre. To summarise this is another outstanding western novel from the late master crime author Elmore Leonard that surely deserves more recognition.
June 14, 2016
The next Elmore Leonard finally rose to the top of the pile. A Confederate army veteran returns home to Arizona with his young family to find the Union army have commandeered his land. Just a Western, but I always enjoy Leonard’s clear, terse style. The plotting of this novel (his 4th, 1959) is more satisfying than the first three, the villain has psychological depth, and the women characters have substance and drive the story as much as the men. Authorial habits that slightly jar: his habit of moving the POV about quite a bit, sometimes mid-scene, and the way he has his characters addressing themselves in the second person in their interior monologues.
December 29, 2021
Written by Elmore Leonard in 1959, my copy is published 2005. Leonard is famous for both his crime novels (Get Shorty, Mr Majestyk, Glitz, and Out of Sight) and also westerns (3:10 to Yuma, Hombre, Valdez is Coming, Joes Kidd, and The Bounty Hunters) and many of his books have been filmed.
Last Stand at Saber River took almost forty years to be filmed, as a TV movie starring Tom Selleck, Suzy Amis, Haley Joel Osment, Keith Carradine, David Carradine and David Dukes.
The film and the book differ mainly in the beginning and end sequences.
The film starts earlier than the book, filling in background that is flashbacked in the book. The Civil War still rages. Reported killed in action, Paul Cable is a Confederate veteran returning home to surprise his wife Martha and two children (they lost a third to disease while he was away fighting; though in the book the child is alive [economising on young actors]). His family has been staying with her parents but now he is going to take them to their homestead in Arizona, which they left during his absence. However, in the book it begins with them arriving at the trading post which is near to their homestead. But the owner has passed away and it is now part owned by Janroe who lost a hand in the war.
Cable soon learns that a Union-sympathising family has assumed control of Cable’s homestead and land. This is the Kidston family: Vern, his brother Duane and his daughter Lorraine. Some of the Kidston cowhands are staying at the homestead. Cable chases them off. Thus begins an ongoing feud between the two families. In the book Cable suffers two brutal beatings at the hands of the Kidston crew and Duane (the film doesn’t impose this on Selleck, he is tougher and not averse to killing in self defence).
Janroe harbours a powerful hate for the Union and all who supported the North. He is intent on engineering further conflict between the two families, even while both Vern and Lorraine are about to talk rather than fight with Cable and Martha.
It is all brought to a head in the final pages and is taut and tense, as one is accustomed when reading any Elmore Leonard book.
However, the film moves beyond the book, stretching out the suspense, determined on inserting more action and conflict.
Both endings work for their different media.
If you like the actor Tom Selleck, then you should enjoy this film. If you like a novel with conflict, strong characterisation and a moral core, then you’ll enjoy the book.
Last Stand at Saber River took almost forty years to be filmed, as a TV movie starring Tom Selleck, Suzy Amis, Haley Joel Osment, Keith Carradine, David Carradine and David Dukes.
The film and the book differ mainly in the beginning and end sequences.
The film starts earlier than the book, filling in background that is flashbacked in the book. The Civil War still rages. Reported killed in action, Paul Cable is a Confederate veteran returning home to surprise his wife Martha and two children (they lost a third to disease while he was away fighting; though in the book the child is alive [economising on young actors]). His family has been staying with her parents but now he is going to take them to their homestead in Arizona, which they left during his absence. However, in the book it begins with them arriving at the trading post which is near to their homestead. But the owner has passed away and it is now part owned by Janroe who lost a hand in the war.
Cable soon learns that a Union-sympathising family has assumed control of Cable’s homestead and land. This is the Kidston family: Vern, his brother Duane and his daughter Lorraine. Some of the Kidston cowhands are staying at the homestead. Cable chases them off. Thus begins an ongoing feud between the two families. In the book Cable suffers two brutal beatings at the hands of the Kidston crew and Duane (the film doesn’t impose this on Selleck, he is tougher and not averse to killing in self defence).
Janroe harbours a powerful hate for the Union and all who supported the North. He is intent on engineering further conflict between the two families, even while both Vern and Lorraine are about to talk rather than fight with Cable and Martha.
It is all brought to a head in the final pages and is taut and tense, as one is accustomed when reading any Elmore Leonard book.
However, the film moves beyond the book, stretching out the suspense, determined on inserting more action and conflict.
Both endings work for their different media.
If you like the actor Tom Selleck, then you should enjoy this film. If you like a novel with conflict, strong characterisation and a moral core, then you’ll enjoy the book.
May 29, 2023
Paul Cable is a recently discharged Confederate soldier. He survived several gunshot wounds. He picks up his wife and three children, and returns to his ranch on the Sabre River, only to find it is occupied by men who work for the Kitson brothers, Duane and Vern.
There is a gunrunner named Janroe who has taken over the Denaman General store. Janroe lost an arm at Chancellorsville. He wants Cable to kill the Kitsons.
Cable is beaten twice by Kitson’s men but will not kill them. One night, after one of the beatings, he is left with no choice. Janroe goes riding and comes upon Cable’s place, which is empty. In order to spur on Cable, he enters the house and start smashing things and then rides away.
Along the way, Janroe has several very vivid recollections of his own failures, and malfeasance in the Civil War.
Cable and Vern Kitson are both slow to commit and slow to act. Their temperaments serve them both later on.
The story is fine. I would have preferred for it to have begun a little earlier to give us a chance to see how Paul and Martha Cable work together. Then Paul’s ruminations could have been conversations. I find that Cable’s hesitance put his wife and children in danger throughout the work. There is no attempt on anyone’s part to gather information or evidence. They think about things and conjecture or they emote violently.
There is a gunrunner named Janroe who has taken over the Denaman General store. Janroe lost an arm at Chancellorsville. He wants Cable to kill the Kitsons.
Cable is beaten twice by Kitson’s men but will not kill them. One night, after one of the beatings, he is left with no choice. Janroe goes riding and comes upon Cable’s place, which is empty. In order to spur on Cable, he enters the house and start smashing things and then rides away.
Along the way, Janroe has several very vivid recollections of his own failures, and malfeasance in the Civil War.
Cable and Vern Kitson are both slow to commit and slow to act. Their temperaments serve them both later on.
The story is fine. I would have preferred for it to have begun a little earlier to give us a chance to see how Paul and Martha Cable work together. Then Paul’s ruminations could have been conversations. I find that Cable’s hesitance put his wife and children in danger throughout the work. There is no attempt on anyone’s part to gather information or evidence. They think about things and conjecture or they emote violently.
August 4, 2019
Basically a re-read, plucked out of my library, this is one of my favorite Civil War reads, the wars close to ending and Elmore at his best. Enjoying it you know what's come but it stands out more due to all the descriptive details you forgot and makes it all the better.
Elmore Leonard's in class of his own, along with several other authors that never ever disappointed their readers, quite the wordsmith and creates a nice escape from the annoying things in life.
Could Leonard ever bring his character's too life, good or bad they helped tell his stories, he put you the reader into the pages, your right there in the action and never wasted a word.
The "Last Stand at Saber River", set in Arizona the spring of 1865 and Paul Cable returns home along with his wife Maggie, their 3 children to the homestead they left when he went of to fight for the Confederacy. Due to his wounds from the war, he's sent home, he returns to Texas for his family and not to give too much away.
Leonard spins a epic yarn, as Cabe reclaims the home he left behind, he fights to reclaim it from another Rancher who took over possession of it, he makes it suspenseful, with a few twist and turns and it's the author at his best.
Elmore Leonard's in class of his own, along with several other authors that never ever disappointed their readers, quite the wordsmith and creates a nice escape from the annoying things in life.
Could Leonard ever bring his character's too life, good or bad they helped tell his stories, he put you the reader into the pages, your right there in the action and never wasted a word.
The "Last Stand at Saber River", set in Arizona the spring of 1865 and Paul Cable returns home along with his wife Maggie, their 3 children to the homestead they left when he went of to fight for the Confederacy. Due to his wounds from the war, he's sent home, he returns to Texas for his family and not to give too much away.
Leonard spins a epic yarn, as Cabe reclaims the home he left behind, he fights to reclaim it from another Rancher who took over possession of it, he makes it suspenseful, with a few twist and turns and it's the author at his best.
June 27, 2022
This is an early Elmore Leonard novel and part of the Library of America collection I own. Compared to some of his other later writing, this was nothing special. It felt like a 60's era episode of Gunsmoke. But it still had Leonard's quick, clear prose. It just seemed a little dated.
January 15, 2020
M'eh. On OK western novel with nothing special to say or offer. A few good quotes. Good way to kill a day while I'm laid up with back issues.
May 31, 2021
Believable plot and setting. Although the movie was good, nothing beats good writing and good narration.
February 23, 2022
Well-written pulp. It’s just 3:10 To Yuma does it better.
August 5, 2018
“And if times if equals if, and there’s no getting out of this.”(about 4 pages into Chapter 7) I’m happily revisiting Elmore Leonard’s westerns. I’ve read them, but most at least 20 years ago. One challenge of genre fiction is meeting most of the “conventions” (violence, good guy who will mostly triumph, in other words meeting the reader’s expectations), but still generating surprises and writing scenes that have never been written before (courtesy of Raymond Chandler, I believe). Leonard did both of these things right from The Bounty Hunters (1953) forward until he became one of America’s premier crime writers.
So while this novel meets the standard requirements, it has a number of aspects that make it stand out, make it feel distinctive. Leonard often spoke about the research that went into his novels, and in this case, while experience with and research about Arizona landscapes is here and in other of his novels, this one also seems influenced by a fair amount of research related to military aspects of the American civil war. A number of real military leaders, and battles, are referenced. And at least three of the main protagonists fought in that war: some for the south, some for the north. And, as in The Bounty Hunters (1953), some characters’ war exploits and the aftermath of those same, become factors in the book’s action. Confederate veteran Paul Cable is returning, along with his wife and three small children, to the Arizona river basin of the title. Having the protagonist be a family man is in itself different than much of the typical western genre fare.
But where this book really stands out is the depth of characterization. Only one of his forty plus western and suspense novels was told from the first person point of view. But the rotating point of view allows him to delve into many of the characters’ lives and attitudes and speech patterns. Of course the rotating point of view is not unusual in westerns and was frequently employed by Ernest Haycox, Luke Short, and others. But the depth of characterization, and often empathy for the most unsympathetic of characters, stands out in most Leonard novels.
So while this novel meets the standard requirements, it has a number of aspects that make it stand out, make it feel distinctive. Leonard often spoke about the research that went into his novels, and in this case, while experience with and research about Arizona landscapes is here and in other of his novels, this one also seems influenced by a fair amount of research related to military aspects of the American civil war. A number of real military leaders, and battles, are referenced. And at least three of the main protagonists fought in that war: some for the south, some for the north. And, as in The Bounty Hunters (1953), some characters’ war exploits and the aftermath of those same, become factors in the book’s action. Confederate veteran Paul Cable is returning, along with his wife and three small children, to the Arizona river basin of the title. Having the protagonist be a family man is in itself different than much of the typical western genre fare.
But where this book really stands out is the depth of characterization. Only one of his forty plus western and suspense novels was told from the first person point of view. But the rotating point of view allows him to delve into many of the characters’ lives and attitudes and speech patterns. Of course the rotating point of view is not unusual in westerns and was frequently employed by Ernest Haycox, Luke Short, and others. But the depth of characterization, and often empathy for the most unsympathetic of characters, stands out in most Leonard novels.
September 12, 2018
Good, well-plotted western gunfight story about a guy who comes back from the Civil War to New Mexico to find his land snatched by a neighbor. Leonard gives you just enough plot twists and characterization to the villain that it works.
The thing that stuck out to me, reading it the first time in 2018, is that we don't really get a convincing backstory for the character having gone off to fight in the Civil War and participate in one of its most notorious atrocities, the massacre of surrendered U.S. soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessee by notorious slave trader turned cavalry leader and later Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. Seems like to go from New Mexico to Tennessee, leaving your bloodily-acquired farm (our guy having killed a number of Apaches in the course of holding on to the place) and wife and children behind would require some fairly strong belief in the grand cause of treason in defense of slavery or something. But Leonard doesn't really give us any of that and only refers back to our narrator's war service when it's needed to remind him how to fight. That bit rang false in an other wise pretty good story.
The thing that stuck out to me, reading it the first time in 2018, is that we don't really get a convincing backstory for the character having gone off to fight in the Civil War and participate in one of its most notorious atrocities, the massacre of surrendered U.S. soldiers at Fort Pillow, Tennessee by notorious slave trader turned cavalry leader and later Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. Seems like to go from New Mexico to Tennessee, leaving your bloodily-acquired farm (our guy having killed a number of Apaches in the course of holding on to the place) and wife and children behind would require some fairly strong belief in the grand cause of treason in defense of slavery or something. But Leonard doesn't really give us any of that and only refers back to our narrator's war service when it's needed to remind him how to fight. That bit rang false in an other wise pretty good story.
August 17, 2019
A while ago, I promised to read some Elmore Leonard. I haven't been great following up that commitment so far. But I did enjoy this early-career Western by one of America's great crime writers.
Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, the novel follows Paul Cable – a former Confederate soldier – who, along with his wife Martha and three children, returns to his homestead, to find it occupied by neighbouring landholders. The conflict between the Cables and the rival ranchers, the Kidstroms, drives the increasing tension and violence of the novel, which also draws on the darker fissures of American identity hinted at in the Civil War context.
Leonard's writing is crisp. Characters are quickly drawn but mostly engaging and believable. Despite the well-worn tropes of the Western genre, Leonard also doesn't smooth away complexities of character or moral ambiguities of action.
I know it's an early work, but I enjoyed it as an introduction to Elmore Leonard.
Set in the aftermath of the Civil War, the novel follows Paul Cable – a former Confederate soldier – who, along with his wife Martha and three children, returns to his homestead, to find it occupied by neighbouring landholders. The conflict between the Cables and the rival ranchers, the Kidstroms, drives the increasing tension and violence of the novel, which also draws on the darker fissures of American identity hinted at in the Civil War context.
Leonard's writing is crisp. Characters are quickly drawn but mostly engaging and believable. Despite the well-worn tropes of the Western genre, Leonard also doesn't smooth away complexities of character or moral ambiguities of action.
I know it's an early work, but I enjoyed it as an introduction to Elmore Leonard.
April 30, 2012
Leonard's laconic style is well suited to Westerns. The writing in this novel is as terse as the characters. It is those characters that make this novel what it is. While Leonard does not waste a lot of words, his characters are always well fleshed out, complex and, most importantly, believable. It goes without saying that people are complex and Leonard captures this complexity as well as any novelist writing today.
Last Stand at Saber River is, on some levels a deconstruction of the classic Western. Leonard sets up a classic confrontation and, while the novel does not shy away from violence, the morality of that violence does not go unexplored. War is war, self-defense is self-defense and murder is murder. When those lines start to blur, a moral man will weigh his actions carefully and that conflict is the heart of this book.
Last Stand at Saber River is, on some levels a deconstruction of the classic Western. Leonard sets up a classic confrontation and, while the novel does not shy away from violence, the morality of that violence does not go unexplored. War is war, self-defense is self-defense and murder is murder. When those lines start to blur, a moral man will weigh his actions carefully and that conflict is the heart of this book.
August 15, 2014
Another winner by Elmore Leonard. In these early works he seems to favor the strong, silent hero. His heroes take a lot of abuse but show restraint in responding until they are pushed to their limits. He also shows that his hero in this book can take an adversarial relationship and turn it around. In this book, his hero, Paul Cable, is a rebel soldier returning home just before the end of the Civil War. He finds that his house and land have been occupied by a group of men that are supplying fresh horses to the Union Army. Instead of going in to this situation with guns blazing, he seeks to work it out with the group through many different avenues. By the end of the book, we find Cable and his adversary uniting against a common enemy. Leonard ends the book abruptly leaving us to speculate how the future will turn out for these two likeable, but amazingly similar, characters.
August 9, 2018
Awesome. Beginning to end Leonard is a master storyteller. I love Leonard books, but am not a huge fan of the western genre. I grabbed 4-5 of his western paperbacks at a closing sale of a used bookstore and I am so glad I did. This book was sheer perfection in storytelling and a great example of how Leonard can take a very simple idea and keep you gripped and wanting to keep going for more than 200 pages. Highly recommended.
May 4, 2016
Although set in the Southwest during the Civil War, this is less of a typical western and more a psychological thriller and a study of character when faced with adversity and overwhelming odds.
Leonard's terse dialog (think of Hemingway writing a western), and fast-paced plotting makes it hard to put down. As good as this genre gets.
Leonard's terse dialog (think of Hemingway writing a western), and fast-paced plotting makes it hard to put down. As good as this genre gets.
May 9, 2016
"Western - Paul Cable returns from the Civil War to find two brothers—Union men—have claimed his spread and they're not about to give it back, leaving Cable and his family no place to settle in peace. It seems this war is not yet over for Paul Cable. But no one's going to take away his land and his future—not with their laws, their lies, or their guns.
"
"
June 11, 2017
Does a great job of establishing a tension and maintaining it throughout.
August 4, 2017
Fun smart western
November 18, 2017
Excellent writing.
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