Shane by Jack Schaefer (Audiobook Review)

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Title: Shane
Author: Jack Schaefer
Narrator: Grover Gardner
Copyright: 2010, Blackstone Audio
Duration: 4 hours, 3 minutes
Genres: western
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by Blackstone Audio.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Shane, the traveller and ex-gunfighter, a mysterious gunman who enters into the life of Joe Starrett and his family and carves a place for himself in their hearts. Although he tries to leave his gunslinging past behind, refusing to even carry a gun, he decides to fight Fletcher and Wilson, the town enemies, in order to save Joe Starrett’s farm.
“He rode into our valley in the summer of ’89, a slim man, dressed in black. ‘Call me Shane,’ he said. He never told us more. There was a deadly calm in the valley that summer, a slow, climbing tension that seemed to focus on Shane. ‘There’s something about him,’ Mother said. ‘Something...dangerous...’ ‘He’s dangerous all right,’ Father said, ‘...but not to us...’ ‘He’s like one of these here slow burning fuses,’ the mule skinner said. ‘Quiet...so quiet you forget it’s burning till it sets off a hell of a blow of trouble. And there’s trouble brewing.’”
The story of Shane is seen through the eyes of Bob Starrett, the farmer's boy who befriends Shane. Bob takes the reader out of the realm of adulthood. Looking at Shane and life through his eyes allows a different perspective, one of awe and reverence and one tempered by the boyishness of the Old West.
©1949 Jack Schaefer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Shane is the classic tale of a man trying to escape his past. Shane rode in out of the clear blue sky, an unknown man from an unknown land, not really sure what he was looking for. But when he came across Joe Starrett and his small farm, Shane thought he just might have found something worth stopping for. Here is the opportunity he has been looking for, a chance to put down the gun and do something worthwhile with his hands; a chance to start over in other words. But those of us who have tried to run from the past know that it always catches up again.
Every western has its hero, and there’s always a land-hungry villain who’s just never happy seeing other people get a slice of what he considers to be his pie. In Shane, the bad guy is Fletcher. Fletcher wants Starrett’s land, and everyone else’s, and was well on his way to muscling the others out, until Shane came along. It’s almost sad watching Shane try to avoid the inevitable fight, but it’s also a little thrilling when he finally straps on his gun and goes to town. It’s actually a pretty common theme in fictional stories: the bad guy pushes and pushes, and ends up getting more than he bargained for. We’ve seen it countless times, in movies like Braveheart, Rambo, The Karate Kid, and at least three of the Rocky movies.
Narrator Grover Gardner did a good job with Shane. His voices were pretty good, and I like the natural way he reads dialogue.
Shane has been around for a long time, and if you haven’t read it yet you should give it a try. I remember reading it when I was in school and it brought back some good memories.

FILM ADAPTATION: Shane was adapted to film in 1953 and starred Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Jack Palance who later made a name for himself on the television series, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. It was okay as far as movies go, but I have to admit that the Shane in the film was kind of a wimp compared to the Shane in the book. Other than that, it stuck reasonably close to Schaefer’s story.

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If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get “Shane” by Jack Schaefer (Unabridged Audiobook) from Blackstone Audio.

Interested in the film?
Get "Shane" starring Alan Ladd and Jack Palance on DVD from Amazon.com.

This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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