Contention

I'm in no hurry to rip through my current summer read; in fact, I limit myself to navigating several stories a night. It's called the 'pace' train. I'm drawing out the pages for as long as I can. The book I'm reading is not on any current best seller list; it's an unfashionable genre and topic. I picked up the book after reading an article on the author, screenwriter, Elmore Leonard. I was intrigued that the same man who wrote novels, 'Get Shorty,' 'Out of Sight,' and 'Rum Punch' (became the great cult film Jackie Brown) and a slew of other pulp fiction also wrote material which were made into some classic westerns like, 'Three-ten to Yuma' 'Hombre' and 'Valdez is Coming.' So one of my last errands while working the old job was to collect 'The Complete Western Stories' of Elmore Leonard from the shelf of the Main Library. The book was too good to give a pass to. I wanted to know how a writer went from point A, old Southwestern towns like Nogales, San Carlos, Yuma, and Contention to Point B, the streets of Los Angeles, Hollywood, Florida etc. The inside jacket of the book is plastered with retro covers of magazines that published the 30 short stories of the collection. Trade names like, 'Argosy,' 'Zane Gray's Western' 'Saturday Evening Post' and 'Western' jump off the page. I'm about two thirds through the book and love the style. Several weeks ago, TCM showed the original 1957 version of 'Three-ten to Yuma.' Glenn ford called it one of his favorite roles. I'm not sure just yet how Mr. Leonard morphed from those 2 points but I'm beginning to understand that characters of interest and depth can survey whatever landscape they're framed in and move on from there. It's the journey. And what a journey those westerns portray.