I have never read a bad Elmore Leonard book. First published in 1979, this is one of his Westerns. Leonard started out on Westerns; when he was a fledgling novelist the Western was the leading genre for several media. He distingquished himself early and often.
The title of Gunsights is pretty lame. This book could have had any number of titles that would have served it better, but that doesn't seem to mattter in the long run. This is still a good book, the characterizations, plotting and settings perfectly and economically depicted. Leonard does everything he can to keep the story from getting too exciting or action-packed. He opts instead for a naturalistic tone and while there are shootouts and romances and adventures, he keeps knocking the pace down into an everyday reality of American life in the 1880's. It is one of the most amazing things about the book; he knows when to build and when to tamp it down.
The last one-third of the book focuses on the main events, a showdown that excites the media. The media, represented here by newspapermen, photographers and even a Wild West showman, are busy mythologizing the Wild West as fast as it happens. The protagonists of the book started out as tough honbres, resourceful, brave and deadly good shots. They are larger than life. By the time the final scenes are getting underway they come across as relics of a previous time. Larry McMurtry has mentioned that the Old West and the epic cattle drives and buffalo hunts all happened within a couple of generations and that one long life could have encompassed all of the Old West time period. Many of those who lived through it also saw it fade away in front of their eyes. That's really what this book is about, and it turns a genre book into a history lesson and leaves us with a couple of vivid characters that we wish we could have spent more time with.
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