RARA-AVIS: Ken Breun and Louis L'Amour and Graham Rawle

From: Randy Krbechek (randyk@psnw.com)
Date: 28 Jan 2009

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    Greetings from Fresno:

    I was travelling recently, and came across "The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 6: The Crime Stories." I liked the first short story, so I picked it up.

    http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Short-Stories-Louis-LAmour/dp/0553805312/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233167578&sr=8-11

    After that, it went downhill. The stories are flat, and lack character development. Further, I don't see how L'Amour wrote all of the titles that are credited to him. I'm starting to think he had some paid staff writers, and he put his name on the books.

    Look, this "version 6" of short stories clocks in at 576 pages. Not pages with lots of white space; pages with lots of words. That translates to at least 3,000 pages of short stories, plus at least 50 novels credited to him. That's a hellacious output.

    As I got frustrated, I went to the local bookstore and picked up
    "Ammunition" by Ken Breun.

    http://www.amazon.com/Ammunition-Inspector-Brant-Ken-Bruen/dp/0312341458/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233167621&sr=8-4

    I feel like the nursery story - "that one fits just right." Easy to read, funny, profane, good story line. So, thumbs up to Breun.

    Also, I found a recent version of "Wizard of Oz" that's very entertaining, with illustrations by Graham Rawle.

    http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Oz-L-Frank-Baum/dp/1582434557/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233168177&sr=1-7

    I could never get into this story before, but I'm having a good time with this edition.

    Bye. Randy Krbechek Fresno, CA
            

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