Ride a Westward Wind

This is a fun-read western, but it is not pulp fiction. It’s a classic human conflict in a western setting, with serious philosophical issues. Think of “The Ox-Bow Incident,” the classic novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark, but as readable as a Louis L’Amour western. A young man finds himself an outsider among the rough hands of a western ranch in Idaho during the Great Depression. An impassable rift between the kid and the cowboys happens on a scorching hot day in August, when men’s tempers are boiling. The kid’s working partner that day is violently killed when he impulsively and violently confronts a vagrant believed to be trespassing across the ranch. Critical events during the seconds leading to the cowboy’s violent death are not clear. Unable to save his friend, the kid rides for help and a posse forms. The kid believes the cowboy’s provocation led to his own death. But the ranch hands in the posse are convinced the tramp caused the death, so they insist on hanging him. Serious issues beset the kid and the ranch during the three difficult days after the death. The personal conflicts will be man-making for the young cowboy. The question is whether the posse will reflect and deal with its conflicts in a civilized way.