Book Review - The Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour

This book was especially fun for me to read. Some may think it is depressing as the book starts out. The main character is a young boy and ends up in very unfortunate circumstances. The young boy triumphs over his dire situations, but as he grows he learns harder and harder lessons of life.

After having read a few classics now I feel like they hold so much more depth than modern books that are written purely for shallow entertainment. I'm glad I've discovered books that benefit me for my character and make me want to read them over and over again.

I really loved how much history is in this book. I'm sure you couldn't learn more about the area of Los Angeles and the Mohave Desert at this particular time period than you could from any other book. It gives a good feeling of how the frontier functioned and how different the government was back then.

The main character in the book feels a connection to the desert, especially as he leaves the desert to find out if there is more for him in the city. I wonder if everyone feels a connection to nature because I have often joked about how my family possesses a hermit gene and feels the urges to leave the city behind and run to the mountains. I felt like I could relate to this book in that way.

This book was not particularly difficult to read. Most of the new words I learned were Spanish words that were often used by Anglos back then. It was fun to hear and learn the lingo that, what we now call "the old-timers," would have used.

I thoroughly loved this book and all of the mystery and adventure in it. I will definitely read it with my kids, probably while they are still young.