MADreads

Three-Ten to the 1950s

January 22nd, 2008 Jon - Central Library

There isn’t much to the short stories collected in Three-Ten to Yuma. The title story is over and done in the blink of an eye.  I can see that the elements of the story would make for an exciting film, but the screenwriters must have done a great deal of fleshing-out to get this little Western up to its 122-minute running time.

Even the best of the stories in the collection, “Long Night” and “The Captives,” play out in too facile a fashion for my tastes.  They’re fast-paced, at least.  You could read them on an airplane or while waiting in a noisy station for a train of your own, and they’ll help pass the time without demanding too much of you.  I haven’t read Elmore Leonard before, so I’m interested to compare these early stories, all Westerns, all written in the 1950s, with his later, and better-known, crime novels.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Recreational Fiction, Short Stories