Louis Lamour Book Reviews

There are two words that appear throughout various Louis L’amour novels that really bother me.

Sojer (Slang for Soldier)

Injun (Indian)

Both words are used by various nefarious characters as derogatory terms.  The politically correct movement of the very recent past has strongly discouraged these types of words and phrases and more than a little bit of that movement has ingrained itself into my personality.

In most cases I enjoy putting myself into the time period of the book that I am reading, and L’amour does a wonderful job of recreating the old west.  Both “Sojer” and “Injun” are authentic uses of the words and correctly placed, but they still grate on me.

Part of the problem may be that the only time they seem to appear is when a bad guy uses them.  They are a meta-clue as to who to watch out for and give away pieces of the plot without allowing the reader to solve the mystery organically.