1984; 468 pages. New Author? : Yes. Genres: Historical Fiction; Action-Adventure. Overall Rating: 7*/10.
For young Mathurin Kerbouchard, it’s time to
leave home. That’s not a decision he has
spent a long time contemplating, but last night forces of the local evil powermonger, the Baron de Tournemine killed his mother and burnt down his home
in Brittany.
Mathurin barely escaped by fleeing into the underbrush, and the
Baron’s henchmen are sure to return today to hunt him down and kill him. He needs to flee immediately, and hopefully
find safe haven with his father.
Alas, his father, Jean
Kerbouchard is a pirate. Tracking him
down is going to be almost impossible, since pirates like to keep their whereabouts a secret. But hey look! There’s a ship getting ready to sail just
below where Mathurin is hiding. Maybe they've heard something about his dad's whereabouts and maybe he
can hitch a ride with them.
What a shame that the only opening
they have on their ship is for a galley slave.
What’s To Like...
The Walking Drum
chronicles the travels of Mathurin Kerbouchard around Europe, and later western
Asia, as he tries to find news of, and make contact with, his father. But the story takes place in 1176 AD, and long-distance communication is understandably spotty. One source says his dad is
cruising the seas around Cyprus doing the piracy thing, another says he’s
dead. A third source says he’s being
held prisoner in an impregnable fortress in Persia. None of the sources are up-to-date or
reliable.
As a work of Historical Fiction,
The Walking Drum succeeds wonderfully.
It quickly becomes obvious that Louis L’Amour did a ton of research for this novel. The first part of the book takes
place in Moorish Spain, at that time one of the most civilized places in the
world. Books are readily available, and
Mathurin quickly becomes absorbed in both them and the learning of foreign languages.
On a more practical note, he also becomes
skilled in the use of weapons and the charming of beautiful women. The latter necessitates the use of the former
since jealous beaus and jilted lovers abound, leading to lots of action scenes. When Mathurin finally
sets out to try to find his father, the adventures kick in.
The story is told in the
first-person POV, and there are two maps in the front of
the book – one of Europe, one of Southwest Asia – that serve as a medieval GPS
system for keeping track of Mathurin’s wanderings. His fortunes rise and fall; sometimes his
means of travel are magnificent Arab horses, other times he’s reduced to
walking. The book’s title comes from a huge drum that's sometimes beaten to set the pace for pedestrians tagging along in a caravan, but it also can mean the internal pace a walker sets when faced with the prospect
of a long, grueling trek. You just set your pace to that imaginary drum and get on with it.
Louis L’Amour includes dozens
of “diversions” into the historical details of 1179 AD. It was fun to sit with Mathurin in the coffee
shops of Cordoba and discuss philosophy with other scholars, or dispense personal opinions of the
works of ancient writers such as Socrates and Plato. And if coffee’s not your cup of tea, you can
treat yourself to a refreshing mug of sherbet. The author gives the etymology of medieval words like “assassins” and “grocer”,
and relates how Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician, calculated the diameter of
the Earth way back in 194 BC, meaning that the stuff you were taught in grade
school about Columbus “discovering” the Earth was round is pure malarkey.
Kewlest New Word ...
Raubritter
(n.) : a robber baron; a robber
knight (German)
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 1,801 ratings
and 615 reviews.
Goodreads: 4.24*/5,
based on 8,644
ratings and 787 reviews.
Excerpts...
My father had brought from Moorish Spain a
love of beauty and cleanliness. So,
accustomed to my own home, I could not abide the ill-smelling castles of nobles
who had little but weapons and pride.
The old Crusaders learned a little, but
merchants and minstrels had picked up the Moorish habit of bathing, changing
their clothing instead of allowing it to wear out and drop off. Occasionally, travelers brought books to
their homes. But books of any kind were
rare in the land of the Franks, and the few available were eagerly read—but
read only in private for fear the church might disapprove. (pg. 149)
“Have you no reverence?” the teacher
demanded.
“I have reverence for all who ask questions
and seek honest answers.”
“A philosopher!” laughed a student.
“A wanderer in search of answers,” I said,
then to the teacher, “You asked if I have reverence? I have reverence for truth, but I do not know
what truth is. I suspect there are many
truths, and therefore, I suspect all who claim to have the truth.” (pg. 245)
“A scholar with
money! What have you done, robbed a
priest?” (pg. 250)
It should be noted that the
text of The Walking Drum is incredibly
clean. I didn’t note any cusswords, nor
any rolls-in-the-hay, which is amazing given that Mathurin is constantly
beguiling beautiful women.
The Historical Fiction aspect is excellently done, and there’s enough
thrills-&-spills to make Dirk Pitt jealous.
So why the mediocre rating?
Well for starters, the
character-development is poor. Mathurin is especially unrealistic: he becomes an expert instantly in
any skill he becomes interested in, including philosophy, debating, acrobatics,
horsemanship, weaponry, languages, escapes, and of course, women.
The storytelling is shallow and simplistic. The main plotline is Mathurin’s search for
his father, but for the first half of the book you’re left wondering when the
heck he’s going to get started. When he
finally gets around to it, his crafty plan for getting into where is father is
being held works only because of a couple of way-too-convenient godsends.
The ending is exciting but
terribly contrived. The main baddie is a
complete idiot. He arranges a meeting
between Mathurin and his father (idiocy #1),
but allows Mathurin to wear his trusty sword when doing so (idiocy
#2), then demands that Mathurin commit an unspeakable atrocity
on his dad (idiocy #3). Even so, it takes a convenient “secret door” (idiocy #4) with a convenient 24-hour hiding
place (idiocy #5) to make the rescue
attempt work.
Louis L’Amour is of course known primarily for his writing of Classic Western novels. In reading the Wikipedia article about him,
it appears the above critiques are typical of his writing style. Luckily, I read The Walking Drum to get a "feel" for life in Europe during the 12th Century, and in the respect, the book did not disappoint. But I wasn't left with a desire to read any of his westerns.
7 Stars. The main plotline, that of Mathurin rescuing his father, is adequately resolved. But the tale ends with our hero about to set out for Hind (present-day India) to reunite with one of his ladyloves. That was the intended sequel, and a third book was also planned, with Mathurin journeying all the way to China. Alas, those two books were never written, most likely due to the author’s declining health. The Walking Drum was published in 1984, Louis L’Amour died of lung cancer in 1988. I dearly wish his estate would hire somebody to write those sequels.
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