Hondo
Published 2004 · 194 pages · 53,350 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Romance
How hard is Hondo to read?
Hondo scores 21 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 24 out of 100
- L'Amour writes plain frontier prose with a little period and cavalry slang. It sits close to Beach Read in its accessibility.
- Sentence structure: 24 out of 100
- Sentences are short, declarative and punchy, with plain dialogue. They are as direct as 1984, with little subordination.
- Abstraction: 26 out of 100
- The story is concrete: riding, fighting, ranch chores and survival. The ideas about honor and cultural conflict stay close to the action, like Asterix the Gaul in directness.
- Information density: 24 out of 100
- A short novel of about 53,000 words with a single plotline and few characters. It reads lighter than The Housemaid.
- Narrative indirection: 22 out of 100
- Events and motives are stated plainly through Hondo and Angie's action and speech. Little needs inferring, much like Beach Read.
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- The desert and the lone rider carry meaning in the usual Western way, but nothing builds beyond that. It is lighter than Orwell's signposted allegory.
- Ironic distance: 18 out of 100
- The tone is earnest with dry laconic humor. The narration doesn't undercut its hero, so it sits near The Tattooist of Auschwitz in sincerity.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- The Western plot closes its conflicts and settles the relationships. It resolves about as cleanly as Beach Read.
- Structural complexity: 16 out of 100
- The plot is linear, with one thread and a clear build to its confrontation. It is as simple as Beach Read's romance structure.
How Hondo is regarded
Hondo holds a literary regard score of 22 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.