Posted by Elyse on June 19, 2000 at 12:51:55:

Hi, there. We just got back from Tucson last night, having been gone a week. I loved
it, even though they are having a very dry year. For frosting on the cake, Saturday it
clouded up real good, and they had an honest monsoon-type gullywasher all over the
Santa Cruz Valley. Tucsonans adore those storms. When we lived there, we always
used to get a cold-delicious and sit on the patio to watch the show.

Anyway, from way down below, do you still want to know why I think Tom Lundy was a
dope? Here is my rather "PG-13" -rated answer. I can pretty much sum up what
happened to Tom under the same category as that German proverb that my old
Bavarian boyfriend was fond of quoting: "When the ***** stands, the mind stands
still."

In my opinion, if Tom was such a fine young man, he would still have had enough
judgment left after his hormone attack to not risk his friends lives. He could even
have gotten his own sister killed, who was like a parent to him. Even if I grant he was
otherwise a fine young man, he made a fatal error. Our hero, whom Tom looked up
to, gave him excellent advice, and he didn't take it. Tom had plenty of warning from
all around. He's what I think of as a "callow youth."

But I do agree with Beau -- lots dumber things happen in real life, and I like the story.
I've reread it often enough. Every story has to have a plot, and this revenge plot
works for me from the hero's standpoint, if not from Tom's or Kate's. The only
character in the book that can't be seriously flawed is the hero. All he's guilty of is
blind loyalty, which is fine in my book.

I still think that Kate Lundy is a strange and skeletal character -- mostly just a catalyst;
but I guess I can see that also as Beau mentioned, as the hero's mystified view of her
as well. I just never perceived it like that. But I should save all this for the "Kiowa
Trail

Follow Ups: