Restitution

By Richard S. Wheeler

Book Overview

Some things should remain forgotten... Truman Jackson and his family are successful ranchers, and are a pillar in the frontier community of Cottonwood, Utah. There is no one Jackson wouldn't lend a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451202384
• ISBN13: 9780451202383
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.1" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Restitution -- NOT Retribution

This book is not about retribution (vengeance) as many Westerns are. Instead it is about restitution, voluntary restoration and making up for damage done. I would argue that the core of Westerns is moral parable. In this book that's right up front. Will (as in "will power") has given up destructive ways early in his life, but now he is determined to actively make up for those early transgressions. Of course, everyone thinks he's nuts and worse -- up to something.Will, who has renamed himself Truman ("True Man"), was not guilty of a ghastly crime -- he was just a young gang family member who held horses during robberies, same as driving a getaway car today. But he became a man with a Moral Imperative. I would argue that "will power" and being a "true man" were THE moral imperative of the West, the diagnostic commandment. Never give up. Keep on keeping on. Do until you die. "True Man's" wife is "Gracie" and never changes her name. Grace, you know, is when God smiles and lifts you up, no matter what you deserve, even if your crime is beyond forgiveness. (The man who wrote the words to "Amazing Grace" was the captain of a slave ship like the "Amarcord.") In this case Will intends to save himself with pure tenacity, or so it will seem. The question is, when one man decides to do what is right but unconventional, what effect does that have on the neighbors? Another important element of Westerns is the impact of a strong individual on a fragile new community. Will they rally 'round? Or will they shrink and shirk, the way they did in "High Noon?"Wheeler doesn't put Truman through the Valley of Death but rather up over the backbone of the Uintahs in thunderstorm season with a terrified horse and a clear threat of a lightning strike or at least hypothermia. He could easily have gotten more melodrama out of this, but shows restraint because the danger isn't as much the point as the will power. The Moral Imperative of following through on an intention wins.Meawhile, back at the ranch the neighbors have scared themselves into behavior both good and bad. In the end Truman comes back to Grace and the ranch is saved as well.There are no shoot-outs. No one dies. No one steals cows who doesn't give them back. There are no Indians. People go to church. But it is a real Western. This is how ranches and towns came to be in the beginning.

Dick Wheeler is great

Some might say I shouldn't be allowed to write this review, because Dick Wheeler is a friend of mine. We met through Western Writers of America, and if you consider WWA like one big family then I guess Dick is my brother. And I would be honored to call him brother.I love Westerns. I grew up on Louis L'Amour and Luke Short, Elmer Kelton, Ernest Haycox, Zane Grey, Max Brand. Each of those authors has their place on the throne of Western writing history, though I consider Kelton to be the best of them.But I would be literally sick to my stomach of a list of the best Western writers came out and it did not include Richard Wheeler. Not only is he a man among men, virtuous, kind, humble, and intelligent, but he writes a Western novel that no one can beat. I would love to have my own Westerns compared to his. I have had one novel rated number one selling Western in the country, and it puffed me up until I read Dick Wheeler. Talk about a humbling experience!Now, finally to this book, Restitution. What a wonderful, beautiful work of art! Dick Wheeler is a master. Not once was there a gun shot, not once did two (or three or ten) men face down in the street and shoot it out. Not once did an Indian arrow find some man's heart, and not once was an Indian village raided and destroyed.Yet I was on the edge of my seat almost from the first. Wheeler masterfully created this book with no violence and no sex and no cursing and made you feel like it was real and like you were there and like the whole world depended on what happend to Truman. I would not have believed someone could pull off this feat. The publisher deserves praise for publishing it, and criticism for not letting Wheeler continue writing books like it. The West wasn't THAT violent of a place. Let's let someone like Wheeler tell a suspenseful, tense story, without the bloodshed and foul language for once.Bravo, Richard! You're the best.

From the author

I titled this book The Worth of a Man, which goes to the heart of my story, but the publishers changed it. It is a study of the power and beauty of conscience, and how two people transformed their lives by doing what they had to do to make themselves whole. The hero, Truman Jackson, is a former bank robber who, with his wife Gracie, has lived an exemplary life for many years. And yet, they both know that their secret past keeps them from the happiness and peace they yearn for. So they decide to make their past known to the small frontier community which has embraced them, and begin the process of repaying everyone they can find who had suffered loss because of the robberies. The results are shocking. Far from welcoming the reformed pair, most of the citizens shun and condemn them, and suddenly Truman and Gracie's lives are torn apart. The book explores goodness and evil, forgiveness and hardness of heart. It is also about how the vision and courage of one sterling man and one sterling woman can transform the world.