Fair Blows the Wind

The origin of Louis L'Amour's Chantry family appears in the 1978 novel Fair Blows the Wind. At the time of publication, the author had become complacent with his books concerning good guys fighting ruthless land barons and aiding heroic widows. While those books made L'Amour a multi-millionaire, the writer wanted to stray from his normal fare to offer different ideas and concepts before his career ended (he died in 1988).

L'Amour authored several different types of novels, including The Walking Drum, Last of the Breed, and The Haunted Mesa. Along the same lines as his westerns, L'Amour wanted to showcase America's founding through the eyes of several fictitious families he had created: Talon, Sackett, and Chantry. After several novels featuring Chantry characters, L'Amour went back in time to tell the family's beginnings in America, notably the story of Tatton Chantry, the first to arrive. 

The book is unusual as over 200 pages are one long flashback to Chantry's childhood and coming-of-age in rowdy places in England, Ireland, and Spain. In the novel's beginning, a 28-year old Chantry is stranded somewhere in what would later be North or South Carolina. He meets a group of Spaniards accompanying a Peruvian woman, but soon realizes they have an unscrupulous plan to steal from the woman.

The flashback begins with young Chantry seeing his father murdered on their family farm in Ireland. He warns Chantry to run from the British invaders and head into the wild. Chantry does this and begins surviving in the forests and inner cities, begging for food and hoping to one day avenge his father. Through a series of adventures, similar to Tom Sawyer, Chantry meets eccentric characters on one long road trip through England and Spain. 

Much of the novel concerns Chantry learning swordplay, beginning with an English swordsman named Kory and ending with a Scottish weaponmaster named MacAskill. By the age of 14, Chantry is a well-skilled and feuding with the British and Spanish. He becomes a wordsmith, a prisoner, an adventurer, and an investor. But, each of these adventures is one step closer to disclosing how Chantry became stranded in the Carolinas and his goal of freeing the young Peruvian woman.

I discussed this novel with Jeff on his channel Jeff's Cave of Cool Books. You can watch that discussion HERE. Overall, this was an enjoyable book at nearly 300-pages. I felt it would have been better served as maybe two or three novels, with L'Amour possibly fleshing out some of the storylines he introduces. Unfortunately, L'Amour passed away before he could revisit this book. Later editions feature bonus material that suggests a sequel would surely have appeared if the author had lived longer. Regardless, as a stand-alone adventure, this one is hard to beat. Highly recommended.

Get Fair Blows the Wind HERE