I remember visiting a friend's house many years ago. There was a knock on the door and 2 young Mormon missionaries came in to talk about their beliefs. While my friend talked with one of them about religion, I discussed LL books with the other guy, who was from Arkansas. 'Reilly's Luck' was his favourite LL novel. He found it curious that the book should have such a title while the main character was Val, Reilly being killed part way through. I don't know hos LL came upon the title for this one - Beau has told us that he was not comfortable with coming up with titles, and that others sometimes supplied them. For myself though, I think that Reilly's luck was Val.

Any comments on this book, anyone?

C

That story morphed into the Novel Reilly's Luck in a manner similar to the process you can see several times in the collection End of the Drive ... most of those stories were altered in interesting ways to become novels.

One of these days I'll post my notes on converting Reilly's Luck into a mini series ... this project collapsed a few years ago but the process of taking one of these stories and learning what it is REALLY about is interesting.

The two interesting elements were that Val draws Reilly, a VERY cold, cut off man, out ... helps him to develop to the point where he can fall in love and re-examine his failed life. In doing so we can see that this character who LL has written very much as a hero is a distant, unfulfilled, man who's mysterious pain or protectiveness has cut off from life. Val truly is Reilly's Luck. Val must also see that his hero and mentor had feet of clay and must go on to deal with similar, perhaps even more traumatic, things in his own life.

Basically, Val's mother, a whore, tried to have him killed in order to have a slight advantage in the world. He must deal with his mother, then Reilly's emotional and moral cripple of a girlfriend Louisa (she stands by to watch him be whipped by her brother and then is STILL bound to that wastrel 15 years later when she comes to America) and then his mother again in order to find Boston who, along with her sister, are the only "real women" in the story, women who have you back, are intelligent, forthright, willing to take a punch and aren't a complete waste of the flesh god gave them.

We know what hurt Val. I'm guessing it was a woman who hurt Reilly. This is very much a story about women, angels and bit***s.

What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die dogs--I was a man before I was a king!
---From The Road of Kings