I finished reading The Lonesome Gods by Louis Lamour. It was a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes western novels. The father had become a drunk and had no money at all. I think he was very ashamed of what he had become and that was why he didn`t go back right away. To me he has developed as more of a caring and thoughtful person than the cruel and indifferent person I had first seen in my head. That was very interesting and was a development I wasn`t expecting. This sort of reminds me of a lot of people because I know a lot of parents that are split up. But yet at the same time he didn`t leave because he wanted to he left because he had to go make them some money. I still wonder why he didn`t come back after finding the gold and why he spent it all gambling and drinking instead. I feel that his fathers absence was what made life so rough on the young boy, especially when his mother died and he was the only one there to mourn her. Then he set out on his quest to find his father but it was many, many years before they finally met. If the father was at home the whole time the story would have been totally different because the mom probably wouldn`t have died because she wouldn`t have had to work so hard. At first I felt mad at the father and then sorrier and sorrier for him as I saw the awful downward spiral he had got himself into. This story is obviously more interesting and grabbing then the one I had mentioned before where things were perfect and I wonder why a story about tragedy and hard times is more interesting to us than a story where everything works out perfectly all of the time? Is it because it is more realistic then?