Too Strong to Die is a western, written in the style of a narrative from the point of view of the main character. The story is based on observations of how challenging and unforgiving life can be, especially at that time in the Wild West. He finds himself abandoned aged 8 after his mother dies from illness and just 1 year later his father is killed by his own prize bull.
The young man has to be tough in order to just survive, as he details the astonishing cruelties he has endured. It leaves the reader wondering how has he made it to adulthood, and how can any man have endured?
Throughout his life he meets many people but only very few become important to him.
He also has a few love interests, one of which is one of two twin sisters, known simply as CLANCY. Through his journey he also forges meaningful relationships with a horse named, THE MEXICAN and a very old hand made gun named, THE OUTLAW.
Very few of his interactions are positive however, he interacts with several outlaws who are murderers and rapists and a deadly venomous snake who he thinks is a hallucination.
There is as always a nemesis, in fact in this case there are at least two. One of whom, takes the character prisoner before employing him, then eventually treating him as an equal. This ends in an emotional stand off where both men swear to give the other the honorable death he deserves.
Each chapter has a mini story within it. Which usually either starts with a crisis where the character works through to a resolution. Or is a quiet time when nothing particularly bad is happening and then it all falls apart and he is left working out what to do about it, which often means who to kill.
Tragedy befalls him, then again, and then again. He is at a time a tool for good, at other times an instrument of death and at one point even an enemy of the authority he helped to protect.
He tries to warn others against using their body and mind as weapons or tools for hire to be used and discarded freely. Despite the title, the young man does indeed die, several times but never for long. In the end though, sadly but unsurprisingly he loses his grip of reality.
