Zane GreyCritiques

Grey begins this delightful reminiscence relating how he discovered the bonefish that populate the coves and shallow waters surrounding the Florida keys. The year was 1914 when he first heard of this breed of fish.

“The first man who had ever spoken to me about this species said to me, very quietly with serious intentness: ‘Have you had any experience with bonefish?’ I said no and asked him what kind that was. His reply was enigmatical. ‘Well, don’t go after bonefish unless you can give up all other fishing.’ I remember I laughed. But I never forgot that remark, and now it comes back to me clear in its significance.”

As the story unfolds with the exquisite detailed observations of which Grey was such a master, the reader learns that the bonefish is no ordinary fish.

“Then I saw a couple of bonefish. They shone like silver, were singularly graceful in build, felt heavy as lead and looked game all over. I made the mental observation that the man who had named them bonefish should have had half that name applied to his head.”

Grey laid eyes upon a “fair-sized, five pounder”, the heavy tackle the experienced bonefisher used, and heard the supporting tale of its capture. He figured correctly that “bonefish were related to dynamite and chain lightning”.
“He is the wisest, shyest, wariest, strangest fish I ever studied.”

“As for the speed of the bonefish, I claim no salmon, no barracuda, no other fish celebrated for swiftness of motion, is in his class. A bonefish is so incredibly fast that it was a long time before I could believe the evidence of my own eyes. You see him; he is there perfectly still in the clear, shallow water, a creature of fish shape, staring at you with strange black eyes; then he is gone. Vanished! Absolutely without you seeing a movement, even a faint streak!”

From this point on, Grey becomes hooked himself for the next four years in his quest for the elusive bonefish. Most of the superbly drawn narrative follows him and his brother as they use every tactic they can conjure against their speedy and intelligent opponent. As you might imagine, there is no shortage of humor in the chase.

In Grey’s brilliant prose, man and fish engage in a timeless dance of skill and cunning that rivals any fishing story I’ve ever heard.

“Who was it spoke of the fleeting of time? Obviously he had never waited for the opening of the fishing season.”

Anyone who loves fishing and great writing can do no better than this wonderful account of Grey’s year-long battle with the great bass he dubbed “The Lord of Lackawaxen Creek”.
The author, famous for his romantic western novels, was an even better writer chronicling his fishing adventures, IMO. In this nonfiction piece, Grey's pen is a rod, casting words that shimmer like sunlight on water, capturing not just the thrill of the catch but the very essence of a moment frozen in time. As he wades into the icy embrace of Lackawaxen Creek in 1928, attempting to catch the crafty, old bass, you can feel the chill seeping into your bones and hear the muffled rush of the current.
His first cast didn’t quite produce the result he was hoping for.

“I swung the lively minnow and instinctively dropped it with a splash over a dark space between two yellow sunken stones. Out of the amber depths started a broad bar of bronze, rose and flashed into gold. A little dimpling eddying circle, most fascinating of all watery forms, appeared round where the minnow had sunk. The golden moving flash went down and vanished in the greenish gloom like a tiger stealing into the jungle. The line trembled, slowly swept out and straightened. How fraught that instant with a wild yet waiting suspense, with a thrill potent and blissful!
Did the fisherman ever live who could wait in such a moment? My arms twitched involuntarily. Then I struck hard, but not half hard enough. The bass leaped out of a flying splash, shook himself in a tussle plainly audible, and slung the hook back at me like a bullet.”

The unpredictable, yet delightful rest of the story, I’ll leave for the reader to experience and enjoy. Whether you’re a dedicated angler or just love a well-told tale, you’ll surely appreciate this fine narrative by a master.

"The best of fishing is that mild philosophy attends even the greatest misfortunes," Grey reminds us, his words a balm for the soul weary of the world's relentless tide. For in his world, where the line trembles and the bass dances beneath the surface like a ghost, there is a kind of magic that transcends mere storytelling.

Zane Grey's Knights of the Range is more than just a Western novel. It is also a period piece that gives an excellent overview of daily life on a ranch in the Old West. There is sufficient action to appeal to the fan of the genre but there is also significant character development and romance. Many people do not consider Grey's work as literature but this novel should silence those critics. It is a novel that should not be passed over due to reader snobbery.½

Well done western. They go on a lion hunt and after a wild stallion. The descriptions are very good. You can really get an image of the place in your head. It does a good job of portraying life in on the western frontier.

A big classic of western literature (western as in Old West, not as in Western civilization).

I have some mixed feelings on this book. The story is very good, a suitably dramatic and epic western, with a man who has been looking for his kidnapped younger sister for many years, a Mormon woman oppressed by her brethren, rustlers, gunfights, romance, horse chases...

However, the writing didn't always work for me. It's just too wordy. The author never says something in ten words if he can say it in one hundred. The longish descriptions of the sage plains will be evocative for some readers, but they tired me out, and I would skip whole paragraphs. Same with the characters' feelings, which are described sometimes in a too exuberant manner.

However, I'm glad I persevered, because the book is not that long and in the last part the action speeds up to a very interesting conclusion.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: 1915 | 8/10/2020; 978-9354044311; Alpha editions; 298 pages )
(Digital: Yes.)
Audio: 1/21/2010; 9781449877262; Recorded Books; Duration 10:25:55 (10 parts); Unabridged.
(Film: multiple times).

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Buck (Buckley or Dodge) Duane – (more commonly referred to by his name, Duane, in the narration) A fellow, fast with a gun, excommunicated from his home when he shot someone in self-defense, forcing him to go “on the dodge” which is a Nomad status that generally put one in company with Outlaws.
Luke Stevens – The first fellow Buck befriends after going “on the dodge”.
Bland – an outlaw
Kate Bland – Bland’s wife
Jenny – A captive of the Blands held in servitude under the constant threat/fear of sexual abuse.
Euchre - An outlaw Buck befriends
MacNelly – A Texas Ranger who wants to recruit Buck
Bullet – Buck’s large black horse

DEDICATION:
This book was dedicated to Texas Ranger Captain John R. Hughes who it is believed inspired the protagonist. Hughes is also believed to be the inspiration for the radio and tv series, “The Lone Ranger”. There are many similarities, but the reason in the series for the name “Lone” was apparently because the character lost all of his fellow Rangers including his Ranger brother, leaving him the only Ranger left. Whereas, with this book it is because Texas is “The Lone Star State”.

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I never got attached to any Western themed movies or books, but several years ago I woke with the name Zane Grey in my consciousness. I didn’t realize, until several days later when I saw a biography about him in a used book sale, that this was actually a person. Seeing that he’d been the author of Western books, I didn’t purchase the biography at the time, but was still curious why I had the name on my mind when I woke up. I didn’t think of it again until one of the recent Connelly books I listened to mentioned a hotel on Catalina Island named Zane Grey. That re-ignited my curiosity enough to decide to listen to at least one of his books, so this was one of the few that was available on LAPL’s Overload.
It made me realize that what I don’t like about Westerns is that they romanticize and promote violence. Gunplay is always involved and the stereotypes of the characters were never appealing. The horses were the only attraction.
This was originally written in 1915 and things were much different then, but I still can’t help but find the many racial slurs distasteful.
BUT, if you LIKE Westerns, no doubt you’ll like this one.
I did enjoy it for its historical value.
Something I found mildly annoying was that a more current decade was mentioned. I believe it was 1970’s—there seemed to be no need to update the time period and it was incongruous. It also made me wonder what other edits had occurred.

AUTHOR:
Zane Grey (1/31/1872 – 10/23/1929). From Amazon-dot-com: “Zane Grey, the greatest and most prolific storyteller of the American West, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on January 31, 1872. In his youth, Zane was a semi-professional Zane Greybaseball player and a half-hearted dentist, having studied dentistry to appease his father while on a baseball scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. He wanted above all to write and taught himself to do so with stern discipline to free his innate and immense storytelling capacity. Many a lean year came and went as he searched for a publisher, but Zane soon became the best-selling Western author of all time as well as the best selling author of non-fiction fishing novels. For most of the teens, 20s, and 30s, Zane had at least one novel in the top ten every year. His marriage in 1905 to Lina Roth, whom he called Dolly, was a triumph of the old-fashioned, “complimentary” model of matrimony, wherein the husband ranges freely to sustain the inspiration for his calling and the wife tends to the family, edits the manuscripts and makes deals with the publishers. It is fair to say that Dolly’s belief in Zane’s literaZane Greyry works was the single factor most responsible for the success of his lengthy career. Zane and Dolly had three children, Romer, Betty and Loren. Zane’s breakthrough success of Heritage of the Desert in 1910 enabled him to establish a home in Altadena, California and a hunting lodge on the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona. A lifelong passion for angling and the rich rewards of his writing also allowed him to roam the world’s premier game-fishing grounds in his own schooners where he set thirteen deep-sea angling records, most of which stood for decades. Zane would develop and invent tackle still being used today and his exploits in fishing would gain him recognition as the “Father of Modern Big Game Fishing”.

NARRATOR(S):
Ed Sala. From Tantor-dot-com, “Ed Sala, an actor and a writer, has appeared at Carnegie Hall and both on and off Broadway. His plays have been performed in regional theaters across the country. He has won numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for his audiobook narrations, including one for Finn by Jon Clinch, and Best Books for Young Adults Awards from the American Library Association. His performance of White Doves at Morning by James Lee Burke was selected by AudioFile as one of the fifteen best audiobooks of the year.”

GENRE:
Western

LOCATIONS:
Texas

TIME FRAME:
Early 1900’s

SUBJECTS:
Texas, Outlaws, Rangers, Cattle Rustling, outlaw gangs, posse

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1:
“So it was in him, then—an inherited fighting instinct, a driving intensity to kill. He was the last of the Duanes, that old fighting stock of Texas. But not the memory of his dead father, nor the pleading of his soft-voiced mother, nor the warning of this uncle who stood before him now, had brought Buck Duane so much realization of the dark passionate strain in his blood. It was the recurrence, a hundred-fold increased in power, of a strange emotion that for the last three years had arisen in him.
‘Yes, Cal Bain’s in town, full of bad whiskey an’ huntin’ for you,’ repeated the elder man, gravely.
‘It’s the second time,’ muttered Duane, as if to himself.
‘Son, you can’t avoid a meetin’. Leave town till Cal sobers up. He ain’t got it in for you when he’s not drinkin’’
‘But what’s he want me for?’ demanded Duane. ‘To insult me again? I won’t stand that twice.’
‘He’s got a fever that’s rampant in Texas these days, my boy. He wants gun-play. If he meets you he’ll try to kill you.’
Here it stirred in Duane again, that bursting gush of blood, like a wind of flame shaking all his inner being and subsiding to leave him strangely chilled.
‘Kill me! What for?’ he asked.
‘Lord knows there ain’t any reason. But what’s that to do with most of the shootin’ these days? Didn’t five cowboys over to Everall’s kill one another dead all because they got to jerkin’ at a quirt among themselves? An’ Cal has no reason to love you. His girl was sweet on you.’
‘I quit when I found out she was his girl.’
‘I reckon she ain’t quit. But never mind her or reasons. Cal’s here, just drunk enough to be ugly. He’s achin’ to kill somebody. He’s one of them four-flush gun-fighters. He’d like to be thought bad. There’s a lot of wild cowboys who’re ambitious for a reputation. They talk about how quick they are on the draw. They ape Bland an’ King Fisher an’ Hardin an’ all the big outlaws. They make threats about joinin’ gangs along the Rio Grande. They laugh at the sheriffs an’ brag about how they’d fix the rangers. Cal’s sure not much for you to bother with, if you only keep out of his way.’”

RATING: 2.5 stars. (It finally occurred to me that while I am limited to a non-fractional number of stars by Goodreads, I don’t have to be in my reviews. )
I think this was a great story for its genre and its day, just not for me.

STARTED-FINISHED 5/10/21-5/21/21

Riders of the Purple Sage is a book I might have enjoyed when I was a less mature reader, both in years and in taste. Living up to the jacket blurb claiming that "Zane Grey epitomized the mythical West that should have been", it is filled with cliched characters and a standard plot of good against evil, with good triumphant. A virtuous woman torn between the requirements of her Mormon faith and her goodwill towards her unwashed fellow man. A rich man determined to bring her to heel by putting her where a woman of the 1800s belongs. A ranch hand hounded by the townspeople because he dares to befriend the woman despite not being a member of their faith. A hardened gunfighter seeking revenge for the death of the woman he loved. A mysterious outlaw, the Masked Rider, who terrorizes all who interfere with his cattle rustling. All crossing paths in a small town in Utah where law comes from the barrel of a smoking gun.

Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey's best known novel, is an easy, predictable read that provides a satisfying story if read strictly as entertainment.

Western

Western

Years ago as a teen I read The Rainbow Trail, this is the unabridged/uncut version, even more amazing than the The Rainbow Trail

The best parts of this book are the beautifully detailed descriptions of the landscape and the characters’ interactions with it. The story itself is problematic. Contrary to the author’s intent, I really liked Carley through most of the story. Although she was a little self-absorbed, she was spunky and independent and determined. When she arrived out West, she stubbornly pushed herself to cope with the physical hardships she was unused to, to prove to herself and to the man she loved that she was no “tenderfoot”. Her dawning appreciation of the beauty of the landscape was enjoyable to witness. Then it all went to hell when she began embracing the author’s (and her fiancé’s) ridiculous ideas about the duties of “American women”, which include giving birth to a “troop of healthy American kids” (I shit you not, that is a direct quote) and serving as her “American man’s” helper as he strove to build civilization in the West, while dressing modestly and unfashionably, so as to not distract the men from their own duties, and not pursuing any interests of their own. This whole modesty concept is reinforced through a running commentary by all Western characters on her fashionable city dresses being so revealing. This being set around 1920, this wanton display included rolled stocking and exposed calves. And a woman so dressed should be neither surprised nor upset when sexually assaulted. Instead, she should be upset with herself for inviting such a natural response from men.

I try to judge all books by the mores of the times in which they are written, but remember that this was published within a year of The Great Gatsby, which also had some things to say about 1920’s decadence, but none of it was about women staying in their place behind their menfolks and pushing out packs of kids and covering their legs so they don’t invite assault.

Audiobook, read by John Bolen. The audio quality was poor, with a lot of static and background noise, and Bolen’s performance was unimpressive. He sounded uninterested in the material, and the voice he used for Carley was a really strange sort of faux-British accent that I guess was supposed to represent an upperclass, East Coast, voice. Rating 2 stars only because I was able to finish and for the way the landscape was brought to life.

Read for the 2017 Romance Bingo. It fits the following bingo squares:
Key to My Heart: Because the MC has a complete change of heart once she embraces her lover’s philosophy and way of life. It unlocks her happiness and purpose in life.
Wedding Bells: Because the whole point was to get him to marry her, and apparently, marriage was the only acceptable quest.
Historical Romance: Post WWI. Although it was actually a contemporary romance at the time it was written, so maybe not.
Second Chances: She rejects his way of life and breaks the engagement, then goes running back after her change of heart, hoping that he hasn’t already married another. Of course, HEA, with her barefoot and pregnant for as long as she’s fertile.

Typical work by ZG: clean, entertaining, interesting, and educational. Always a good reading experience. And narration is always clear and well done. Second reading or third… who knows?!😋

Just a little too melodramatic for me. But I can see why it's a classic. DNF

Valley of Wild Horses is one of Zane Grey’s most satisfying westerns. Everything that was wonderful about Zane Grey — his magnificent storytelling, his vivid descriptions of the landscape and horses, the sheer excitement of a roundup, and the thrill of gunplay — are on display so vibrantly in Valley of Wild Horses that the reader is rarely annoyed by some stilted dialog which creeps in, and some slight awkwardness in the romance department — which are also Grey trademarks.

There is great beauty here in Valley of Wild Horses, a purity of the human spirit. On its pages exists a love for decency and what is right, even if it must be administered with a gun. Even then, there is always regret, a wish that it hadn't come to that. Grey never painted a better portrait of those with checkered pasts trying to find a place they belong, than he did in Valley of Wild Horses. The simplicity of Grey’s narrative is deceptive, because it is a rich and beautiful portrait of a young man named Panhandle Smith, who represents a time and place in history as well as any Grey ever painted.

For a western, it begins somewhat languidly, because it is the story of Panhandle as he grows up. We get to see the cowboys and cattle, the excitement and the harshness of these times, all circumstances which shape Pan’s life as a young man. At the age of twelve, Pan is already riding in the roundup, and loses one of the cowboys around him when he is taken away for stealing horses. Schoolteacher Amanda Hill is his first crush, Dick Hardman his first enemy, a situation which will play out over the years in their love for Lucy. Lucy is the young girl he helps deliver in a barn one snowy day, when he himself is but a boy. As she grows up, Pan’s feelings for her become romantic, as Lucy’s do for Pan, but Dick Hardman proves to always be in the way.

Once his beloved horse Curly is gone, and a terrible scrape with Dick mars the future, Panhandle drifts to Montana and Arkansas at the age of twenty, and that’s where this tale switches gears, and become one of Grey’s greatest achievements. As Panhandle becomes a name known by many, sometimes for the wrong reasons, he never forgets Lucy, or his beloved family. It is when he meets up with old pals Blinky Moran and Gus, and returns to discover his father has been swindled, and Lucy is being blackmailed into marrying Dick Hardman in order to save her father, that the pieces which make this a great western saga all fall into place. There is a softhearted saloon girl named Louise whom Blinky loves that has ties to Dick, a corrupt sheriff named Matthews, and Dick’s powerful father and his dangerous men for Panhandle to deal with. But not before one of the most thrilling roundups you’ll ever read, as Pan and his pals seek to find the wild horses and make a new start in Arizona.

There will be some treachery, some gunplay, and some twists and turns where Lucy and Louise are concerned. Louise in fact, is one of Grey’s best-drawn characters, and what happens is not only exciting, but quite moving. Throughout the book, there is a sense of family, and decency, and the hope of pioneers as they sought to carve out a new life. The storytelling is old-fashioned, to be sure, the dialog sometimes awkward, as Grey writes it phonetically as they speak it. But this is a lush, beautiful work, surprisingly layered and more complex than the premise suggests. The ending of Valley of Wild Horses is as lovely as any western you’ll ever read. It is simple, and pure, and hopeful. The reader will be imagining their lives going forward, and smiling.

The first portion of the novel, as Grey focuses on Panhandle’s childhood, is too lengthy and makes the narrative move more slowly than it should. That said, there is a rich reward waiting for those who forge on, and a pot of western gold when they reach the final page. This is Zane Grey at his finest, which is to say warts and all. It may be too old-fashioned for a great many modern readers, its narrative style too different for them to accept and enjoy, but it’s as romantic and lovely as any western you’ll ever read, the ending pure. A great achievement by Grey that fans of traditional westerns of old will appreciate more than most modern readers. Highly recommended!

“Going through life is something like riding a deep canyon where the light seldom shines. It is a strange canyon with unexpected turns and insurmountable walls and cross-canyons, boxed completely from the light. I suppose when we hit the closing wall of one of these box canyons it looks like the end and we want to beat our life out there. Sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, we feel our way out into the place where the light comes through at times, and we go on down that way because farther on there may be a way out into that light. Don’t you want to struggle on a little longer, Magdaline? I’m boxed in at present myself, in a canyon as dark as hell, but I’m feeling around for the way out.”

So philosophizes cowboy John Curry to his Indian friend, Magdaline. Both find themselves in dark canyons, but John has more experience in such matters. Compared to Magdaline’s 19 years, John is a wise old sage at 28. Their troubles involve John’s love interest, Mary Newton, a good woman married to a scoundrel. Even though she’s unhappy and often hurt by her scumbag husband, she feels bound by her obligations in the marriage vows. There is also High-Lo, the 19 year-old cowboy protege and best friend of John. They call him High-Lo because sometimes when work is to be done, they have to look “high and low” in order to find him. He’s the most interesting and fun character of the story. Grey gives us a fine story of how these folks deal with life--the choices they make, and the cards they’re dealt along the way.
Originally published in magazine serial form in 1926, Captives of the Desert is a Zane Grey mixture of old and new West. The setting is Black Mesa, Arizona of the 1920s. Sometimes they’re riding horses, sometimes cars. As with all Grey novels of the West, the landscape of mesas, canyons, and sage are beautifully woven into the story.
Although the outcome is fairly predictable, there are a few twists and turns, with interesting events. A Hopi snake dance is vividly described. Grey’s respect and admiration for the American Indian is displayed more so than in other of his novels that I’ve read.
There isn’t much gun play as can be found in such titles as, [b:Riders of the Purple Sage|90160|Riders of the Purple Sage (Riders of the Purple Sage #1)|Zane Grey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320415192l/90160._SY75_.jpg|2663060], [b:The Rainbow Trail|121292|The Rainbow Trail ( Riders of the Purple Sage#2)|Zane Grey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1171832383l/121292._SY75_.jpg|3063248], and [b:The Lonestar Ranger|25844040|The Lonestar Ranger|Zane Grey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438357091l/25844040._SX50_.jpg|2425493] , but there’s plenty romance, even if some of it may seem a bit strange to the 21st century reader.

It's Zane Grey alright, but not on par with most of his excellent work. There's some of the great western atmosphere that he so eloquently describes, along with the wild west gun-play that no one does better. And, of course, the romance. Grey himself said that he wrote romance novels, and most of them have a setting in the Western US of the 19th century. That romance is one of the main things I like about his novels. But, this one was just corny and overdone. Twin sisters that no one can tell apart fall for our hero, Brazos Keene. He favors one, but because the sisters always dress and act exactly alike, and make play with it on everyone, Keene is never really sure which sister is which. This could work in a comedy novel, but this isn't comedy, and it got on my last nerve. It goes on and on. Just frustrating. Since [b:Twin Sombreros|121209|Twin Sombreros|Zane Grey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329014386l/121209._SY75_.jpg|116716] is a sequel to [b:Knights of the Range|121203|Knights of the Range|Zane Grey|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2662999], (an excellent novel) I was looking forward to more of the same, but didn't get it.

It's really a fine thing when you can thoroughly enjoy a story and learn a bit of history at the same time.

Sequel to [b:The Drift Fence|121304|The Drift Fence|Zane Grey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1329014352l/121304._SY75_.jpg|2932500]. Both are very fine reads.

Superb story of redemption.

"She was beautiful, compelling, secretive, aloof, and proud, magnificent as a living flame. She was mocking because knowledge of the world, of the fragility of women and falsity of men, had been as an open page. She had lived in sight of the crowded mart, the show places where men and women passed, knowing no more of earth than that it was a place of graves."

One of Zane's best.

This was my 18th Zane Grey novel. I've loved them all, but not this one. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it just didn't do much for me.

Most excellent western.

One of my all-time favorite westerns. One of Dad's favorites, too. He told me he first read it in high school in the '50s, and loved it. He's since read it twice more, once in the early '60s to my Mom, and then again in 2010. He gave me this copy, along with the entire Zane Grey collection that Mom bought for him the first couple of years they were married. I'll definitely read this one again.

“August Naab’s oasis was an oval valley, level as a floor, green with leaf and white with blossom, enclosed by a circle of colossal cliffs of vivid vermilion hue. At its western curve the Colorado River split the red walls from north to south. When the wind was west a sullen roar, remote as of some far-off driving mill, filled the valley; when it was east a dreamy hollow hum, a somnolent song, murmured through the cottonwoods; when no wind stirred, silence reigned, a silence not of serene plain or mountain fastness, but shut in, compressed, strange, and breathless. Safe from the storms of the elements as well as of the world was this Garden of Eschtah.”

“They say I fell among thieves….I’ve fallen among saints as well.”

Seriously ill, John Hare is on the brink of death in the desert until he is discovered and saved by the kind Morman rancher, August Naab. While Hare is being nursed back to health on Naab’s ranch, he finds himself attracted to Naab’s adopted Navajo daughter, Mescal. But Mescal has been promised as a wife for Naab’s scumbag son, Snap. At the same time, the evil rustler, Holderness, has designs on the girl as well. Hare is soon drawn into a web of adventure where he must fight for what he has grown to love, Mescal, Naab, and the beautiful land of old west Utah.

This wonderful novel was Grey’s first real success in publishing. It became a best seller in 1910, the year of its publication. It has all the ingredients of what Grey’s readers would come to love in his later work. The majestic descriptions are not as elaborate here as they would later be in such a classic as Riders of the Purple Sage, but that may be more of a positive for the modern reader, most of whom don’t seem to appreciate a full-blown fiesta of a paragraph, which Grey was famous for.

I’ve read a lot of Zane Grey’s books, and loved them all. This one is no exception, although it was a bit different than his other westerns. The only gun play that occurred here was described second hand by one of the characters. Don’t get me wrong--there wasn’t a thing wrong with it, just different. Grey was a master writer of gunfights and any other action or setting he chose to describe. Riders of the Purple Sage, his most famous novel, is a prime example of Zane’s magic with words. His main character in this fine novel carries a gun from time to time, but he never uses it. Nothing wrong with that either, it just seemed to me a little strange.
Grey didn’t care much for the “western” label put upon his work, preferring the term “romance”. He said that he wrote romances that just happened to be set in the old west. This book fits more into that frame of reference than any of his others that I have read. There are four “romances” simultaneously taking place here. Two involve cowboys who are sweet on the only two female characters. The other romances are a man’s love for the west, and the friendship that evolves between three of the cowboys.
Grey could overwrite at times, but unlike most authors who do the same, Grey’s indulgence is a pleasure to read. I almost wish he'd written more. I was sorry when this one came to an end. Top-notch western romance from a master.