Riders of the Purple Sage / Zane Grey

Riders of the Purple Sage
by Zane Grey, copyright 1912

... and

The Trail Driver
by Zane Grey, copyright 1935

westerns

read in November 2014

rated 8 / 10: really quite good

I am now a Zane Grey fan.

This makes three Grey westerns that I have read. I have enjoyed all three. Each of the three is different.

Purple Sage stars the country. The country is remote, wild, beautiful. Described with poetic amazement.

Of course there are people in the story. Couples who fall heavily in love. Bad guys who want to tear them apart. All very stereotypical, really... But still enjoyable.

The bad guys are interesting: Mormons. Evil Mormons ? I remember a Sherlock Holmes story (The Sign of Four ? ) where Mormons were painted in a similar light: patriarchal, controlling their own people, willing to kill outsiders.

I checked wikipedia. Reading between the carefully impartial lines, yes, early Mormons were more than just religious nutters with unbelievable beliefs... They also, in their early days, had very bad press...

And since one of the good girls is a Mormon -- she has to battle her innocent faith to see that religion and evil are not mutually exclusive. And I expected a western to be simple black hat versus white hat !

I loved one particular line in the book... The hero has just shot the religious bad guy. The bad guy is dying. The hero tells him, Speak quickly to your god because you won't get to see him again where you're about to go...

Okay, the ending is no great surprise. Though there is a drawback -- a finality -- to the ultimate solution. Yet Grey has remembered to build a clever loophole into that solution: it's not as final as the hero would expect. Very clever !

The story of Purple Sage is straightforward and very enjoyable. The good guy characters are honest, tough and likeable. The real star of the book... is the purple sage country.

Trail Driver stars the cowboys.

Imagine a list of all the things that could go wrong on a two month trail drive... Storms, stampede, rustlers, Indians, drought and flooded rivers... You name it, it'll happen !

Okay, so the plot is not the greatest. But the story is about the people. In particular, about their response to the various trials and tragedies -- and high points -- of their journey.

The characters are... well... noble. Think "noble savage" in a cowboy outfit. Completely unbelievable. Yet completely likeable. When a good guy turns bad, he is quickly punished. When another almost turns bad, he is overcome with remorse at his own weakness.

It's all so unlikely. So over-simplified. So thoroughly enjoyable.

And then Grey surprises me again.

The observer character reaches the end of the trail and realises that the experience was tough -- and cruel. We watched men battling the odds and winning. Men being "real men". (Yes, the book is the original cliche.)

Grey describes the trail country with love and admiration. He describes the cowboys as heroes, nonchalant, honest and dedicated. And the cowgirls are feisty and tough yet soft and very pretty.

Then, through the observer, he tells us that he will never again send cowboys into such a dangerous situation.

It's tough. It's heroic. Yet it's not worth the risk to the cowboys who casually face the extreme dangers of the trail.

Trail Driver is an ode to the cowboys and the country. Grey describes (an idealised version of) what happened. He recognises the possibility that the cost in young lives was just too much.

And one more surprise... Well, two.

There's a bad guy, an evil gunslinger, waiting for the good guys. In Dodge City. The cowboys are going to paint the town red, just as soon as they are paid.

One situation is dealt with so quickly that I wondered why I had been waiting with such anticipation. That other is so sad that it just has to be based on a possibly-true anecdote.

Zane Grey may have written the stories on which every western cliche is based. (If it's the first, it's not a cliche ! ) As simple stories of adventures in the old west, these are good books.

The occasional twist, the extra depths, take these books from good, to excellent.

I'm not surprised that Zane Grey books are still in print. I'm just glad that I found some.

I'm looking forward to reading the third story in the 2012 Best of Zane Grey book that I've enjoyed so much so far.

Stay tuned, for Rangers of the Lone Star :-)