“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.


( )

You'll find heartfelt descriptions of the harsh, alluring deserts and canyons of Utah and Arizona. Originally published in 1915 the images still spring up with a vivid, crisp style that could only have been written by someone who had been there to be captivated by the stark beauty of it. The story is wrapped in the romance of the western tale of its time that gives glimpses of the goodness and perfidy of the people who lived there. Grey was a gifted author. ( )

Finally! A Zane Grey novel that I found exciting and interesting.

Jack Hare is found in the desert by August Naab, a Mormon, and some of his family. Naab is warned by fellow Mormon, Martin Cole, that he must stand up to local strong man, Holderness. Naab prefers to believe God will protect him and his family as long as he doesn't kill. Eventually Naab nurses Hare who is suffering from tuberculosis back to health and by hard work makes him strong and healthy as well as deadly with a gun.

Hare falls in love with Naab's ward who is promised to Naab's oldest son. She flees because she doesn't wish to marry the son. Later Hare searches for her and saves her from starvation. He brings her home where the wayward son has joined the rustlers and is now his father's enemy. The son is killed by Holderness and Hare kills Holderness. There is a nice touch where Hare saves a couple of the rustlers from hanging because they were kind to his fiance when she was a prisoner of the son.

In the novel, Grey seems sympathetic to the Mormons although his hero Hare refuses to join the church at the novel's conclusion because of the way Mormons treat their women which based on the story's plot would mean polygamy and abuse. ( )

In the upper half of Grey's stories, emphasizing the spiritual and natural elements of the West. ( )