When Logan Huett discovers the magnificent Sycamore Canon in central Arizonea and decides he wants to homestead there, he wires back East to the woman he had courted in Missouri, proposing marriage. Lucinda Baker, a schoolteacher accepts. But pioneering life proves very hard for her. Living is crude. She helps in the building of what will be their home, but finds loneliness where they have settled oppressive. The dangers are many and constant. But despite the hardships, despite the dangers, Lucinda remains strong. She is determined to not only endure but to triumph.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Is it incest? (and other problems).,
By
This review is from: Woman of the Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
In the introduction to this edition, Zane Grey's son explains that this is an attempt, based on newly discovered pages that were deleted from the original published version in 1940, to restore this book to something close to the author's intent. He claims that controversy over a [rather mildly presented] rape scene scuttled the original manuscript, and that his dad had to put up with a 'gutted' version for which even the title was changed without his permission. [The published 1940 title was '30,000 Hooves.'] What the son doesn't talk about in his introduction is something that probably produced a lot more controversy than any rape scene could: namely, the fact that an adopted daughter marries her non-blood-related brother, without any hesitation, without any reaction from the outside world, and with the full consent, indeed encouragement, of her adopted mother and father. In a strict DNA sense, of course, this is not incest. But I think most readers today, and in fact most professionals in the psychology and sociology fields, would say that it is indeed incest nevertheless. This girl is raised believing that her brothers are blood relatives. She relates to them as siblings, as they do her. What happens when, in her very late teenage years, she learns the truth from her mother? Why, naturally, her eyes are immediately opened, she sees her favorite brother as the man of her dreams, and they get married and have a kid. [The whole idea comes just as naturally to him.] This is preposterous nonsense, of course, as is the fact that no one in their community raises the slightest objection or even questions the event. All right, so this is all set in an era that spans from the 1880s or so to about 1918 or thereabouts. Does the author really expect us to believe that this chain of circumstances could occur in real life, in ANY era? Bosh! This, although the major problem with this book, is not the only one. There's also the matter of rape of a white woman by an Indian, resulting in a pregnancy, resulting in the woman's fear that her husband will realize the truth when he sees the baby. [He never does find out.] This is dropped like a bombshell into the early pages of the plot, and never followed up on. The tension could have been stretched to the breaking point, but nope, all is peachy keen, rosy, fine, so far as that issue is concerned. Amazing! There are all kinds of references to the fact that the boy seems Indian-like and has unnatural affinity to nature and the earth [for a white guy], etc. People make jokes about his dark skin and hair. But does the 'dad' ever cotton on to any of this? Nope! Then there's the matter of a missing killing. One chapter late in the book begins with all kinds of concern over the fact that the protaganist has killed a man, evidently rather in cold blood. The tension and anxiety go on for pages-- but the actual killing is missing. We never meet the man who is killed, and we never find out *why* he was killed. All we ever find out is that he was killed and that the protaganist did it, and that there's a lot of stewing over the fact. It's pretty obvious that a whole chapter is missing from the book, or at the very least a half of a chapter. But the author's son says not a word about this phenomenon in his introduction! The final problem has to do with figuring out the sense of the present title. Yes, Lucinda is an enormously important character in this book. The omniscient narrator often gets right into her head and lets us in on all sorts of matters that we wouldn't otherwise know about. Yet in actual fact, she is *not* the protaganist. Her husband is. The entire plot line revolves around his desire to run a herd of 30,000 cattle, his many stumbling blocks on his way to that goal, the seeming success at the climax, eaten up by betrayal and government crime, and the eventual resolution of the tension in a rather nicely worked-out and hopeful denouement. In spite of all the above problems, I must admit that the characters are fascinating. They come alive, I feel I know them, I feel akin to them. Everything else about the book is a mess-- the adverb-ridden writing style, the convoluted and implausible plotline, the confusion over point of view, etc., plus all the problems outlined above. Yet when all is said and done, I have to admit that this book was worth reading. The characters will stay with me now forever, and, in the end, isn't that why we read?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Frontier Days,
By Txjack "txjack" (Central Texas) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Woman of the Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
I like this book. I enjoy a book that shows people that move to the frontier and try to forge a life. That's the case here as a young man gets out of the military and moves to a land and tries to make something out of it, with his main goal to be a rancher. He faces many serious obstacles. Along the way he decides he wants a wife and he brings her to his land and together they try to survive brutal winters, scorching summers and just life itself.
This book covers the adult lives of Logan and Lucinda Huett fighting for survival in a harsh land where the people they sometimes deal with can be as ruthless as the cougars that Logan has to keep from destroying his herd and his life. The writing style is easy to read, the storyline is definitely not complex, but the book kept me wondering what would happen next. There is a kind of controversial sub-plot that ripples through the story that was kind of unbelievable, but I just went with it and still enjoyed the book. My first inclination was to say something pithy like, it may not be a classic, however this story has been in print in various versions since 1921 and it's still in print. This book has had several edited incarnations but it is the definitive edition, written the way Gray wanted it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Likely Zane Grey's worst book,
By Bluewater cruiser (san diego, ca) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Woman of the Frontier (Mass Market Paperback)
From a confirmed Zane Grey affectionado - this is my least favorite Grey book. Don't bother.
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