I never really knew what a sage was, I’m still not entirely sure what it is, but it provided the setting for one heck of a story. Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage is another cowboy based drama that has satiated my desire for the time being.
I picked up this book on a whim. To say that I judged the purchase largely on the cover of this particular work would be correct. As a result, before delving in between the sheets of this book I took myself to look at some reviews in an attempt to lay some foundations as to why I might want to even start reading it. One comment of one review went something along the lines of “Sage, Mormon, Mormon, Sage, Mormon, Sage, Sage” – I was starting to regret the purchase. However, on a more in depth look I found out that the original novel published had certain chapters omitted, and that more recent publications of this work have these missing section replaced. This spurred me on. Maybe these missing parts held some elixir that could drawout this work to make it more than just Sage and Mormons.
The main thrust of the story is that a lone rider enters into a somewhat frontier like town in Utah where the Mormon church runs the almost despotic and ruthlessly segregated town of Cottonwoods. Upon his arrival he makes the acquaintance of a single woman, Jane Withersteen, who, as it turns out, is the daughter of a former resident, and extremely wealthy resident, of Cottonwoods. The lone rider has come to Cottonwoods on a mission of which the details are not understood entirely at the beginning, and they are only teased out at intermittent parts through the story, but safe to stay the role of Jane is central to what he is looking for.
Moreover, this woman is a devout Mormon, who attempts to live her life following the teachings of this particular church. Nevertheless, Jane also is the solitary person of this town who walks through the segregation that has been imposed on the town and engages visibly with the non-Mormon community of Cottonwoods. This is often the cause of derision and calls from the Mormon elders that she is not taking her duties as a Mormon, and a Mormon woman, as seriously as she should. One root of this anger is Jane’s relationship with Venters a rider under Jane’s employment. The writer, Grey, I imagine, has left the precise intricacies of this relationship up to the reader to determine. However, one feels that the persistent nature of the Mormon elders’ disdain appears to add credence to the thought that Jane and Venters have literally flirted with the idea that they are not just employer-employee.
Such ill feeling toward Jane and more so toward Venters, who is perceived and pushed to a position of criminal for being in close proximity to Jane, forces his hand in search of a life less Mormon. At this point I must digress. This novel is of its time. Grey is writing from his perspective, and, as readers, we must not be quick to assert the prejudices of a former time on to our own contemporaneous lives. To this end, the Mormon church becomes not a symbol of Mormonism but of something that might be becoming more pervasive in our own societies – whether it is fanaticism, nationalism or simple close-mindedness. Either way, the result is that there is less empathy or sympathy to those that are not the same as us.
On the flip side, this causes people to take drastic measures that by themselves may be actions that are out of character, out of place, and actions that are guilty of the same close-mindedness that causes the reaction in the first place. In the case of Venters, it is the ostracisation that allows him to see clearly, but only after he commits a crime or a sin that he would not have committed if he had not been forced out of Cottonwoods though. It is this clashing juxtaposition that is commonplace throughout this work. Grey continually creates friction between what people are or at least appear to be and what the environment and people make them become. However, what Grey fails to do, or possibly intended to do, was to place a judgment on this and instead he leaves the judgment to the reader. This, as it appears to me, would have been a brave call, but one I think I would appreciate. In the end, Grey would not have been telling me what to believe but merely expressing his opinion on something he has asked me to consider. Nevertheless, with or without the writer’s contribution it remains a fascinating point.
Another aspect that struck me about the book, not, it must be said, whilst reading it but in a conversation after finishing the book. Was the potential that the storyline is for all intents and purposes – ridiculous and laughable. The conversation entailed an attempt to consolidate and summarise the story. The story I told resembled more of a soap opera than a decent piece of nonfiction. On recounting the story it dawned on me that there was far more complexity to the story than the reviews and I think I gave it credit for whilst reading. The ending of the story took turns that I had never imagined it would take, but I am grateful that Grey took this gamble. This is a Western, but this step could have befuddled any sleuth or authority in a detective thriller. When giving a brief synopsis, the intertwining relationships of this work can become somewhat absurd and to be honest unbelievable. However, give the time any novel really deserves and suspend a portion of your disbelief then the story takes on a reality that is truly believable.
Ostensibly this work centers around four highly visible characters. The lone rider, who ultimately appears to be what the Mormons fail to be by being the true missionary with noble yet bloodied ends. Jane, the character who appears to fall from grace in her own eyes but is ultimately redeemed by the actions of the people who members of her church were all too willing to disparage and cast out. Venters, the humble and loyal aide who grows wild and fierce in order to save himself and others. His wildness is tapered to the point that the wild is not in control of him but he has harnessed it to his own ends and is in control of it. The final character is one piece in this jigsaw that I do not wish to talk about as this character is the fulcrum of the work, yet at no point does this person’s necessity take over or consume the story.
Riders of the Purple Sage is Western with a classy tale. It is not just gun holding, gruff machismo – it is a tale that can be prescient through the ages. It is a gritty account of how opinion and belief have the power to both release and incarcerate us. This is well worth a read.
liberalknight 