Wanderer of the Wasteland (First Edition) 1923

For those of us who are nearing senior citizen age, there is no greater novelist of the West than Zane Grey. And indeed for the younger set, this book will probably not appeal to them, for it is long, and tedious at times. But the descriptions of the desert and of the times and of the people who Wansfell encounters in his search for self and for redemption over the "killing" of his brother are enough to counter the slowness of the novel. And yes, the book may seem dated in its style and colloquial language the characters use, but that is exactly how Zane Grey heard people speak when he encountered them in his travels in the West. I have been a Zane Grey fan for over 40 years, and purchase every "new" book which is published, including those about the man, and it is easy to see that Wanderer of the Wasteland is autobiographical in nature--his life's story, his struggles, his losses, his journey of self discovery as to what the desert meant to him, and how nature and environment shapes lives. Don't dismiss this novel as "just another romance" by Zane Grey, but embrace it for what it was intended to be Zane Grey's Masterpiece--a story to be taken into one's own heart and used to reflect on one's own life. But even if you don't want to do that, this is still a book one can enjoy simply for the adventure.