The Great Trek Book

Zane Grey is famous for his westerns...of which he wrote boatloads. The Great Trek is, and isn't, one of them. It has cowboys, horses, natives, and cattle. But it is set in Australia, not the western US. When he originally submitted it to his publishers, they refused to publish it. They claimed it was too long, etc. etc. So until recently, all that was available was a severely abridged edition. His heirs have now published he novel in its entirety, as Grey submitted it.

First the bad news: The Great Trek was written in 1937. Its treatment of the Australian Aborigines is despicable, but fully reflective of the racism of the time. This may be enough to persuade many to read no further. Such an attitude is fully understandable. If this blatant racism isn't a total turn off to you, then read on.

The story itself--that is, the part that focuses on the white people, is pretty good. The basic plot is that a pair friends, bot cowboys (Red and Sterl) leave the US for Australia to get away from a messy break up between Red and his girl friend. They join a cattle drive, heading from Australia's East Coast, all the way across the middle of the continental dessert ("The Never Never Land). This has never been tried before, but if successful, great riches await the cattle owners.

Along the way, ed and Sterl meet great Australian cowboys, fall in love, defeat outlaws and the weather. As with every Zane Grey novel, in the end, the honest, simple cowboys prevail against all odds....and live happily ever after.

Others have criticized the book as too long. It is (by far) the longest Zane Grey novel, so if you are used to his 100--200 pagers, then it seems interminable. However, by modern standards, t is long,but not overly so--lots happens, and Grey is a good story teller, able to sustain the narrative flow for all 600 or so pages.

If you like the early 20th Century western (virtually all of which have the same problem with deeply
embedded racism) this is an interesting twist on the genre. If you don't, then this is definitely not for you. If you aren't sure, try one of Grey's (or Louis L'Amour's) more traditional books first If you want a more modern take (absent most of the racism), try Elmore Leonard's early westerns (before he switched to crime novels).