The Sea of Grass

I first read this excellent book long ago. The story line evolves almost as a mystery novel, with lead-in followed by the enlightenment - in a setting that touches on the emotional development of all of the different types of personalities that comprise the people of his tale. There are users and the used, basic human nature denied even in the face of it's truth; the burden of public opinion, where the substance of a story changes colors like a chameleon depending upon who does the telling; of living and of dying. The vast, endless grass plains of the New Mexico and Texas territory provides the backdrop for Richter's story and he describes it masterfully, especially noted if one comes from a West or Southwest background. His words awaken memories and feelings in the older reader that may be absent in a younger one because their time has not yet come to look back; his first-person delivery is recalling events of 50 years past. He steadily gathers around his characters the essential descriptive life's details that bring them to life; there are, tied into moments of the telling, all that the senses evoke at the time, which tethers events firmly to the telling of a story long past. A beautiful, and even at first glance obviously cultured lady steps off the incoming train from the East, to become the wife of a wealthy, hard working cattle baron, several years her senior, whose life is inexplicably intertwined with the land and with a philosophy he can't let go of. He believes the end of the free range is more than what meets the eye; it is the ruining of the great grasslands that were never meant for the plow because there was not enough water available to handle the needs of a farm, and that the emigrants had no idea of what the land would do them. She almost immediately finds herself at odds with the beliefs of her new husband in the matter of the handling of the homesteaders that are encroaching on the cattleman's open range. He is still powerful with his wealth and community standing behind him; the settlers - most of whom are impoverished - are not powerful, but their sheer numbers are a presence that can't be ignored. She is immediately drawn to the brilliant oratory and the politics of the young Eastern lawyer who has come to plead the case for the new Homestead Development, and perhaps both of these men refuse to see the truth. The story line is superb. All of the age-old elements are there, because that is what makes us what we are; but the resulting story - as told by the young nephew as he begins his own life, is unique and something quite unlike anything I had read before. As he watches, helpless to interfere or be of much use, he struggles in his own way to hold on to the old, familiar, beloved world he is losing while he moves into the new world he has reluctantly been forced to prepare for. I highly recommend this book as one of a kind; and of a story line that is unique and well thought out. In fact, it would appe

Conrad Richter is a detailed narrator of the Early American Scene.The clear sense of a spacious natural setting that he has depcited in other novels like the vast New Mexican territory in The Lady, the elemental force of the natural forest in The Trees, and The Light in the Forest is present in The Sea of Grass. The cattle barons with their ranches "as big a Massachusetts with Connecticut thrown in" and the rolling spanse of emerald green prairie in the spring will render a visual sense of splendor.Historically, Richter encompasses the tense struggle between the rich cattle barons and the squatters in the mid 1800's. My favorite part of the book is the unexpected direction of the character Lutie. The delicate balance of prose and the strong conflicts that develop between the characters, the Colonel, Lutie, Brock, and Judge Chamberlain grab the readers' full attention. Mr. Richter with an uncanny skill for recapturing the past dramatizes the brutality and bravado of the Southwest in the mid 1800's in The Sea of Grass.

"The Sea of Grass" is a simple story masterfully told by Conrad Richter. No other writer can match Richter's ability to capture the spoken word of a region or particular time period, or equal his aptitude in turning a simple chain of events into powerful story telling. This novel chronicles the end of the New Mexico frontier as seen through the eyes of Hal, the nephew of one of the last great cattle ranchers. As civilization encroaches even onto that remote region, Colonel Jim Brewton symbolizes the last struggle and eventual submission of the land to the inevitable development of the forces of society. Richter also weaves Brewton's marriage to an unfaithful wife and his relationship to their children into this conflict. Although this plot appears derivative and indentical to that of a soap opera, Richter's prose style elevates it to the status of a great tragedy. Richter clearly mourns the passing of the great independents whose struggle to develop the land clearly and ironically led to their own obsolescence.

The reason why it is so important to pay attention to description is because Richter uses nearly every detail to help tell the story. The prose is evocative in the tradition of some of the best modernist writing at the time like Willa Cather. Despite the occasional misplaced modifier, Sea of Grass is definitely a book that deserves a close reading--if only for Richter's poetic prose that makes you want to read out loud.