Review of Ace of Hearts: The Westerns of Zane Grey By Arthur G. Kimball

Authors

• Alan Wilkinson, University of Hull

Date of this Version

1995

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:1 (Winter 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

This is a broad-ranging, thorough, relatively concise and useful book. It offers a reading of Grey that gets beyond the reputation-and beyond Riders of the Purple Sage. Moreover, it spells out what a serious reading of that most celebrated western suggests-a depth that belies Grey's rating as a "formulaic" writer. It also offers a direct response to a number of critics-Ann Ronald, Cynthia Hamilton, John G. Cawelti, among others-who have commented on Grey. Kimball finds much to disagree with but much to build on in his predecessors' work. He refutes their articulations of a Grey formula: if there is one it is far more complex than has been realized. What Grey really proposes is a variety of responses to the West.