Lonesome Land

Trade Paperback

Lonesome Land (1912) delicately balances an idealistic, romantic view of the American West with its hard, gritty reality. Although focused on the West s often lonesome and open lifestyle, scenes of true Western-genre suspense appear in this critical yet beautiful imaging of the land and its pioneers.Valeria Peyson has spent her life on the East Coast and, therefore, holds a beautifully serene vision of the West in her mind. But in relocating to Hope, Montana, she discovers the hardships of the West s remote, male-centered way of life starting with her marriage to a drunken failure, Manley Fleetwood. The west, however, is not without the romantic aspect that Valeria hoped to find. Coming to terms with both kinds of experience, she grows into a stronger person.