Sea of Grass by Conrad Richter

This epic novel, published in 1936, depicts the tensions that arose during the settlement of the American Southwest. The Sea of Grass is set in late-nineteenth-century New Mexico and depicts the often violent battles between the pioneering ranchers, whose cattle roam freely through the enormous sea of grass, and the farmers, or "nesters", who build fences and turn the sod. Against this backdrop, the rancher Colonel Jim Brewton, his unstable Eastern wife Lutie, and the ambitious Brice Chamberlain form a triangle. Richter frames the story in Homeric lines, with the children caught up in their parents' disputes.

The Sea of Grass is a work of artistic literature. Conrad Richter's word-painting of New Mexico at the conclusion of the cowboy period is rich in analogies and images. This is a story about horrible people doing foolish, horrible things to a slightly less horrible guy. There's some good slightly violet prose thrown in here and there, but everyone wishes there was more. Richter excels in waxing poetic about the grandeur of the seemingly barren plains and describing life on them.

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