3 Review(s)

The book is a fierce and stormy (and indeed steamy) melodrama, and an indignant denunciation of American postwar society. Three wounded privates return from the war, too late for a hero's welcome. One gets the sense that Daren Lane is less a character than Zane Grey's weapon for attacking degenerate modern America. The men who did not go to fight are all 'slackers', and dangers to the town's womenfolk.