Reviews 161 being, a la the Arthurian legends, that the evil has been purged and now God will renew the land. It is little things like this, and the inclusion of a sub-plot involving the travails of a âgoodâ priest, that, in conjunction with the weak dialogue, keeps TheDark Wayfrom being as good as it so easily could have been. GRANT SISK University ofNorth Texas TheHappy Man: A NovelofCaliforniaRanch Life. By Robert O. Easton. Foreword by Gerald Haslam. Introduction byJack Schaefer. (Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1993. 222 pages, $12.95.) Since its publication in 1943, the reputation of Robert O. Eastonâs The Happy Man: A NovelofCaliforniaRanch Lifehas grown quietly but steadily. Capra Press now marks its 50th anniversary with a third edition. In the 1977 second edition, Jack Schaefer hailed the book as having âa timeless quality.â More recently, it has won high praise from writers as diverse as Ross Macdonald (âAn epic work, a masterpiece ofwestern literatureâ), Ursula Le Guin (âHaunting as the tule-fogs of the Deltaâ), and Jon Tuska (âOne of the best novels of the American Westâ). Its claim to greatness lies essentially in its down-to-earth characters and artfully crafted tales. TheHappy Man is, asJack Schaefer observed, âa book with subtle overtones emerging out ofthe straightforward simplicity ofnarration,... with never an obtrusive flourish of explanation or sentiment or stylistic trick.â The ranch workers come alive in these pages. And in their follies, dreams, and strengths is found what is timeless and universal in humankind. FR. LEO A. HETZLER St.JohnFisher College Ghost Dance: A Play of Voices. By Gladys Swan. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. 251 pages, $24.95.) Set in the mining town of Chloride, New Mexico, Gladys Swanâs Ghost Dance:A Play ofVoicesexamines communal loss of hope. For western towns such as Chloride, the economic mainstays of cattle, timber, and mining are not what they once were. The cultivation of tourism, it seems, is the current economic corrective to becoming a ghost town. Chlorideâs one call-to-beauty is Roselle More, hometown girl and aging movie star, whoâs returning now for her first visit in decades to kick-off the townâs rebirth. In the early pages, Roselle walks the townâs nearly deserted streets, and disappears, so one suspects, into the already crowded canvas of âThe Ghost Dance,âa legendary oil painting depicting the people and history of 162 WesternAmerican Literature Chloride. She is replaced by a young look-a-like, Joan Gallant. At taleâs end, Joan finds to her confusion that she has become Roselle More for keeps. Another long-ago resident back for a visit is âBirdâ Peacock, late middle-aged, the sole surviving offspring of a once-wealthy Chloride pioneer family. Last time âBirdâwas home he convinced the local downtown merchants that he had a money machine that converted singles into ten dollar bills. âBirdâ is in love with Roselle, or so it seems. Vignettes or snapshots ofminor and supporting characters abound, includ ing the merchants of the dying downtown as a Greek chorus, of sorts. Other vividlydepicted characters include Roselleâshigh school drama coach, the town historian with the requisite addled memory, plus an assortment of Hollywood-types drawn to Chloride by Roselleâsvisit. Influences of Latin Americaâs âmagic realismâ literary movement, Charles G. Finneyâs Southwest tale, The Circus ofDr. Lao, and Joan Didionâs Hollywood tale, Play It As It Lays, all seem somehow present in this, Swanâs second novel (her first, the critically well-received Carnivalfor the Gods). Shakespeareâs Puck, Twainâs Tom Sawyer, and Indian Americaâs trickster-coyote are found in the âBirdâPeacock character. Scenes of the nineteenth century Indian wars, plus a Chloride-inspired playscript help close out the final chapters of this sometimes straightforward, other times complicated tale. An ambitious, off-beat novelwith a strong cerebral bent, Swanâs GhostDance challenges the reader to take a different look at the modern-day West. JAMES B. HEMESATH Adams State College Sign Languages. By James Hannah. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993. 168 pages, $19.95.) Sign Languages,James Hannahâs second book, is a collection of nine stories...