ROGUE YATES

by Tom Ronan ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A story of an Australian cattle king, Tony Yates, this has little to recommend it to American readers, even Western addicts who seem to be able to take anything so long as it deals with fast riding, fast shooting and quarrels over ownership of boundary lines and water holes. Tony Yates' death was variously reported as ""Another murky chapter in the bloodstained story of Australian landtaking closed with the death of Anthony Yates. This reputed millionaire was one of the last survivors of the settlers whose deeds remain a perpetual shame to our nation."" And ""In all my wanderings in the Great Outback...no other person has inspired me with so much affection...as the simple, courtly old gentleman who had wrung from its soil its hard-earned competence."" And ""....too good a cattleman to be damned."" Of such contradictions was Tony Yates a symbol. Perhaps he did represent a phase of frontier history anywhere, but drawn to the life, as here by Tom Ronan, he isn't someone to cotton to. The Australian dialect and the crude amorality and vulgarity of Tony and his cohorts makes this unappetizing reading- often almost unintelligible- and for the most part boring.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1957

Categories: FICTION