["Slogum House"] is a book that none but Mari Sandoz could have written. No other woman would have dared attempt such a background and such a story and no man possesses the intimate knowledge of a feminine mind as strong and corrosive and ruthless as that of Gulla Slogum. "Slogum House" is a brutal book written for strong stomachs, and its author in her strength casts a shadow tall and deep.

Pioneer life—its trials, its hardships, its color—has been the magnet that has drawn the steel of many a novelist. It is an important part of the heritage of the nation, nearer to this generation, as this volume shows, than most persons realize. The years have cast a glamour about it, made up of covered wagons, of strong silent men, of splendid brave women who made fine mates and good mothers. There is truth in this picture but not the whole truth.

"Slogum House" tells the story of pioneer strength divorced from goodness, of greed for land that knows no law and no kindness, of motherhood that uses its power for evil and for gain. It is as though Mari Sandoz, incapable of longer retaining her impatience with the pretty stories of a life she has known and heard about at first hand, had come to the conclusion that the reading world is old enough and mature enough to face the facts of life. It is possible that in her devotion to integrity of fact and scene she has crowded the canvas beyond artistic proportions, but hers is a compulsion that knows no conventional measurements. Like the principal character she depicts, she is ruthless in attaining her desire and, like her, succeeds in becoming a person unique among her kind….

The four hundred pages of this novel are packed with violence of action and emotion. There is no crime too low or too vicious that Gulla cannot contemplate to attain her ends. Moving heavily through a secret passage in the walls of Slogum House, she hears everything that goes on, listens to the talk of the men who come to spend the night, and gleans from their gossip the news that gives direction to her plans. One neighbor is killed because he knows too much about the disappearance of horses, another is unspeakably outraged for daring to put a decent thought in the head of an indecent daughter, others are robbed, intimidated, or run out of the country. And Gulla, fearsome, large, heavy, works at her map and moves her boundaries ever wider.

The novel moves to its end with the beat of crashing doom. [Gulla's brother] Butch is murdered by the hand of the gentle Ruedy to protect the virtue of a daughter who had none, one son is driven to death by the man whom he destroyed, another is strangled in his hour of triumph. These are some of the fruits of Gulla's sowing but inconsequential to her as compared to the greater harvest of land. She is an incredible creature made monstrously credible by Mari Sandoz. She runs a bawdy house but will not have liquor in the house, she ruins her neighbors but cooks them a dinner when prairie fires destroy their homes, she uses her daughters for no good purposes but insists that the cattlemen talk respectfully to them.

Mari Sandoz writes with a sweep and power as strong as a tornado and as devastating. Just as she has no fear of piling horror upon horror and outrage upon outrage, she has no fear of using language that gives integrity to the picture she presents. It is the language of the frontier, of the saloon and the fancy house. Coming from a woman, many may find it shocking, but with these Mari Sandoz will have small patience and little concern. For men and women with stronger tastes "Slogum House" is an unforgettable book and Gulla Slogum an unforgettable character.