Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing, Enthralling
Review: A deep, disturbing, thoughtful novel of New France, the very early years of what we now call Canada. A Jesuit priest, or Black Robe as he was called by the Native Americans, heads into the wilderness with some Algonquin guides to reach a mission for the Hurons near the shores of Lake Huron, so deep into the endless and treacherous forest. His life and faith begin to disintegrate in his first harsh experiences in the New World, and his first close and bewildering encounters with the Native Americans and their utterly different culture. Moore writes a lot like Graham Greene and his subject matter is often similar, too. Both are masters of the modern journalistic style of story-telling -- taut, concise, crisp, polished. This is a wonderful read and a insistent meditation on faith and hope, as well as a vivid portrait of an almost unknown part of the North American past. By the way, Bruce Beresford made this into a fine movie -- actually a great movie. It's not often that a director manages that feat. The film is a bit different, even though it is scrupulously faithful to Moore's original plot. I would say that the book is much the better, just because it is so much deeper and fuller, but the film is not to be missed either. Here is a modern author who really thinks and feels the impulses of religion and spirituality in the human soul. Enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Careful On Choosing Black Robe
Review: Black Robe by Brian Moore took place on the water, during a journey to the Huron Country in Canada, in the mid-1600s. Fr. Laforgue and Daniel had the mission to teach the Native Americans, they traveled with, about God. The missionaries wanted the Native Americans to lose their old ways in order for them to witness Gods power. I enjoyed the references of the tribe's traditions and culture. "Raising his unwieldy javelin he hurled it, striking a moose in the neck." Also the references to the Jesuits about what they believed. "... I knelt in the church of the blessed Virgin in Honfleur, my arms outstretched in adoration of my savior, making my vow to spend two years serving God in a distant land."
The main theme in Black Robe was for Fr. Laforgue and Neehatin, the head of the Native American tribe, to accept and learn about each other. Both the Jesuits and the Native Americans did eventually learn to accept one another as friends. I thought it was wonderful to see these groups working together, even though it was hard for them at times. Their cooperation made me realize that I need to be more open to other people like the characters were in the novel. This message in the novel can also be seen in America's history, during our colonial period. Black Robe showed what a tremendous struggle that these groups had to endure.
When I was doing my researched to find out what Black Robe was about, I found a description about Jesuit priests trying to convert Native Americans in Canada, and their struggle. I find religion and history very interesting and the brief description made me extremely interested in reading it, but to my surprise it was not just a religious, historic book. It was a degrading novel to both the Native Americans and the Jesuits. Almost every chapter had a sexual scene with Daniel and Annuka, a girl from the tribe, which they traveled with. Also, Fr. Laforgue engaged in a sexual act himself. It made me furious to read all of this, because when researching the book I never found anything of this nature to be in the novel. For Brian Moore to put all of this immoral content in the novel did not make the plot anymore important or interesting. I would not recommend Black Robe to others, because it was disturbing, and made me question my faith, and clergy men. I now have a bad outlook on my church and head officials. Though it was very historic and informative, it was not worth reading all the filth within it. I would like other curious readers of Black Robe to be aware of what else is in the novel, so they don't have to go through the same disappointment as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Be Careful On Choosing Black Robe
Review: Black Robe by Brian Moore took place on the water, during a journey to the Huron Country in Canada, in the mid-1600s. Fr. Laforgue and Daniel had the mission to teach the Native Americans, they traveled with, about God. The missionaries wanted the Native Americans to lose their old ways in order for them to witness Gods power. I enjoyed the references of the tribe's traditions and culture. "Raising his unwieldy javelin he hurled it, striking a moose in the neck." Also the references to the Jesuits about what they believed. "... I knelt in the church of the blessed Virgin in Honfleur, my arms outstretched in adoration of my savior, making my vow to spend two years serving God in a distant land."
The main theme in Black Robe was for Fr. Laforgue and Neehatin, the head of the Native American tribe, to accept and learn about each other. Both the Jesuits and the Native Americans did eventually learn to accept one another as friends. I thought it was wonderful to see these groups working together, even though it was hard for them at times. Their cooperation made me realize that I need to be more open to other people like the characters were in the novel. This message in the novel can also be seen in America's history, during our colonial period. Black Robe showed what a tremendous struggle that these groups had to endure.
When I was doing my researched to find out what Black Robe was about, I found a description about Jesuit priests trying to convert Native Americans in Canada, and their struggle. I find religion and history very interesting and the brief description made me extremely interested in reading it, but to my surprise it was not just a religious, historic book. It was a degrading novel to both the Native Americans and the Jesuits. Almost every chapter had a sexual scene with Daniel and Annuka, a girl from the tribe, which they traveled with. Also, Fr. Laforgue engaged in a sexual act himself. It made me furious to read all of this, because when researching the book I never found anything of this nature to be in the novel. For Brian Moore to put all of this immoral content in the novel did not make the plot anymore important or interesting. I would not recommend Black Robe to others, because it was disturbing, and made me question my faith, and clergy men. I now have a bad outlook on my church and head officials. Though it was very historic and informative, it was not worth reading all the filth within it. I would like other curious readers of Black Robe to be aware of what else is in the novel, so they don't have to go through the same disappointment as I did.
Rating:
Summary: "Heart of Darkness" in North American snow.
Review: Discussing Black Robe, the author said, "...I'd never written a book like this before. I didn't want to write an historical novel because I don't particularly like historical novels... I wanted to write this as a tale. I thought of it in terms of authors I admire, like Conrad. I thought of Heart of Darkness, a tale, a journey into an unknown destination, to an unknown ending." He was inspired to write Black Robe through his own experience of the vast Canadian landscape, the severe winter climate, and his own travels up and down the St. Lawrence River. His discovery of American historian Francis Parkman's study entitled "The Jesuits in North America" led Moore on a quest of further research, and soon he began to wonder... what if he had been fool enough to become a Jesuit and land himself in this Canadian wilderness, surrounded by people who seemed highly intelligent and terrifying all at once, and near impossible to convert? Black Robe was born.It is set in the early seventeenth century. The zealous Jesuit missionary Father Laforgue must make a perilous journey up the Ottawa River to a remote outpost in order to to relieve an ailing priest of his duties there. After receiving permission from the Commandant, who is none other than Samuel Champlain, Laforgue sets off for Ihonatiria with his young apprentice Daniel Davost, and a convoy of canoes piloted by the native Algonkin guides. The trip proves to be even more perilous than was anticipated and Moore's tale becomes an experiment in bringing the character of the committed priest Laforgue to the limits of his beliefs and his ability to endure. And it pains him to watch Daniel's own spiritual disintegration. This tale is superb in how it shows the clash of these two almost infinitely different cultures... the European Christian (and more specifically "Catholic") proselytizing mentality face to face with the Native belief in harmony with nature. One of the "Savages" sums up their opinion of Laforgue by saying "...listen Blackrobe. I am speaking against you today. You and your god do not suit our people. Your ways are not our ways. If we adopt them we will be neither Norman nor Huron. And soon our enemies will know our weakness and wipe us from the earth." These natives live by relying on the interpretation of their dreams and by the forest speaking to them etc., things which the Jesuits considered useless or foolish, and a result of ignorance. But Moore is brilliant in showing how the natives saw the Jesuit ways as being equally mysterious and ridiculous (especially the whole idea of the Eucharist, how they viewed it as cannibalism. They called baptism the "water sorcery"). So everything about the natives that seemed to be based on a sort of primitive superstition was reciprocated in their perception of Jesuit practises and rituals. In this book we meet the Huron, the Iroquois, and the Algonkin as a handsome, brave, warlike, incredibly cruel people, who were in no way dependent on the white man and, in fact, judged him to be their physical and mental inferior. And we meet the Blackrobes, who willingly flung themselves into the midst of this culture, and unlike Conrad's exploitive colonialists, came not for the purpose of economic and political conquest, but for religious conversion of those whom they called "the Savages."
One textual note: There is an immense amount of profanity in Black Robe, enough to warn the sqeamish about. According to the author's preface, the obscene language used by the natives at that time in history was a form of rough banter and was not intended to give offense.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic Historical Fiction
Review: In this story a Jesuit priest, Father Laforge travels from the settlement at Quebec to a distant mission outpost in a Huron village. On the way his travelling companion, a young man from France, goes native, and the party of Algonkin sent to escort him abandons him.
This is a stark, not for the squeamish, view of early Canadian history that was never presented to me in school and really helps me to appreciate the extreme culture shock that occurred when Europeans met aboriginal peoples, in particular here Jesuit missionaries and native North Americans. This novel seems realistic to me because neither side, "Normans" or "Savages" as the two groups refer to each other, is presented as good or evil though in this story and time the "savages" appear to have the advantage because of better adaptation to the environment. Unlike the materially motivated Normans, the natives do not own things or fight over them, sharing everything together, and they are the most caring of parents never physically striking their children, however the cruelty to other tribes including cannibalism and torture, the hard and filthy conditions of their lives, and no mercy for the sick shows another side.
This book will not be for everyone there are graphic descriptions of sexual acts and horrific scenes describing torture and cannibalism. The language used by the natives is obscene by European standards and their sexual practices immoral beyond belief to the Jesuits, and will be too shocking for some readers. The banter between the natives is not to insult but a friendly joking, personally I found it often hilarious. If you like stark, no-frills versions of history, you may enjoy this great adventure and first contact story.
Rating:
Summary: Historically accurate and capitvating, but emotionally flawe
Review: The late lamented Bian Moore often inhabited worlds where graham greene had become master{though Moore was not very far behind.} The world of moral ambiguities,the world that we live in. In Black Robe he takes this to another level, telling the tragic story of the Jesuit missions to Canada and the Huron. It tells the story of a zealous,pious younf Jesuit,his assistant, and the native people who help them. Loosely based on the life of Jean de Brebouf{who pened the famous Chrstmas carol,the huron carol and suffered an unbelievable,torturous death},young Fr.Laforgue,who is woefully prepared for this stumbles into one situation after another.His zeal,though, becomes tempered by compasion,and his character is not one dimensional.Eventuallly, he is abandoned and finds the huron mission he set out for, leaving the then village of quebec all those miles and deaths ago. the viloence is quite graphic[including the death of a child which stayed with me for some time}.the ending,where lafaogue finds the village sick with fever,agreeing to be baptized if the Blackrobes wil cure them.The ending is chilling and superb and all the more so since it actually happened.One of Moore's best,which says a great deal.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping and fascinating, but explicit
Review: This is a fascinating and gripping portrait of a Jesuit priest on a journey to a Huron mission in New France. Moore does well in contrasting the alien cultures of the Algonkin and the French. Both sets of values are taken seriously, and ultimately it is sacrificial love that offers hope that the cultural chasm can be bridged. While the Jesuit's journey does challenge his faith, it does not destroy it. Please note that this book does contain explicit sexual scenes and foul language. The sex scenes are not meant to titillate but to develop moral and cultural conflicts, and the foul language is used because that is how the Algonkin talked. This book would not be appropriate for high school libraries.
Rating:
Summary: You might like it, you might not
Review: This is one of those books I have had for a long time, and started to read several times, but never did until recently. The book is described in quite a bit of detail by others' reviews, to I won't repeat that. I found this book interesting not so much for the story as for the description of frontier life of that time, and the conflict between what the Priests were trying to lead the Indians to belive and what the Indians actually did believe. This was culture shock and misunderstanding at its finest. This was actually a good book once I finally set down to read it, but I wouldn't rate it a 4 or 5 just because it isn't a book I could do without. If I hadn't read it, I don't feel I'd be missing anything I haven't or wouldn't come across somewhere else. That said, Brian Moore is a great story teller and I don't think many will be disappointed in the book. If you are shocked by profanity ("bad" words that is), however, you might pass this book by.
Rating:
Summary: A view of colonialism which is not politically correct...
Review: This novel shows the "natives" of Quebec not merely as the victims of more powerful colonial powers but also weak because in their trading with the French, they themselves acknowledge their own demise, and they do it in the idiom of their own philosophies and beliefs. There are no noble savages here and barbaric Christian soldiers, only people with interests and ambitions, in specific circumstances. This is a great novel of intercultural clash and conflict. We see the Jesuits trying to save the souls of the "savages" and see how some of the native Quebecians think that the God of the Jesuit priest, the "Black Robe," is stupid and silly. We see how the introduction of foreigners into the Indians' political and economic systems disturbs the natural relationship between the different groups, the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroque. We see how the presence of the French puts strains on the philosopical and belief systems of the "natives." Finally, we see how the exposure to the realities of Quebec puts strains on the French view of the world and themselves.... In the backgroud of every scene and every event in this book is the Jesuit priest, the "Black Robe," totally unsuited for the rough terrains and peoples of 17th Century Quebec but holding in his hand his notion of absolution for all......
Rating: 
Summary: Black Robe
Review: This novel shows the "natives" of Quebec not merely as the victims of more powerful colonial powers but also weak because in their trading with the French, they themselves acknowledge their own demise, and they do it in the idiom of their own philosophies and beliefs. There are no noble savages here and barbaric Christian soldiers, only people with interests and ambitions, in specific circumstances. This is a great novel of intercultural clash and conflict. We see the Jesuits trying to save the souls of the "savages" and see how some of the native Quebecians think that the God of the Jesuit priest, the "Black Robe," is stupid and silly. We see how the introduction of foreigners into the Indians' political and economic systems disturbs the natural relationship between the different groups, the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroque. We see how the presence of the French puts strains on the philosopical and belief systems of the "natives." Finally, we see how the exposure to the realities of Quebec puts strains on the French view of the world and themselves.... In the backgroud of every scene and every event in this book is the Jesuit priest, the "Black Robe," totally unsuited for the rough terrains and peoples of 17th Century Quebec but holding in his hand his notion of absolution for all......
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