Rating: 
Summary: Berger Rides Again
Review: Return of Little Big Man is not as good as Little Big Man, but since Little Big Man easily ranks among the ten greatest American novels ever written, that is not strong criticism. RLBM is a bit too long - it drags somewhat between the point at which Jack Crabb joins Buffalo Bill and the point at which he witnesses Sitting Bull's death. But otherwise it is superior in every way. There is a change of focus here. Unlike LBM, RLBM is less a revisionist history of the Old West and has changed its focus to the encroaching Twentieth Century. Best of all, it introduces a romantic element in the form of Amanda Teasdale, who will surely prove a match for Jack Crabb. The author promises additional installments of Crabb's life. I look forward to them. I wish he'd produce a nonfiction companion volume (or footnotes a la Flashman) so the reader could determine what is fact and what is fancy.
Rating: 
Summary: Little Big Man Returns-well worth the wait!
Review: The only thing that Return lacks from the original is the cast of fictional characters that make that story so rich,i.e. Old Lodge Skins, Younger Bear. Berger's writing style, and his knowledge of history, once again creates the aura of authenticity that makes the character Jack Crabb seem beleivable. At the end or Return, Jack's allusions to Roosevelt and the Roughriders in Cuba leaves me hoping for a further continuation of this remarkable story.
Rating:
Summary: A belated fanale for matched pair
Review: Those who read and re-read Little Big Man every decade or so over 40 years were probably as delighted as I was when Return of Little Big Man appeared in 1999. Jack Crabbe, the geriatric home resident of the original novel who'd told of his experiences in the West, always peripheral to the events we all know of, returns in this sequel to tell of his life after the Little Big Horn fight.
As the only white survivor of Little Big Horn, Jack wanders broke and almost naked into Deadwood, SD, to encounter his old acquaintance from Dodge, City, KS, Wild Bill Hickock, in time to be present for the Aces and Eights scenario. Naturally, Crabbe gives the eye-witness account of the even a bit differently than you've heard before.
Thereafter, Crabbe wanders back to Dodge, Tombstone, elsewhere, in time to be present for the OK Corral fight, offering up another side of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, the Clantons and Bat Masterson. Then eastward to the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, Queen Victoria, Bertie, Sitting Bull and Elizabeth Custer.
As a grand finale he manages to be with Sitting Bull for the assassination of the great chief of the Souix.
A great follow-up book to Little Big Man. Too bad it took so many decades to appear.
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