The Old American (Hardscrabble Book)

Rating:
Summary: The Noble Savage
Review: A gentle and moving book about the plight of the Indians during the French and Indian wars. Much philosophy about life as an Indian, and many descriptions about their life in those times.

But: How true is all of this? The author himself writes "The 'Old American" is fiction, but I've stayed close to the facts of the Natan Blake captivity as I've been able to divine it from the history books. I used very few original sources". In other words: the facts are few, most of it is fiction. At that point it becomes a well written novel, reflecting the author's predilections.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling "captivity narrative"
Review: Anyone who shares an interest in the French & Indian War era will find this book unique from many perspectives. First, it is evident that the author did an exceptionally thorough job of researching relevant daily minutia of that era, from all perspectives, whether Colonist, Indian, French or British, as the details ring with an authenticity of those critical moments of painful "nation building" not found in many formal histories, much less a work of historical fiction. Second, it accurately portrays a perspective not usually accorded anything but a romanticized depiction, that of the large numbers of Native American's swept up, and perhaps wounded to the very core of their civilization by something they could not truly understand, the blood feud between distant European Nations that was violently transforming their cultures, without their consent or any honest concern for the consequences. The pain of the "Old American" from this tale, for his culture and people, should give all pause as we consider how casually Native Americans were brushed aside in the "foreigner's affairs" of that and subsequent eras.

Rating:
Summary: Finely Written
Review: Elegant writing by Ernest Hebert. In some ways he reminds me a little of Norman Maclean in style. Honest and elegant. A compelling time-period and characters who struggle with the way their lives are and what they could have been.

Rating:
Summary: What a writer!
Review: Fascinating plot and characters as mentioned above. Ernest Hebert is one of the rare ones who can start a sentence and then come seemingly out of nowhere to surprise the reader with images and rhythms juxtaposed in new and delightful ways. Treat yourself to this book now!

Rating:
Summary: An Exceptional Journey
Review: Finally, a novel that is equually well writtten and researched. Ernest Herbert has done a terrific job of describing the early colonial native people of norhten New England and Canada. For me he provided many deatails of their culture that not only surprised me but astounded me as well. Within this rich descriptive, Hebert weaves an intriguing tale of an ancient king and his reluctant slave. The story is of a man trying to perserve his world and the captive man that is imprisoned by the world that he was taken from. I was fascintated with this novel and consider it one of the finest novel's of historical fiction that I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Pat Higgins
Review: I absolutely loved this book! Great character development, great research, great story! And the ending was perfect. Mr. Herbert is a wonderful writer. In the words of Caucus Meteor, "I admire him very much!"

Rating:
Summary: The Old American is magnificent!
Review: One day last spring, one of the other parents dropping kids off at school stopped me to say, "I stayed up late last night finishing the most wonderful book, and I have to tell someone, so I'm telling you." The book she was so ardently recommending was Ernest Hebert's The Old American. What is it about certain books that elicits such a need to pass them along?
I remember when I first read Hebert's novel The Dogs of March, which I've argued should be assigned to newly arrived New Englanders as required reading, like taking Vermont's Freeman's Oath. Myself, I read every paragraph twice as I made my way through the pages, the only time I ever recall doing that. Hebert has an incomparable ear for dialogue, an ability to set off a dramatic incident like a blasting cap, and his prose conveys the gnarled, bruising beauty of the north country. Darby, the town he invented as setting for his characters' collisions with fate and one another, is a place now present in detail in my mental cosmos.
Having achieved so much in a certain mode, Hebert evidently felt constrained by the conventions of the contemporary "realistic" novel. In the early 1990s he wrote a cyber-punk thriller called Mad Boys, worked on a nonfiction book about wood, then commenced work on a project seemingly very different.
As he explains in a note at the end of The Old American, he had been pondering childhood memories of a monument in Keene, New Hampshire. Almost hidden behind a hedge, a plaque commemorates the site where in 1736 a settler named Nathan Blake built the town's first log cabin, indicating that Blake was captured by Indians and taken to Canada for three years then ransomed by his wife.
So why do certain books compel readers to pass them on? First, there's the power of a fabulous story. The Old American has that, in spades: the tale of Nathan Blake's captivity unfolds with gravity and old-fashioned excitement. This is the New England frontier, sparsely populated, opulent in game, and with cloud-crowned forests and wild, spume-torn rivers. Nathan survives a series of tests among his captors, including traversing the infamous gauntlet in a rather original way (this episode is a tour de force of narrative strength and agility). Ultimately, although by definition still a slave, Nathan makes a home for himself in the village of Conissadawaga, a town of refugiés from tribes decimated by assimilation, war, and disease. Pulled between contesting strategies for survival ' settlement with European-style cabins and farms, or continuing the nomadic, foraging life further north ' the community is coming apart along age-old rifts. Saturated with historical insights and accuracies, Hebert's writing nonetheless vaults above its scholarly sources and succeeds as a vivid, vigorous story. In scenes of hunting and fishing, planting corn, gossiping by the fire, and gambling (paradoxically, to gain prestige by losing everything), the ancient dwellers on this land come alive. Especially moving and frequently comical is Hebert's way of conveying the linguistic mix surrounding Nathan, a simmering stew of Iroquian and Algonquian languages, French, English, Dutch, and even "slaughtered" church Latin.
Secondly, The Old American has magnificent characters. Although he initially tried to tell his tale from the viewpoint of Nathan Blake, according to Hebert after several failed drafts he re-routed and built the novel around the thoughts and narration of the elderly Indian named Caucus-Meteor, former slave himself and skilled as a multi-lingual translator. He is a combination of philosopher king and court jester, grand in intellect but self-effacing and mischievous. While Hebert's story is endlessly engaging, what lifts this novel to the level of greatness is the character of Caucus-Meteor. Hebert's bold choice, defying imaginative difficulties as well as literary-political correctness, is a mark of his stature as one of our most gifted novelists.
The Old American evokes an epoch far from our own, a time exhilarating in potential yet verging on catastrophe. Those of you who have read the book have surely noticed the enthusiasm and even urgency with which you commend it to others.

Rating:
Summary: Finely Written
Review: One day last spring, one of the other parents dropping kids off at school stopped me to say, "I stayed up late last night finishing the most wonderful book, and I have to tell someone, so I�m telling you." The book she was so ardently recommending was Ernest Hebert�s The Old American. What is it about certain books that elicits such a need to pass them along?
I remember when I first read Hebert�s novel The Dogs of March, which I�ve argued should be assigned to newly arrived New Englanders as required reading, like taking Vermont�s Freeman�s Oath. Myself, I read every paragraph twice as I made my way through the pages, the only time I ever recall doing that. Hebert has an incomparable ear for dialogue, an ability to set off a dramatic incident like a blasting cap, and his prose conveys the gnarled, bruising beauty of the north country. Darby, the town he invented as setting for his characters� collisions with fate and one another, is a place now present in detail in my mental cosmos.
Having achieved so much in a certain mode, Hebert evidently felt constrained by the conventions of the contemporary "realistic" novel. In the early 1990s he wrote a cyber-punk thriller called Mad Boys, worked on a nonfiction book about wood, then commenced work on a project seemingly very different.
As he explains in a note at the end of The Old American, he had been pondering childhood memories of a monument in Keene, New Hampshire. Almost hidden behind a hedge, a plaque commemorates the site where in 1736 a settler named Nathan Blake built the town�s first log cabin, indicating that Blake was captured by Indians and taken to Canada for three years then ransomed by his wife.
So why do certain books compel readers to pass them on? First, there�s the power of a fabulous story. The Old American has that, in spades: the tale of Nathan Blake�s captivity unfolds with gravity and old-fashioned excitement. This is the New England frontier, sparsely populated, opulent in game, and with cloud-crowned forests and wild, spume-torn rivers. Nathan survives a series of tests among his captors, including traversing the infamous gauntlet in a rather original way (this episode is a tour de force of narrative strength and agility). Ultimately, although by definition still a slave, Nathan makes a home for himself in the village of Conissadawaga, a town of refugiés from tribes decimated by assimilation, war, and disease. Pulled between contesting strategies for survival � settlement with European-style cabins and farms, or continuing the nomadic, foraging life further north � the community is coming apart along age-old rifts. Saturated with historical insights and accuracies, Hebert�s writing nonetheless vaults above its scholarly sources and succeeds as a vivid, vigorous story. In scenes of hunting and fishing, planting corn, gossiping by the fire, and gambling (paradoxically, to gain prestige by losing everything), the ancient dwellers on this land come alive. Especially moving and frequently comical is Hebert�s way of conveying the linguistic mix surrounding Nathan, a simmering stew of Iroquian and Algonquian languages, French, English, Dutch, and even "slaughtered" church Latin.
Secondly, The Old American has magnificent characters. Although he initially tried to tell his tale from the viewpoint of Nathan Blake, according to Hebert after several failed drafts he re-routed and built the novel around the thoughts and narration of the elderly Indian named Caucus-Meteor, former slave himself and skilled as a multi-lingual translator. He is a combination of philosopher king and court jester, grand in intellect but self-effacing and mischievous. While Hebert�s story is endlessly engaging, what lifts this novel to the level of greatness is the character of Caucus-Meteor. Hebert�s bold choice, defying imaginative difficulties as well as literary-political correctness, is a mark of his stature as one of our most gifted novelists.
The Old American evokes an epoch far from our own, a time exhilarating in potential yet verging on catastrophe. Those of you who have read the book have surely noticed the enthusiasm and even urgency with which you commend it to others.