- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Forge books (July 3 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312890397
- ISBN-13: 978-0312890391
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 726 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Through seven novels, most recently People of the Lightning, Gear (writing with Kathleen O'Neal Gear) has re-created the life of Native Americans of 2000 years ago. In his first solo hardcover, Gear moves ahead to 1825, intending, as he states in a foreword, to puncture current rosy "myths" about the Plains Indians. "The people of the Plains," Gear says, "took slaves, murdered women and children, committed genocide on their neighbors, and broke treaties." This is revisionist, pedagogical fiction, then, and the narrative shows it not only through its luxuriant detail but also through lengthy expository speeches that impede narrative flow. Gear's lens on the past is Richard Hamilton, a petulant Harvard philosophy student who's sent by his father on business to St. Louis. There, Richard loses his father's bankroll and is sold as an indentured servant, spinning him into an adventure up the Mississippi that brings him up against frontiersfolk and Indians who are alike in nobility and depravity. Gear is a vigorous writer, and when he lets the often brutal action speak for itself, he tells a gripping tale, one to be continued in a sequel, Coyote Summer.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Gear is better known as the coauthor of several novels set in pre-Columbian North America (People of the Lightning, 1995, etc.), but his first volume in a coming-of-age saga set in 1825 demonstrates a rather formidable individual storytelling gift, his strong theme overshadowing occasional didacticism. Richard Hamilton, timid Harvard philosophy student and intellectual snob (with a propensity for verbally biting the hand that feeds him), accepts a challenge from his father: Deliver $30,000 to a business associate in St. Louis. If he doesn't accept the task, the elder Hamilton will cut the purse strings. Appalled by his father's lack of appreciation for abstract philosophy--but also by the prospect of supporting himself--Richard leaves Boston determined to remain true to his ideals and untainted by any necessary association with the ``animals'' and ``savages'' inhabiting the frontier. Predictably, one of the ``animals'' takes umbrage at Richard's contempt and retaliates. Richard, now penniless, finds himself sold into a two-year indenture as a deckhand on a Missouri River keelboat engaged in an illegal trading expedition led by an old mountain man named Travis Hartman. Richard's journey up the river is one of intellectual discovery as well as a quest for self-knowledge. In apposition to Richard is Heal Like A Willow, a young Shoshoni woman whose philosophy is also limited by lack of experience. Her rigidity of beliefs mirrors Richard's own, but experience gained during her time on the keelboat transforms her limited perceptions of white culture, in contrast to Richard's continued inability to admit the fallacies of his philosophy. Weaving together realistic characters, authentic dialogue that only occasionally overdoes the frontier dialect, and a historically accurate setting, Gear creates believable fiction that transcends and transforms its predictable plot. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful read,
By Caroline W. "Caroline W." (Birmingham) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Morning River: A Novel of the Great Missouri Wilderness in 1825 (Mass Market Paperback)
In 1825 Richard Hamilton is a wealthy, vain, arrogant foppish young Bostonian, intent upon spending his life as a philosopher, eating well-prepared foods off fine china. He knows everything about humanity and the meaning of life because he's read all the books - and he never hesitates to share his wisdom.Richard's self-made father can't even be near him without losing patience, and decides Richard needs a good lesson in life. He sends him (kicking and screaming) off to St. Louis with $30,000 Richard is to deliver for a business deal. On the way, Richard dismissively calls one of the steam ship's crew members an "animal". The crew member retaliates by attacking Richard after they land in St. Louis, stealing his money, then forcing him to sign a contract making him an indentured servant on a trading expedition for two years, a fate far more satisfying to the crew member (who thinks it's funny)than it would be to kill him. Everyone is threatened all around in order to ensure that Richard does his time on that expedition. And so Richard embarks on a journey experiencing life as he had never imagined it in Boston. This is a wonderful, gripping story. The writing is excellent, the characters are colorful and well-drawn and the meticulous detail brings the American wilderness to life. I highly recommend this book!
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Moring River,
By
This review is from: Morning River: A Novel of the Great Missouri Wilderness in 1825 (Mass Market Paperback)
Michael Gear's Indians, Mountain men, entrepreneurs, and even effete New Englanders ring of faithful to their time and place. This is not only a good story with finely etched characters, but good history as well
5.0 out of 5 stars
A PAT ON THE BACK,
By DANIEL A. CRUM (MIDDLEBURG, FLORIDA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Morning River: A Novel of the Great Missouri Wilderness in 1825 (Mass Market Paperback)
YOU JUST CAN'T FIND ANYTHING BETTER TO READ. FROM THE FIRST LINE I AM ALWAYS CAPTIVATED BY THE PROSPECT OF MEETING OLD FRIENDS INTRODUCED IN PREVIOUS WORKS. BOTH MICHAEL AND HIS WONDERFUL WIFE KATHLEEN HAVE A WAY OF TRANSPORTING THE READER TO THE TIME IN HISTORY YOU ARE READING ABOUT. I NEVER READ MORE THAN A FEW PAGES AT A TIME TO TRY TO PUT OFF THE END FOR AS LONG AS POSSIABLE. I KEEP ALL OF THIER BOOKS SO THAT I MAY READ THEM OVER AGAIN. I HOPE THEY KEEP THEM COMMING FOR A VERY LONG TIME.
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