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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Across the Endless River, September 23, 2009
This review is from: Across the Endless River (Hardcover)
Jean-Baptiste Chardonneau is the son of Sacajawea, the famed Native American scout that helped Lewis & Clark on their expedition across America to the Pacific Ocean. His father is a voyageur, and so Baptiste grows up straddling two worlds- that of the native tribes of America and that of the American culture in St. Louis. When Baptiste is 18, he gets the opportunity to leave the United States and travel to Europe to help a German duke catalog his collection of North American flora and fauna. He spends his time visiting high society in Paris and attending all the pursuits of the leisurely class. Over time, and through his interactions with the people around him, he comes to terms with his own identity and his place in the world.
This book really had the makings to be right up my alley! But sadly, it was not. I read about 100 pages of a 300 page book and felt like I was still in the prologue, waiting for the action to begin. Carhart starts the book with Baptiste's birth in 1805, and the first 60 pages or so of the book really don't do much but summarize the first 18 years of his life. I don't think this was necessary.
Carhart's previous book, The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, is a work of non-fiction, and I think Carhart is probably more comfortable in that genre. He shares a lot of imagery and history and facts, but his characters are flat and impenetrable. Baptiste spends more of his time observing the world and people around him than actively engaging with them. I couldn't get a handle on his personality. I think that if Carhart had made this a non-fiction account of Baptiste's life and travels in Europe, it would have been more successful. Unfortunately, in this case, fiction does not work as Baptiste's letters and journals are dry, and his conversations with people seem wooden and formulaic. While the novel has its finer points- lush descriptive passages and the author's clear love for history- it fell flat for me.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sacagawea's Son comes of Age, November 24, 2009
This review is from: Across the Endless River (Hardcover)
Across the Great River by Thad Carhart ISBN 978-0-385-52977-8 Published by Doubleday, September 2, 2009. [...] Reviewer received book from FSB Associates, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Review by Chris Phillips
The great exploration of the wild Western frontier by Lewis and Clark is part of every person's schooling. Their trip opened up the West to expansion. There are many legends and stories from this expedition but here is one that is unique. Carhart takes the historical facts: Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea had a child. Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was that child. He took part in the expedition on his mother's back. Upon the expedition's end, he was warded with Clark to further his education and spent summers with the tribes. Carhart provides those details in the first few chapters of the book, but upon Pompy's (Jean-Baptiste's Native name) decision to travel to Europe as the companion and interpreter for Duke Paul of Wurttemberg, his life never remained the same.
Carhart fills-in the 5 years (1823 - 1828) that Baptiste spent in Europe with all the intrigues and machinations of European royalty. Baptiste is definitely a "stranger in a strange land" and often struggles with being an oddity, and then being ignored. This is an adventure tale, but more a story of coming of age for a man split between three cultures but not fully part of any. He is denied acceptance among the Mandan because he is too "white." He can only be accepted as a well behaved "half-breed" in the American culture of St. Louis. And then, throughout most of the book, he is almost a trophy to be brought-out and shown-off for entertainment purposes in Europe.
He finds his own way through all this. He develops intimate relationships with two women, Princess Theresa, Paul's older cousin and with Maura Hennesy, a wine mechant's daughter. But even then his plurality makes it difficult for him to be more than a dalliance to one and a long distance friend to the other. There are trials and tribulations throughout, but none seem to rest on Baptiste's shoulders for long. Usually they are taken care of by others in some way. The one character flaw in Baptiste's personality is that of watching the world go by while not knowing where he fits.
Carhart handles all the characters and develops them faithfully and fully. He takes the time to let this reader know that these are real people with real problems and real lives. He handles plot twists as they would be in real life. Baptiste's father's alcoholism, Clark's high idealism and the rose-tinted glasses ideas of Europeans about America, the West and most particularly "Indians." Throughout the book there are times when the senses are almost overwhelmed with the images that are described. At others, the frustrations and stress of always being in the background are portrayed faithfully.
The plot is well-developed while maintaining integrity to history. When fictionalized there is continuity and connection with the separate plots. The emotional interaction is true to what history states about European royalty and its power during this time. Historical depiction of the various power struggles is well-grounded, but left in the background as it would be for someone from another culture.
The production of the book is professional and consistent. This reviewer can heartily recommend this book for any and all readers. The book should help each understand the various cultures Baptiste passes through. And it is a great story to do it with.
5 Stars.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining biographical fiction, September 23, 2009
This review is from: Across the Endless River (Hardcover)
Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau was born during the Lewis and Clarke expedition in 1805; his mom was Sacagawea while his father Charbonneau was a French trapper turned translator. As an infant he made it to the Pacific; as a boy he went to school in St. Louis and at his mom's village. He learns several languages growing up in his divided lineage.
European naturalist Duke Paul Wilhelm of Wurttemberg is in the United States analyzing and classifying North American flora and fauna. Baptiste assists him and accompanies him back to Paris where he becomes the toast of the nobles though not one of them; only the Duke's cousin Princess Theresa understands his duality but she has a pragmatic outlook that excludes the mixed breed. Baptiste meets and falls in love with Irish expatriate Maura Hennesy. However, in his early twenties after five years on the continent he decides to go home with his Maura at his side.
This is an entertaining biographical fiction of the youngest member of the Lewis and Clarke expedition. Baptiste is a fascinating character whose bi-racial background makes him in at the highest levels of European aristocratic society and yet never really in. Fans will feel they are transported to the first half of the nineteenth century in Europe and Americas as the imagery is incredible vivid. Although more a series of anecdotal occurrences that bring to life time and place than a cohesive novel, ACROSS THE ENDLESS RIVER is a fascinating historical fiction that takes a fresh timely look at contrasting two worlds through a lead character who has a foot in both and in neither.
Harriet Klausner
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