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35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Imperfect but compelling story of the coming of age of a people and a nation, February 18, 2010
In June of 1876, a gifted young Lakota Indian boy named Paha Sapa touches a dying white soldier at the Battle of Little Big Horn, little realizing that he is "counting coup" on the fallen General Custer himself. In that moment, the boy's life changes forever, as the ghost of the slain war leader mysteriously enters his soul, where it will reside, speaking to him at odd moments, for the next sixty-plus years.
Black Hills comes from the vivid imagination of Dan Simmons, author of previous lengthy best-selling historical novels The Terror and Drood. The book is long, entertaining, and wonderfully descriptive, though it lapses into excessive wordiness at times. The epic story encompasses seven decades of Paha Sapa's life and treats the reader to diverse settings ranging from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the "White City" of the Chicago World's Fair. Told in a nonlinear fashion, much of it in present tense, the story can be difficult to follow, particularly toward the beginning of the book before the reader is accustomed to the back-and-forth, decade-skipping flow of the narrative.
The main plot centers around the construction of the Mount Rushmore memorial, carved into a mountain sacred to the Lakota tribe. Paha Sapa signs on as a powderman on the blasting crew, hoping to fulfill a destiny revealed to him as a child in a vision: to stop the wasicus--the white "fat takers"--from destroying the Black Hills. Other story lines include Paha Sapa's wonderful coming of age as a Lakota visionary, a too-brief romantic interlude in Chicago, and the underlying saga of America's growing-up years through the early twentieth century.
The book's key strength, aside from Simmons's often beautiful descriptions of vivid settings, is its imaginative retellings of actual events, most notably the construction of Mount Rushmore. Simmons tips his hat to other key historical events as well, including the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in a well-researched and fascinating chapter. Lakota culture, language, and spirituality is explored throughout.
The book contains a fair amount of language, though most of it fits the settings and characters. Less appropriate are a number of bizarrely and unnecessarily explicit accounts of marital intimacy from the point of view of Custer's ghost.
Unfortunately, like many long books, Black Hills fails to end when it should; the last fifty pages are a strange departure from the lyrical beauty of the rest of the book, as the author launches into a seemingly agenda-driven tirade against humanity's affects on nature.
Overall, however, the book is highly enjoyable and well worth the not inconsiderable time it takes to complete. Flawed yet replete with flashes of brilliance, the book will entertain, educate, and move readers as it delves into the always strained and occasionally beautiful relationship between a nation's past and its future.
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38 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Black Hills, February 9, 2010
Black Hills, by Dan Simmons, begins with Paha Sapa, a young Lakota boy, touching the body of the dying General George Custer at Little Big Horn. In that moment, Custer's spirit enters Paha Sapa's body. It doesn't leave for over sixty years.
Paha Sapa experiences this more than once with people. He has Custer's spirit in his head, but he also can see the pasts and futures of many people he meets, including Crazy Horse. During his initiation ceremony to become a man, Paha Sapa also experiences a terrible vision of the future; four large stone presidents of the United States careening across his beloved Black Hills, eating everything in their sight and leaving all behind them to waste. Paha Sapa grows up as his Lakota family and the other native tribes of the Great Plains die out. He comes to the decision that he must destroy these stone presidents before they destroy his land. So he sets out on a plan to blow up Mt. Rushmore before the monument is complete.
Paha Sapa is a wonderful character; he is so good and so kind and so aware of his culture disintegrating around him. He is a complicated person who hates what the white settlers have done to his land but who also respects and admires their ingenuity and passion. He is one of the most achingly lonely characters I have met in a very long time. He is kind to everyone, but is set apart by his race and by the ghost in his mind and by other people's memories crowding out his own memories. I fell in love with him and his quiet dignity.
I also enjoyed the story and Simmons' storytelling approach. There is a true sense of immediacy for the reader in each chapter. The narrative jumps around a lot, from the 1870s to the 1930s and between Paha Sapa and General Custer. One thing I found odd but eventually grew used to is that all dialogue is done in italics, with a dash in front. There is really never a "he said" in the whole book. This was confusing at first, especially when two characters were talking to each other, but eventually I got used to it. I also was initially confused by the jumping around in the dates, but eventually settled in. I think this book begs for a re-read so that I can appreciate all the subtleties in the writing when I go back, knowing the story's full arc.
Native American history is conveniently swept under the rug in history class; no one wants to hear about how their exalted country decimated an entire population. When Native American history is taught, the tribes are often grouped together as one people, which is unfair. And they are given these almost mystical qualities of defending the planet against the ravages of greedy white people. Simmons doesn't play this card in his novel and I'm happy for it. There are moments of idealism in the book, yes (particularly the last thirty pages or so), but his characters also acknowledge that the tribes of the Great Plains were not perfect. Simmons shows us the emotional toll that westward expansion had on one Lakota man, and how his life was affected by it. It's a very intimate and highly moving portrait. While I think the ending of the book was very protracted, it certainly gave me a lot to think about with regards to the future. And I enjoyed getting a sense of General Custer, though the first few chapters from his point of view were far more erotically charged than I'd ever have expected.
Custer comes alive in this book, and never more than when he speaks of his great love for his wife. And so I greatly appreciate Simmons' novel for reminding me, gently, that a person should not be defined by one battle, or one moment, even though history makes it so easy to do so. Black Hills is a good story, but I like the book because it reminded me that it is too easy to have a vague idea of history that can, quite frankly, be inaccurate. Or at the very least, only tell half the story. Simmons tells two sides of a story here- Paha Sapa's and Custer's, and he does so in a beautiful and empathizing manner. Highly recommended.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhere in here, a pretty good story, April 5, 2010
You know how in many historical novels, historical facts and details are so intricately woven into the plot that you are barely aware of the author's extensive research? Well, this novel isn't one of those. In "Black Hills," every paragraph, every page screams "Look at all the research I have done!" There apparently isn't a fact that Dan Simmons has uncovered--whether relevant to the plot or not--that he doesn't cram into this book. The mind-boggling detail of minutia is almost laughable in places. Want to know the dimensions and weight and workings of the machinery in the power plant of the Chicago World's Fair? It has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but it's all there. There are hundreds of similar examples, and they all get in the way of an otherwise clever dramatization of Sioux (Lakota) history, Custer's Last Stand, and the building of Mount Rushmore. Dan Simmons has always needed a good editor, but never before like he needs with this novel. There are other annoying elements as well. While Custer's early letters to his wife , as depicted in this novel,may be taken from the real ones Custer wrote, it smacks of gratuitous sex, included because, well, otherwise there'd be no sex in this story. (Apparently love is not enough). Custer's carnal details feel out of place and unnecessary. In fact, all the chapters of Custer's letters feel overwritten and unnecessary. Custer, in real life, was not a person deserving of sympathy. The real story here is about the protagonist, Paha Sapa, and his Lakota heritage, his brief marriage, his progeny, and his work on Mt. Rushmore. The nonsense about Custer's ghost is quite secondary, or should have been. What redeemed this book for me was the ending which, although way too preachy and heavy-handed, tied up loose ends and was quite touching. After finishing this nearly 500-page book (while fighting the urge several times to put it down), I came to realize that about 300 pages of it were really worthwhile.
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