Customer Reviews

Cimarron

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having had this book recommended to me because I am a fan of James Michener's work, I eagerly dove into this story of the earliest years of white settlement of Oklahoma. And I stayed immersed in it until the final page! Although Ferber's portrayal of blacks is dated and condescending, readers who can overlook this fault will find a plot and characters that grab their interest from the start. Curiously, although her Indian characters generally are flat and unpolished portrayals, those whites who speak up for the displaced Indians are quite eloquent in defense of those same Indians. The story of the Sooners, the Cherokee Strip, the impact of "Oil!" and the eventual statehood of Oklahoma is sure to provide an entertaining--and perhaps even informative and enlightening--selection for readers who don't mind the occasional purple prose paragraph. I'd recommend it!

This is a great story written from a wonderful perspective about a great state. Highly recommended. When buying old books the effort the sender puts into wrapping is critical. This book showed up exactly as advertised and was OBVIOUSLY wrapped with care and sensitivity to the subject matter.

This 1930 novel by Edna Ferber deserves to be included in the canon of classic Westerns, along with The Virginian, Riders of the Purple Sage, and anything by Louis L'Amour. The novel covers the period between 1880 and 1920 in the Cimmaron Strip of Oklahoma, during the great land rush, and the early oil boom. The language and customs reflect the period very well, including as often mentioned, the prejudices against Blacks, Indians, and Jews. These don't reflect the feelings of the author, but describe the conditions of the time. Much of the novel concerns the bigotry and error of the prevailing culture as it spread into the new territories. There is plenty of action, gunfights, holdups, hard travel, and noble action. The author was born in 1885 and knew about this period first, or at worst, second hand. Her knowledge show in the details of the characters lives, and the twists and turns of their fates.

Cimarron marks the end (for now) of my excursion into Edna Ferber's works, and it embodies many of the strengths and flaws Ferber portrays in all her stories.

On the plus side, we have strong, almost painfully realistic characters. There is a demanding undercurrent of no-nonsense tell-it-like-it-is beneath Ferber's romanticism, just as there are startling cliche busters hiding behind the melodrama. In addition to her always vivid sense of setting, I appreciate her warty characters. They aren't always lovable, but they're always intriguing.

However, Cimarron also suffers from the same flaws as do the rest of her books. The prose seems even more overblown and purple than usual here. Ferber knows how to pick the telling details and she can turn a beautiful phrase. But she also likes to heap on the glittery descriptive phrases like too many toppings on a pizza. Even more concerning, however, is her tendency to carefully and slowly build the story, only to chop it off in a hurried and abrupt ending.