Customer Reviews

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas: A Biography.

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I truly marvel at the profound but unsophisticated beauty and nobility of the life of Crazy Horse as told by Mari Sandoz. She lived at the time when it was still possible to talk to people who remembered him from life so she was able to recreate the kind of authenticity that only comes from first-hand knowledge. But this book is far from being merely a documentary. Open it to any page and you will find the expansive, poetic, strong-hearted descriptiveness that makes it such a powerful vision of the life of this great hero and his people. Its difficult to think anyone could read this account of the Oglalas and not feel their heart moved and their imagination fired by their innate bravery and sense of honor,their valiant attempts to defend their hereditary way of life from a relentless, implacable foe. They were a people animated and regulated by the rhythms of nature, and their eloquence of thought and language were framed with figures of speech derived from these same natural phenomena. This is a book that might move you to tears, but not from mere sentimentality. Crazy Horse, as portrayed here, seems to embody the best and highest principles not only of the people from whom he sprang, but of humanity itself. He was a true hero who lived not in and for himself, but who was consecrated to the welfare of his people. But his vision was larger even than that, for it sought to harmonize the affairs of men with the greater spiritual powers of the universe. The sadness we feel is not only for the fate of Crazy Horse and his people, but also a wistful longing that we of the present day were graced with the presence of men of his spirit.