The Last Canyon [Hardcover]

John Vernon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2001

A novel of one of the most treacherous river expeditions ever undertaken, THE LAST CANYON takes us deep into the heart of the elements, portraying in vivid detail the human quest to understand nature at all costs. In 1869 a one-armed Civil War hero named John Wesley Powell launched four boats on the Green River in Wyoming Territory, undertaking what would be the last major voyage of discovery in American history, through the country's only remaining terra incognita: the remote and barren course of the Colorado River.
At the outset of his journey, Powell believed the inaccessible canyons of the Colorado were uninhabited. He was wrong. What he called "the great unknown" was in fact well known by a band of Paiute Indians who had lived on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for centuries. In John Vernon's hands, the story of Powell's voyage of exploration is two converging stories: that of Powell and his crew, and that of a family of Paiute making their own harrowing circuit of the Grand Canyon in an attempt to rescue a kidnapped girl. Told in alternating chapters, THE LAST CANYON deftly leads us into perilous geographical and emotional territory, culminating in Powell's struggle to finish his voyage with only two boats, not four, and five men out of the original nine.
Powell's adventure is a story of triumph, hardship, bravery, and ultimate tragedy. THE LAST CANYON traces simultaneously a voyage of discovery and a chronicle of loss, an exploration of both unknown land and the unplumbed human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Late in the spring of 1869, a 35-year-old Civil War veteran and nine companions set forth on a voyage that would take them along much of the length of the Colorado River, beginning in Wyoming and ending below the Grand Canyon. In this novel, John Vernon capably reconstructs their journey, adding dramatic nuance to an expedition that has long engaged historians and biographers.

The bare historical facts are these: John Wesley Powell and his party made their way downriver, bouncing over churning rapids, climbing steep canyon walls, scaling seemingly impassable mountains--hard work, and made more difficult by the fact that Powell had lost his right arm seven years earlier at the Battle of Shiloh. Along the way they gathered information and provisions from local Indians, argued among themselves over how best to proceed, and suffered calamities great and small. The journey ended prematurely four months after it began when three disgruntled members of the party left, only to be murdered in a canyon in southwestern Utah. Vernon elaborates on these data while remaining for the most part true to them. He imagines, for instance, what those over-the-campfire arguments that so divided the party must have been about, giving fire and grit to Major Powell's matter-of-fact journal entries, and he considers the voyage from the point of view of the Ute and Navajo peoples whom Powell and company encountered along the way.

Vernon's dialogues are sometimes a little too neat, their anachronistic language sometimes distracting. But he captures something of Powell's brooding personality as well as the perilous nature of his trailblazing journey "through deep gorges, rushing waters, bottomless silences, tall and craggy cliffs built by artists celestial." --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly

When historical novels are produced by writers whoseexpertise in the field is matched by vivid storytelling skills, theresults as in this novel are generally outstanding. With this 10thbook (after A Book of Reasons), veteran novelist Vernon reimagines thefirst full-length exploration of the Grand Canyon and the ColoradoRiver by white Americans in 1869. Maj. John Wesley Powell former UnionArmy officer, one-armed engineer and scientist led the harrowingexpedition to map the territory. With nine men in four boats, Powellbegan a saga of discovery that took 100 days, covered 1,000 miles andcost the lives of a third of his men. Two converging plot linesprovide dramatic tension. One focuses on Powell and his men as theybattle deadly rapids, heat, near-starvation, isolation, despair andeach other. The other tells of a destitute party of Paiute Indiansdesperately struggling to survive in the hostile environment of thedeserts on the canyon rim. Powell's party is in trouble from thestart, with a wrecked boat, lost food and equipment, and therealization that not all the men are competent or emotionally suitedfor such a rigorous and hazardous journey. Powell's leadership istested time and again, until mutiny and desertion leave him with justtwo boats, six men and no food. The Paiutes, too, are in grave troubleand a chance meeting with white men only aggravates their nearlyhopeless situation. The story of Powell's remarkable journey evokes arugged time in our nation's history when men in search of knowledge orglory would willingly subject themselves to grueling hardship andprivation. The publisher has a chance here to seize on readers'appetites for outdoors adventure, though some may think the Paiutesubplot is a distraction from the central tale.

Copyright 2001Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618109404
• ISBN-13: 978-0618109401
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,230,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel so carefully crafted it feels like non-fiction., November 26, 2001

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Last Canyon (Hardcover)

As John Wesley Powell and his crew of nine follow the Green and Colorado Rivers through uncharted territory into the Grand Canyon in 1869, Vernon imbues them with so much energy and strength that this fictional account of their journey feels like the real thing--more like a well-written memoir than a flight of imagination. His depictions of the canyons, mesas, geological strata, and the always changing river are so precise and vivid that they feel more like great photographs than prose. His descriptions of the heat and privation have the intensity of old sermons of hellfire and damnation.

With a lyricism as masculine and vigorous as the characters of his story, Vernon tells of two parallel, and eventually intersecting, journeys--the famous journey of John Wesley Powell and his crew on the river, and the fictional journey of a family of Paiute (Shivwits) Indians across the high mesas, as they try to reclaim a daughter which the father sold to Mormons in exchange for two guns. Vernon alternates these narratives in successive sections, bringing the ironies of the two journeys into sharp focus. The Powell expedition fights the forces of nature and is often at the mercy of the elements, struggling with equipment and scientific instruments, and in danger of running out of food. The Shivwits, on the other hand, are in communion with nature, comfortable in their belief that nature will provide, as it always has--their struggle, of course, being to preserve their lands and culture.

Vernon is a remarkable writer, equally adept at all aspects of writing--action sequences on the river, dialogues ranging from humorous to rancorous, insights into the characters' thinking, and a faithful adherence to the writing style of the period. His ability to present very different descriptions of the same geographical features, as seen separately by the Paiutes and explorers, is nothing short of amazing. This is a beautifully written, very masculine story of exploration and cultural conflict, one that should not be missed by anyone fascinated by tales of outdoor adventure and exploration. Mary Whipple

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Marred Effort, June 2, 2007

By 

M. Jensen - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Canyon: A Novel (Paperback)

This could have been a great book. John Vernon obviously expended a lot of effort to weave the known facts into his novel and to create memorable impressions of each character from the small body of available historical knowledge. But John Vernon's easy slide into vulgarity as he creates the personalities and interactions of the characters was a big disappointment to me. I compelled myself to finish the book, mostly driven by my fascination for the Colorado River basin and its exploration. But being unwilling to contemplate that anyone else might wallow through the salacious bogs offensively dumped into this story, I threw the book in the recycling bin as soon as I was done.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific, August 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Canyon: A Novel (Paperback)

This strong, beautiful book's sophisticated prose and subtle character explorations make it the rare fact-based novel that actually convinces readers and illuminates a moment in history. It may not be the summer beach read some of Amazon's reviewers seem to have expected, but it is much, much more.