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4.0 out of 5 stars
The Research Shows, March 3, 2009
A fine window into the Old West of the 1840's before the heyday of gamblers and gunfighters, cattlemen and railroads and sheriffs at high noon in burgeoning cow towns, this book reminds us of an earlier era, when mountain men from the first decades of the nineteenth century mingled with traders, entrepeneurs and plainsmen to explore the wild country then populated by isolated nomadic tribes of Indians, many of whom had yet to see white men. In this era, the musket and muzzle loading rifle and single shot pistol were still dominant and the Colt revolver (introduced in the mid-1830's) was just making its debut. Unlike the revolver we're familiar with today, it didn't shoot bullets or load quickly but depended on a three step process for each cylinder, involving loading the powder, lead ball and percussion cap separately for each, jamming the "bullet" down into the seat of each cylinder with a small ramrod, just as the rifles of that era were loaded. That's why men of that day carried more than one gun (who wanted to have to stop and reload in the heat of battle?) and were normally skilled in a lot more ways of fighting than just drawing and shooting a pistol.
It is this era that author Michael Blakely brings to life with his story of Jean-Guy, a young exile from a quality French school fleeing his native land after an unfortunate incident at home. Arriving in America at the port of New Orleans, the youthful Frenchman renames himself, Honore Dumant (later renamed Honore Greenwood and then "Plenty Man") and heads west to the place where his dreams have summoned him. There is an abundance of mysticism here and we're repeatedly informed by our narrator that he is a genius with a remarkable facility for languages, mathematics and a deeply sophisticated education, all of which young Honore hides through much of the book so he can blend in with the men he encounters. Honore also suffers from a condition which makes him unusually active during times of the full moon and highly susceptible to binge sleeps when the moon is new, presenting him with certain challenges and advantages in the Old West he finds beyond the Mississippi as well as a gateway into the mysticism of the Indian shaman.
Also an accomplished classical violinist, he plays fiddle for those he finds and delights them all while seeking out and eventually winning a place among the wild Comanche who rule the plains and who other men fear. Honore manages to win the respect and friendship of most of the mountain and plains men he comes across, falling in with the trading company of Bent and St. Vrain which runs a series of forts across the prairie and deserts of what was then still Mexico (though not for long as the Mexican War is soon fought during the events of this book, bringing New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California into the American orbit and changing forever the tone and texture of the Old West of Honore's day).
If there are weaknesses here, and there are, they are to be found in the self-conscious narration (provided by a 99 year old Honore living alone at the remains of an old fort in 1927 somewhere in the Texas panhandle) which consistently flips into a second person mode, addressing the reader as if he or she were there, listening to the old man talk. The old man is verbose, as old men sometimes are, but seemingly too articulate for the kind of tale he has to tell. And he knows too much of the goings on around him, even when placed in the era he is describing, producing an artificial sense of history instead of a more natural one. Honore seems to know everything and everyone as we're treated to a veritable who's who of frontier rogues and legends from the Bent brothers to Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. At times it's as though Blakely had a list of famous names he wanted to cover and so has his narrator simply call off the people he sees as his interlocutors in the tale respond with a bit of historical background for each. It's a little hard to stomach because it shows Blakely here wearing his research on his sleeve.
On the other hand, the research is strong and we do get a vivid sense of the era and the land itself right down to Honore's stint as an adobe brick maker and builder of forts. Honore's encounter with Indians, especially the Comanche, does feel honest and well portrayed though the Indians tend to be a little stereotypical. Nevertheless the cultural information rings true. I got a little tired of Honore's self-descriptions of himself as a genius, but it did serve to enable him to plausibly know things an ordinary person in his position would not have been expected to. On the other hand, he seems remarkably naive and obtuse at times when his brilliance would have been expected to serve him better.
All in all though, this was an enjoyable if not totally absorbing tale, given that so much of it consists of a string of incidents wherein Honore moves back and forth around the Great Plains, the Southwest and the Sierras seeking out, trading with and hunting down various Indians and tribes. There is, at times, a lack of a strong central narrative engine impelling the story forward. On the other hand, Honore's final encounter with the Apache (who have become his blood enemies) and the brutal, nefarious whiskey dealer, Snakehead Jackson, is exciting and fast moving if not entirely credible. But the end of the tale, as we slide back to 1927, is sort of a letdown. Yet, overall, the book was an enjoyable window into a now largely forgotten past, one that is too often overlooked even by the mythmakers of the Old West.
SWM
Author of The King of Vinland's Saga
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Moon Medicine -- good research sunk by an insuffarable narrator, October 19, 2009
This review is from: Moon Medicine (Hardcover)
Moon Medicine by Mike Blakely is a good book that had every right to have been great. But because we can't identify with the main character who is the narrator, Honore Greenwood aka Plenty Man, the finished product leaves us cold despite how well-written it is.
The novel isn't strictly a western as much as it's an historical novel. But that's okay. Blakely knows his topic and the places and events all have a ring of truth to them. As for the main character, Honore himself is a self-described genius. In fact, he never stops telling us how smart and clever he is in every situation he comes across. He has a photographic memory, learns to play a Stradivarius fiddle within days, can memorize Shakespeare, can perform sleight of hand, do higher level arithmetic in his head, look at the lay of the land an mentally calculate how much water will drain in so many hours...and on and on.
And on. And on.
And on.
Come to think of it he NEVER stops telling us how much of a genius he is. He tells us so often it becomes cartoonish. And since he's not stretching the truth, since he really is this smart, we have no ability ourselves to make a human connection with this walking Old West abacus. And it gets worse. You see, he's somehow tied to the phases of the moon. He only sleeps deeply when the moon in in a new phase. When it's full he's awake for days. During the quarters he can get by on a few hours of sleep. So he's not only a certifiable genius who can make Einstein look like a drooling idiot, he's a superman as well. There's just not anything he can't do, and do well.
Yeah. I know.
Therefore, the book and the story loses a lot of emotional power when Honore finds himself in some pretty tight scrapes. Why should we care if he gets captured and scalped by the Apaches? Why should we care if he can't connect with the one love of his life? Why should we care if he has to ransom the little boy he believes to be his son from the Comanche? He doesn't act human anyway, not on any level we know and understand, so we're never convinced he would be all that broken up about it come what may. In fact, we're not convinced the Old West, and the world in general, wouldn't be better off without him.
Now so far you might think, "Wow, this book is pretty lousy." And you would be right solely from the characterization of Honore Greenwood. But fortunately all the other characters in the novel are living, breathing human beings. And the main story, building the first fort at Adobe Walls, Texas, carries us right along just like we expect.
So, because of that, and ONLY because the other characters in the novel are so fascinating, will I recommend this book.
Just be prepared to read pages and pages (and pages) of how incredibly smart Honore Greenwoood is, and how stupid you (and me) are in comparison....
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Memorable characters, good story, interesting ending, October 26, 2008
I enjoy a good historical fiction novel every once in a while. This certainly fits that bill nicely. The story is about a runaway French boy wanted for murder who ends up joining William Bent's caravan heading to Bent's Fort. Soon he gets involved in trading with the Comanches and negotiating the release of captured children. The main character's name (Greenwood) comes from the journal of Lt. James W. Abert written in 1845. Nothing is really known of this Greenwood, so Blakely created this story around him. The author doesn't tell the reader where the name came from, I just happen to know. I look forward to reading part 2 called Come Sundown sometime next year.
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