The Return of Little Big Man [Hardcover]

Thomas Berger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1999

In 1964, Little Big Man gave us the reminiscences of Jack Crabb - a white orphan raised among the Cheyenne - who returns to "civilized" society, where (among other things) he tangles with Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok, and ends up as the only white survivor of Custer's Last Stand. At the end of Little Big Man, Jack's supposed death at age 111 cut short his tale. A newly discovered manuscript, however, reveals that Jack had faked his death to get out of his publishing contract, and he now picks up the story of his extraordinarily action-packed life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jack Crabb, supposedly the only white man to survive Custer's Last Stand, first disclosed the brimful and dubious chronicle of his life in Thomas Berger's 1964 charmer, Little Big Man. There the 111-year-old, a shade of history who strutted unnoticed through the mythic West, recounted his acquaintances with notables such as George Custer and Wild Bill Hickok, as well as his shuttling between the worlds of whites and Indians. In The Return of Little Big Man, ostensibly a long-lost addendum to these memoirs, we get more of the tale--or more hot air, perhaps. "Just listen to what I tell you, and then check it against the facts if you can," our hero invites.

Return has much in common with its predecessor. Once again, Crabb seems to have known everyone and been nearly everywhere, and his many associates--both notorious and anonymous--reappear as if by miracle. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Annie Oakley all check in; while Crabb himself wanders the globe as Buffalo Bill Cody's right-hand man, witnesses both Hickok's and Sitting Bull's murders, and crouches behind a wagon during the O.K. Corral shootout. Berger's Twain-esque ruminations lend an air of purposefulness to Crabb's meanderings, a sense that separation is merely provisional, that existence only appears haphazard.

Crabb, however, seems more than occasionally dispirited--friends pass, younger men ascend. Midway through, though, the book gets its real charge, as Crabb confronts a fading world and a future both bright and bewildering. Sustained by an enormous heart, an affinity for exaggeration, and a conscience both weary and sentimental, he acknowledges the best--and worst--in everyone he meets. It's a story you'd like to believe. --Ben Guterson

From Publishers Weekly

Thirty-five years after the hapless, endearing Jack Crabb narrated the early years of his life among the Cheyenne Indians and Wild West ruffians in Berger's Little Big Man the riotous epic continues. Picking up the story after Custer's Last Stand, Crabb (now an improbable 112 years old) is the only white survivor of the Little Big Horn and the only one equipped to straighten out the history books. Through coincidence, design or luck (not all of it good), Jack meets a passel of frontier notables and witnesses many famous events: Wild Bill Hickock's gunslinging stunt at the Deadwood saloon; savage Wyatt Earp's provocation of the slaughter at the O.K. Corral; the tragic 1890 murder of his friend Sitting Bull by reservation police. Jack's on hand in London when the queen emerges from over a quarter century of mourning to see Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Annie Oakley and Mrs. Libby Custer look lovely from Jack's whiskey-blurred point of view, but in the end he gives his heart to an educated, literary, "modern woman." Bergman's authority as a historian never takes itself too seriously. With masterful use of dialect and utter narrative confidence, he fully inhabits his idiosyncratic hero to create a hilarious and touching classic. Time Warner audio.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316098442
• ISBN-13: 978-0316098441
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,146,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Berger sets to mending the tattered reputatio of sequels, November 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Return of Little Big Man (Hardcover)

In Twain's footsteps

Critics tend to gush over Thomas Berger. He's been called the new Mark Twain. One of the most important writers of this century. Read "The Return of Little Big Man." You'll understand why. In his latest work, the author of 20 novels returns to the story of Little Big Man (a.k.a. Jack Crabb). We first met Crabb in 1964 in the original "Little Big Man." Thirty-five years later, Berger reprises the character in an effort that brings honor to the tattered reputation of sequels. Again, Crabb, who's well past his 100th year, is reminiscing about his life in the Old West. And an adventurous life it is. In many respects, he is the Forrest Gump of his time. Despite being a lowly bartender, his path continually crosses the biggest names in the West: Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Sitting Bull and, for good measure, the Pope and the Queen of England. The result is a personalized, everyman's perspective of the era's legends. The plot is delivered in a series of encounters with such notables. But where Berger truly shines is in Crabb's observations on life. He speaks in the rich, unlettered voice of another time - hence the Twain comparisons. Yet he manages to be insightful, educational and disarmingly funny all at once. Crabb bounds about the West, busting myths, telling tall tales and offering eccentric commentary on the period. This is fiction at its best. Don't let the Western theme put you off. Berger ably meshes biography with comedy, love stories with history, without any one element pushing another away. Best of all, you'll get to see Berger, one of the great craftsmen of our time, at work.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A belated fanale for matched pair, January 26, 2005

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Return of Little Big Man (Paperback)

Those who read and re-read Little Big Man every decade or so over 40 years were probably as delighted as I was when Return of Little Big Man appeared in 1999. Jack Crabbe, the geriatric home resident of the original novel who'd told of his experiences in the West, always peripheral to the events we all know of, returns in this sequel to tell of his life after the Little Big Horn fight.

As the only white survivor of Little Big Horn, Jack wanders broke and almost naked into Deadwood, SD, to encounter his old acquaintance from Dodge, City, KS, Wild Bill Hickock, in time to be present for the Aces and Eights scenario. Naturally, Crabbe gives the eye-witness account of the even a bit differently than you've heard before.

Thereafter, Crabbe wanders back to Dodge, Tombstone, elsewhere, in time to be present for the OK Corral fight, offering up another side of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, the Clantons and Bat Masterson. Then eastward to the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, Queen Victoria, Bertie, Sitting Bull and Elizabeth Custer.

As a grand finale he manages to be with Sitting Bull for the assassination of the great chief of the Souix.

A great follow-up book to Little Big Man. Too bad it took so many decades to appear.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's no Little Big Man, but still a great read, July 8, 2002

By 

Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Return of Little Big Man: A Novel (Paperback)

In order to fully enjoy "Return" you'd have to read the original, "Little Big Man." However, having read Jack Crabb's earlier adventures (living among the Cheyenne, consorting with Wild Bill Hickock and surving Custer's Last Stand) readers will find that there's nothing like the first time. After all, which is more interesting, living in the Wild West or performing with a Wild West show? Living among the Plains Indians on the plains or in late 19th century New York?

All that said it's nice to hang out with Crabb again. Author Thomas Berger has created one of American literatures greatest characters. In this chapter of his life (1876 through 1892) our narrator tells of more encounters with famous Americans ranging from Bat Masterson to Jane Addams and including Wyatt Earp and Sitting Bull. Mostly we hang out with Buffalo Bill Cody (a bit too much for taste). Cody's Wild West show is a splendid vehicle for Crabb's further adventures but a few detours along the way would have been welcome.

Crabb/Berger hint broadly at a third installment. Reading that I get the same twin feelings of anticipation and dread as I do with the coming of movie sequels. All that said, if you've read and enjoyed "Little Big Man" then this sequel is must reading.