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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,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Return of Little Big Man (Hardcover)
In Twain's footstepsCritics 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,
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,
By
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.
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