Customer Reviews

Trask: The Coast of Oregon,1848

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I've been hearing about "Trask" for years, mostly from people who had never read it. If you love adventure stories this is probably a good choice. The novel moves right along and I finished it. But it isn't beautifully written and it isn't entirely accurate and (since I live in the area in which it's set) I can guarantee you that Don Berry hadn't actually been many of the places he claims Elbridge Trask goes. Wrong tree species, total ignorance of tides and seasonal changes in beaches, no mention of wet feet. Dry a soaked wool blanket overnight--outdoors in April on the Oregon Coast? Please! With all his details about rocky ground and salal, sleeping under a muddy bank and spirit quests, he won't convince anyone who has actually lived in a place where rainfall runs 65-180 inches a year.

If such mistakes don't bother you... and you like Trask, maybe it will be a wonderful read. I didn't care much for the main character. I didn't believe him as a settler and I didn't understand any better than he does why he wants to travel south to Tillamook Bay. I was offended by Berry's tendancy to kill off characters I did like and to judge them based on appearance (bigger is better apparently--pretty is better if you're a woman, but not if you are a man... ).

In paying his respects to native cutures, Berry was way ahead of his time, but the upshot of the novel is that people are ruined and their culture will be and I am supposed to be satisfied that Trask has achieved some sort of spiritual enlightenment over their dead bodies. I wasn't.

For a better novel about early white settlers in the Pacific NW, try "The Living" which is excellent. For a better novel set in Oregon try Le Guin's "Lathe of Heaven." "The Jump-Off Creek" by native Oregonian Molly Gloss, is set here in the last century, and it's a wonderful, realistic, and adventurous read. Her new novel "Wild Life" gives a realistic picture of the lost magic of the great forests. I don't know of a good historical novel about native cultures set in Oregon, but James Welch writes beautifully and with authority about Montana in "Winter in the Blood."

We have many, many astounding novels written and set in Oregon. This one really isn't bad, but I would be sorry if readers accepted "Trask" as the best we had to offer.

I WAS A PERSONAL FRIEND OF DON BERRY AT THE TIME HE WAS PUBLISHED. HE WAS, IN FACT, MY SON'S GODFATHER.

DON WAS ONE OF THE MOST INTELLIGENT AND SCIENTIFICALLY DEDICATED MEN I'VE EVER KNOWN, AND WAS BLESSED WITH A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR, (AND GREAT PATIENCE WITH MY OWN "GROANER" PUNS AND TURNS OF PHRASES!).

"TRASK" WAS ONE OF THE FIRST WELL-RESEARCHED WORKS OF HISTORICAL FICTION TO BE USED AS TEXTBOOK MATERIAL FOR THE OREGON PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE SEVENTIES. BERRY'S WORK ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR TRADE ("ALL OF THEM SCOUNDRELS")WAS EXCELLENT AND COMPREHENSIVE. HIS GREAT WESTERN TALE "MOONTRAP" WAS OUTRIGHT STOLEN AND PRODUCED UNDER THE SAME TITLE IN AN EPISODE OF THE OLD WESTERN TV SHOW "RAWHIDE"

DON AND HIS FAMILY LIVED ON THE OREGON AND WASHINGTON COAST FOR YEARS, OFTEN SUMMERING (YES, THE WHOLE SUMMER, RAIN AND ALL!)IN A TENT IN PRIMITIVE, BUT BEAUTIFUL SETTINGS. HE WAS A MAN WHO KNEW WHAT HE WROTE ABOUT, AND OFTEN EXPERIENCED THE PHYSICAL LIVING SITUATIONS PORTRAYED IN HIS BOOKS (YES, HE WAS THE KIND TO LIVE IN A TREE JUST TO SEE WHAT IT WAS LIKE!). IF THERE WERE, FOR EXAMPLE, SOMEONE WHO KNEW ABOUT DRYING A WOOL BLANKET OVERNIGHT UNDER WET CONDITIONS, HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN. MY OWN READINGS RE. THE ETHNOBOTANY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST FOUND NO GREAT DISPARITIES IN THE NAMES AND OLDTIME USES OF LOCAL PLANTS THAT WERE INCLUDED IN BERRY'S BOOKS.

I grew up in Oregon, and spent much of my childhood in wet, green, ocean-sprayed places like the ones described in this book. I first read Trask as a high schooler, and return to it now and then (I am 55 now), refreshed and moved by it. It always strikes me as a deeply male story. I don't mean that in the regrettable, hyperviolent context that defines pop-culture maleness today, but rather, Trask reflects the deeper male tendency toward pure, visceral restlessness. Just as it is quintessentially female to stay and nest, it is quintessentially male to simply go, to explore, to light out just because you can't stop yourself from doing so. When I was younger I did this all the time; just went, like that, anywhere, everywhere, all around the world. I have never read another book that expresses this tendency so well in a main character. Reading about Trask helped me to understand myself.

Once you start reading the lyric prose, you won't be able to put this book down. It is a magical adventure of the Oregon coast a long time ago, but the story is timeless and uplifting. All Westerners should read it.

Looking to read some Oregonian authors (other than the venerable Ken Kesey), Don Barry's _Trask_ was mentioned as a largely unsung native son. Set along the Oregon coast in the winter of 1847 - spring 1848 (just before the Oregon trail opened and thousands settled here), _Trask_ is the story of a former mountain man, Elbridge Trask, and his relationship with both the Natives (Chinook and Killamook) and the land.

I was impressed with Berry's weaving of historical figures (Elbridge Trask) and (apparently, as I am no expert) Chinook language and culture into the narrative. What I was most impressed with, however, was the way in which Berry captured the beauty of the coastal mountain range and the Oregon coast. To be sure, it is not to everyone's tastes (it is frequently windy, almost always rainy, and the bars into Oregon's bays are notoriously trecherous), but no one can doubt the natural magnificence of the area. It is rare that an author so completely articulates what a place *is*. Berry has done this. In particular Barry's description of attempting to start a fire in the midst of a storm was reminiscent of Dostoevsky in its telling.

Berry also showed the cultural gulf that existed between white settlers and Natives that often led to misunderstandings and violence, highlighting the arrogance and disrespect of whites as they forced Christianity on indigenous peoples and introduced whiskey. Yet I give the book three stars.

I was not particularly impressed with the characters themselves, the dialogue (which to me seemed a bit cliched in places), and the overall story arc - I won't go into too much detail for fear of runing the plot, suffice it to say that the idea of respecting and valuing cultural differences between whites and Natives may have been unique and new in the early 1960's when the book first came out, but it is well trod ground by now. The recognition by the Killamooks that inevitable change was coming, and that they needed to salvage as much as possible of their culture and heiritage before it was too late rang hollow.

There are a number of surprises and plot twists that kept me interested, as well as references to historical events and personalities that I enjoyed (those not familiar with the history of the Northwest may miss these: Ft. Vancouver, Dr. McLoughlin, the Whitman massacre for example), and certainly are testament to the research and familiarity Berry had with this time and place.

Is it good? Yes, particularly for the reasons cited above, although I wouldn't recommend it above Ken Kesey's _Sometimes a Great Notion_, which in this review's mind remains the seminal work of Oregon fiction.

"...Trask, is ground breaking in its combination of historical research, real-life characters and settings, and Eastern philosophy. It is also a rip-roaring adventure story that Glen Love, a leading scholar of NW literature at U of O... [says is] the best novel ever written and set in Oregon." REED magazine Feb. 1999

the book is totally new! Price is reasonable! Shipping is a little bit slow! Overall, great quality!

I bought the book because it was supposed to be based on my ancestor, Elbridge Trask. It was a big disappointment because I felt the author blew it when it came to good history and the dependence of the early pioneers on God. Really way out there with the spiritual thing--men and women back then believed and relied on God, not some out of body, out of mind experience. Too bad.