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47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Culture Clash, September 1, 2000
If you want to be known for writing a great novel in the historical fiction genre, you must do three things. First you must be able to tell a good story. This one is about a French Jesuit priest in 1643 Quebec, who decides to go on a lengthy and arduous journey--in perhaps the most desolate, dangerous land in the world--to assist in the conversion of the heathen savages. Accompanied by members of the Algonkian tribe, he participates in their strenuous canoe journey down the river, is tormented by illness and by the savages' (the author's word) sorcerer, gets lost, witnesses their hunting and camping rituals, is captured and tortured by another tribe, escapes, and finally gets to his destination. If this kind of thing doesn't boil your blood, well, go ahead and read Proust. Second, you must be historically accurate. Not only do you not wish to have your readers throw your book at the wall with disgust, but more importantly, you want your readers to come away from their experience with an understanding of a time and place which to some degree was previously unknown to them. This book accomplishes this down to the tiniest detail. We see how the savages dress, what they eat, how they eat it, how they camp at night, how they speak with each other, and how women and children are treated in their little society. We learn what motivates them spiritually and realize that the conditions under which they lived had an effect on their beliefs. Beyond this, we get to know them individually, with their all too human quirks and foibles, and we come to feel empathy for them. They are real to us; we respond to them emotionally. The Jesuit priest is no less expertly drawn. He is so devoted to his Catholic religion that he reacts with an almost . . . excitement towards the prospect of dying for it; to him he would become a martyr. But his chosen way of life comes with its own problems: he is not capable of handling his own sexuality or the sexuality of others, and reacts to these events in a guilty, fearful, and indecisive manner. The savages consider him weak and foolish, and in many ways he is. But we also are shown his strength, and unwavering sense of purpose. If, as a novelist, you are able to accomplish the above, you will have authored an excellent piece of fiction. But in order to write a truly outstanding novel, you must accomplish one more thing: the transcendence of the subject matter into universal human themes. In this case, the clash of two complex and utterly divergent cultures and their juxtaposition with each other gives us a new understandings of both. To the savages, baptism is "water sorcery;" to the savages, praying over beads is putting a curse on someone; to the savages, eating the flesh of a dead God in a solitary room is simply foolish; and to the savages, the concept of one God is ridiculous. Of course to the Jesuits the savages appear barbaric, with their sorcerers, superstitions, and bloodthirsty ways. Interestingly, in the harsh environment of the wilderness, the white men find it harder and harder to maintain their faith; indeed, the white companion of the Jesuit father apparently abandons his. But at the same time, in the face of the "Black Robe's" unrelenting faith, the promise of goods to come to them, and the reworking of their own superstitions, the savages begin to move away from their own beliefs. This is not lengthy book nor in any way difficult to understand. Yet it is so well-researched, so understated, and so perfectly realized, that we come away from it with a truly new understanding of a fascinating time of history, an understanding of a foreign way of life, and a clearer understanding of our own culture and ourselves.
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by Michael Crummey
by Ringuet
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