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.

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.

Return of Little Big Man is not as good as Little Big Man, but since Little Big Man easily ranks among the ten greatest American novels ever written, that is not strong criticism. RLBM is a bit too long - it drags somewhat between the point at which Jack Crabb joins Buffalo Bill and the point at which he witnesses Sitting Bull's death. But otherwise it is superior in every way.

There is a change of focus here. Unlike LBM, RLBM is less a revisionist history of the Old West and has changed its focus to the encroaching Twentieth Century. Best of all, it introduces a romantic element in the form of Amanda Teasdale, who will surely prove a match for Jack Crabb. The author promises additional installments of Crabb's life. I look forward to them. I wish he'd produce a nonfiction companion volume (or footnotes a la Flashman) so the reader could determine what is fact and what is fancy.

Designed more for the person who wants to increase their immune system, Dr. Berger present a diet which has a side benefit of weight loss. This benefit is sold right up front. Like other controversial diet books, the author asks the reader to to give it a "fair try." Unlike those other books, there is little written in the way of studies outside of his own clinic to support his claims. Menus and recipes included in the book are fairly common-place so you won't be spending a whole lot more at the grocery store to try out the diet.

This book, authored in 1986, provides an excellent food allergy guideline for hyper-allergenic individuals. Nutritional analysis, however, indicates that the caloric amount, if eaten in assigned portions, many times falls below 1000 calories; inadequate amounts for most folks [follow Dr. B's advice to men to increase portion sizes slightly to avoid starvation and metabolic slowdown]. Additionally, basic nutrients, without the nutritional supplements, also are spotty. However, individuals with severe allergies rarely have ideal nutrition anyway, so this is probably a step up for most in terms of dietary quality. The mega vitamin therapy is a little dangerous for the average individual and very dangerous for anyone on any kind of medications, so check with your (nutritionally aware) physician and pharmacist before starting. As to the immune system claims, as this was written fifteen years ago, long term studies are sadly lacking; as is a follow up book by Dr. Berger with expanded recipes and newer food selections. That doesn't take away from the quality of this book, however.

However, all that said, it is the best allergy diet I have ever seen with the best possible recipes I have ever tried (given the dietary limits of the hyperallergenic). The weight loss really happens (dramatically so, I might add), the headaches, pain, mood swings do go away (for those whose symptoms are allergenically derived; it works. As advised in the intro, see your physician first for a check up; don't go on and off of the supplements (major problems) and approach the recommendations as life time changes, not just a diet for a few weeks.

Stewart Berger.. Joel Wallach mentions him on the famous cassette of "Dead Doctor's Don't Lie". Stewart Berger was his own nutritionist alright, but he died at the age of, what, 37?

Reading this book will take 38 years off your life!

I love this book! I read alot on vitamins and minerals, and have found this to be a very informative and easy to follow book. I have checked this one out of our library at least 20 times or more and plan on purchasing my own from Amazon now that I found it. If you want something on Nutrition that is easy to follow and don't totally baffle your mind this is the one to get. As far as him dying at 37 as the one review stated I don't know but he also spelled his name as Stewart, not Stuart so maybe it was a different Berger. I just know it's helped me.