This was the 12th Michener novel I have read. I have my own internal rating system similar to school grades. Two have been A's, nine have been B's, and this book stands currently as the lone C. Overall I think it is a fairly enjoyable book with more history than the average book, but less than the Michener books I have read so far. I think in fairness to Michener, I am judging this novel against his other work and that is why it "pales" in comparison, as my title states. I really enjoyed the detail that went into the bullfighting aspect of the novel, but I would have prefered it not being the central event that the story ties into, which essentially the festival is.

In the event you are interested, the two A's were Alaska and The Bridge at Andau. Alaska being classic historical Michener and The Bridge at Andau being real history that Michener literally was involved in.

This book was certainly different than most Michener historical fiction books. For one thing it's a tiny bit shorter which is a welcome relief. Secondly there was more stuff on bullfighting than there was on the history. I really wasn't that interested to begin with, but found that I did get more interested as time went on. The story was a good one, but I like to see more history and that's why I've read each of his historical fiction books. This is my last book in his list and it was a fun one.

This was my very first Michener book. From other reviews I gather it contained less history than his other novels. After reading it I couldn't care less. I have now read this book three times and enjoy it just as much every time. I love bullfight stories and have read all of Hemingway's works on the subject. I found this more enjoyable than them all. It was more of a story, while very knowledgeably written, than a text book. I also work with many Mexicans and greatly enjoy there culture, food, and festivities. I greatly enjoyed every part of this book. The history from all three nations was very well done and interesting, as was the goings on in the present at the Festival of Ixmiq. I could never have believed a person could tie all of these stories into one well-knit novel, but Michener handles expertly.

I am sure in a year or two I will be reading it again.

Getting inside the head of such a great thinker is a wonderful opportunity. The only negative comment I could make about this book is that a few of the passages included from Hansberry's lesser-known plays were not as powerful as the passages from speeches, journals, and A Raisin in the Sun. It is tragic that the world lost a truly gifted and spirited writer at such a young age. If you enjoyed A Raisin in the Sun, you'll also find this a rewarding read.

I remember reading this book thinking that I could relate to the author perfectly well. Though I am not a playright, I do understand a lot of what she is saying. There should and will never be a borderline or a glass ceiling or anything else to hold me down. You are who you are regardless of what is . . . There is no turning back only that which is to be gained and won.

When I think of Lorraine Hansberry I think of a woman who achieved the impossible in an impossible time. She completed her plays with such intensity and flair . . . As if she lived and researched each every act.

Nevertheless, I feel that Hansberry was stating that to be "Young, gifted, and black," is clearly to be aware of who and what you are . . . and to take this knowledge of who and what you are and to run with it. Taking a chance when given a chance, or rather taking a chance and creating an opportunity with merely a bit of the gift that you had.

I will always remember what Thurgood Marshall, he basically stated that "He did the best with what he had." Is that being merely good or is that being the best. I believe that the concept of this book is not to be mistaken. I believe Hansberry is saying, "Hey sister, hold your head up high. It does not matter what this world thinks of you. It only merely matters about what you can do for yourself and your fellowman. Do you know your gifts? Hey write it down. You are worth perfecting."

Lorraine Hansberry did wonders in her lifetime she did so much for her community and her fellowman. My question to myself and others is . . . What about your gifts? Hey write them down. They are worth perfecting.

I found this book really solefull. I am not black or gifted but I feel that I relate to Lorraine Hansberry in many ways. I recomend this unique format to anyone who wants deep reading that flys by!

This book begins with prologue, and what a great prologue it is! And that is, I think, this book's biggest problem. The prologue is very enthralling and captivating, and sets up the rest of the story very well. But after that, no matter how good the rest of the book was, it would seem a little disappointing compared to the prologue. It seems that Hogan peaked a little too early.

So, what's all the fuss about? The prologue begins by describing an alien automated spaceship who's main job is to find planets with lots of natural resources, build automated factories to exploit the planets, and send various products back to the alien home world. It does this by building lots of little robots, who build the factories, and then go on to build more factories. Those factories build more robots, and so on and so on, until the planet is fully automated, and is sending loads of stuff back home. So far, so good.

Then the spaceship, on its way to another planet, gets damaged in a super nova. It is now virtually blind, and its instructions badly damaged. The first planet it comes across is the moon Titan, in our solar system, a million years ago. So the ship starts building factories, which in turn start building robots....and to make a long story short, the robots develop in peculiar ways, and start developing strange characteristics, such as predation, reproductive behaviours, and survival instincts...

Cut to a million years later, and we find ourselves on earth, in the middle of the preparations for a Mars shot, with lots of politicking going on, and with a scurrilous shyster of a fake psychic getting in on the space trip (supposedly to do experiments), along with a scientist who's out to discredit him (he knows he's a fake, but he just can't prove it!). So, off they go to Mars, along with a nice big military contingent. But then...! They get re-routed to Titan. A passing Voyager type explorer has just sent back some funny looking pictures of what's taking place on the surface, and our heroes are sent to have a look.

The rest of the story is spent examining the robot culture which has developed in the million years since we last saw them, how they interact with the humans, how this amazing development affects all the politicking still going on between the humans, how relations between various factions of robots are affected, power plays, robot religion (very medieval), etc. etc. Actually, it gets quite interesting, and Hogan's attention to technical detail and his ability to think of small but important details (especially from the robots perspective) is quite good.

A lot of the action takes place between the robots themselves, with the arrival of the humans as a kind of backdrop, which is a nice feature of this book (at least not everything revolves around the humans!). The robots are shown to have a quite complex culture, with their own goodies and baddies, just as the humans do. Some of the robot characters are quite likeable, and you can find yourself growing attached to them (always a good sign if, after you've finished a book, you start missing the characters!).

I won't give too much more away about the story, but suffice to say that there's plenty of intrigue going on to keep you interested. On the downside, the writing (apart from that great prologue!) is not as snappy as it could be, and the plot gets a bit complicated for me (a danger in any book where there are lots of characters all interacting with each other). By the end, it is a bit of a struggle to keep going, but is, I think, worth it to see what happens. This was, I believe, Hogan's first book, and you can tell from the lack of polish in the style.

Overall, though, this is an interesting book, about an interesting subject. There's plenty of stuff going on to keep you interested, and the robot culture is enjoyable to learn about. While the writing style isn't great, that good beginning, and the fascinating interaction of robot and human make up for all that. This is well worth a read, and if you like it, there's plenty more by Hogan out there to keep you happy!

Unlike a lot of other reviews, I found the first 30 pages a little boring, and the rest of the story great. The beginning of the book is excellent, then the character development of the humans occurs, and I found it hard to get through. Then once the robots are in the picture, I found it very exciting to the last page. I have read this general story line of the evolution of machines before, just not in this way. I found it very good. I liked the robot dialogue. I found myself enjoying the robot characters, and the primitive culture they had. The feelings of robots evolving over millions of years is neat, as is the origin of the robots on Titan. There seemed to be a lot of negative reviews of this book, with the beginning being all they liked. I liked the very beginning too, but most of the rest of the book did not let me down. It gets trivial at times, and the rescue of certain characters at the last minute occurs. All in all though, I did not find it a waste of time to read at all. In fact, I think it may be one of the most enjoyable reads I ever had.

Reading the prologue was like witnessing the birth of the human race. This book takes the question of Darwinism versus Creationism and through a unique perspective -- that of a race of robots on Titan -- gives both sides something to think about. And even if you're not into not into the heavier issues, the evident renaissance metaphor is extremely effective (and the source of amusement when humans arrive on the scene).

Don't judge a book by its cover (or size). If ever this statement was true, it is now. At first glance, Billy Budd by Herman Melville looks like at quick easy read at only 80+ pages. Once you get through the first few paragraphs, you realize that you just might have bit off more than you can chew.

The character Billy Budd seems to be a stand up guy. Though quiet, he boosts the morale of his shipmates with just his presence. Melville himself calls him the, "Handsome Sailor." He appears to be almost perfect in every way, although he does have one fault. He stutters when he is overwhelmed by many feelings he cannot express. I like this about Billy. It shows that he is human and does have imperfections. Another character, Captain Vere, is a little bit creepy for my taste. His obsession for Billy, whether it be sexual or not, is a bit strange. A specific instance of the odd obsession is in the scene in chapter 10 in the mess hall. It is the well known "spilled soup" scene. The detailed description Melville gives to a small section dealing with spilled soup on the floor is a bit extreme. I agree with most people saying that there is much homoerotic content in Billy Budd.

Overall I give this book a low score. I do like the idea behind the story. A well liked sailor who doesn't cause trouble is set up by his commanding officers. Billy is portrayed as a hero to his shipmates. A young man, murdered because of his innocence. If it wasn't for the idea behind the story it would get a much lower rating.

This novella is difficult to read, with long and complex sentences and perhaps unnecessary diversions. But its power and depth reward the effort it takes to read it.

"Billy Budd" is an allegory of a young seaman who strikes and kills a superior officer when the officer's cruelty and treachery become unbearable. The focus of the story is the debate over whether to execute the seaman (Billy Budd) for his crime. With passionate and terrifying logic, Melville (through the voice of Captain Vere) demonstrates that human perfection is impossible - not because we humans are weak, but because perfection simply does not and cannot exist in this world. To make decisions based on our notion of "divine justice" is not only impractical and foolhardy, according to Melville, but even immoral.

If you like to think of yourself as an idealist, then reading this book will leave some unanswered questions in your mind, possibly for the rest of your life. I first read this story more than thirty years ago, and it still affects the way I think about almost everything to this day.

Herman Melville's Billy Budd is a classic which should be used more often in the High School ciricullum in order to make students more apprciative of the genius, Herman Melville. Melville incorporates a mix of biblical, mythological, and classical symbolism that is so profoundly genius in his development through each character in Billy Budd. I would recommend this book to every High School teacher to use as an introductory into Melville's works, especially Moby Dick!

THE AMBASSADORS demands more effort and concentration from the reader than probably any other novel written by an American. But the payoff is worth the effort, however we may begrudge James' frustratingly and intentionally thick prose. James does indeed describe intense human situations in great depth and detail: duty, honor, nostalgia; the contrast between the starchy-collared stiffness of Brahmin Boston (read: America) contrasted with the joie de vivre of Paris (read: Europe); how difficult certain of life's choices can be. These are just a few themes that make this book worthwhile. James' America is young and trying to assert itself (and so takes itself too seriously); his Europe is old and satisfied (and perhaps doesn't take itself seriously enough).

Lambert Strether, a fiftysomething turn-of-the-20th-century bourgeois Bostonian gentleman on an aristocratic lady's errand--she will not marry him until he convinces her son Chad to return to Massachusetts. We see his struggle with his uncomfortable position when he realizes Chad is no longer a spoiled young prep-schooler, but a young gentleman of increasing refinement and self-awareness. And if Strether is anything, by the way, he is one of the most supremely self-aware characters in literary history. Once that Paris air starts to play its magic with Strether himself, we are off to the races. Keeping in mind, of course, that with James' prose we are racing with tortoises. James invites us to ponder how many chances a person truly gets in this life to reinvent his or her self? And if we get the chance, do we always take it? How much should we weigh the consequences before we decide? How much are we willing to accept them after we have chosen?

For similar themes with clearer, faster-paced, and wittier prose, try Edith Wharton's marvelous homage to James, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.

Reading "The Ambassadors," I was awed by the subtletly of emotion and social gesture James was able to describe. Clearly here was a crafted that had been years in the honing, and I appreciate the book's liberation from the plot-heavy mechanics of earlier books like "The Portrait of a Lady" and "The American." Everything is only subtly insinuated; whole lives can hinge upon half-meant gestures or long-buried social prejudices. In this way, the book has some of the wistful tone of "The Age of Innocence," but more depth if less elegant prose.

The prose is the thing -- James was dictating by this time (how on Earth does one dictate a novel?), and it shows. His chewy ruminations and meandering, endlessly parenthetical sentences are hard to digest. I think James went too far in his late style, and "The Ambassadors" might have benefited from a sterner editor. Still, this is an important book, absolutely worth the read.

James' novel affected me in part because I also fell in love with Paris, though not with a Parisian. The sinuous, difficult prose provides the perfect vehicle for the adventures of aging Lambert Strether as he goes to Paris to try to recover a New England son who will not return to his domineering mother and take a role in the family business--manufacturing an article that is never named. In Europe he meets a degree of sophistication he had never known but also a jungle of moral ambivalences. If I gave the novel only four stars, it is not because of the difficult prose, which I sometimes cursed, but because the crucial instance of moral turpitude which he describes seems practically banal now. I once bundled up all my Henry James books in a fit of pique and was on the way to taking them to a library book sale, but thought better of it. And it was a better thought.

I just read Good-Bye Mr.Chips and I thought that it was a decent book. It was about an older man who had been a schoolmaster at an all boys school. The school was very reputable. Everyone at the school knew and loved Mr. Chipping. They called him Mr. Chips. He was a humerous character and everyone laughed at his jokes. He would make the new boys feel welcome and he taught well. The story is about him recollecting his memories while working at Brookfield (the school). He worked there for about 60 years and expreienced many things and got to know many boys. Everyone liked him and hated to see him go.

Good-Bye Mr. Chips is a short story about a man named Authur Chips. He is a headmaster at a school named Brookfield. Mr. Chips, as he is called by his students, is a very old fashioned Latin teacher. Throughout the book he encounters many different situations and his reactions display his charming and noble character. He cares about people and influences the lives of all who come in contact with him.
Although there is not much action, Good-Bye Mr. Chips is captivating in its own way. It's easy to read and short enough that it does not become boring and monotonous.

Good-bye Mr. Chips was a good book for short, recreational reading.
Mr. Chips is an elderly man who tells about his life as a school teacher.
He also tells all about his wife, whom he loved very much, but whom died an early death.
Through out the book the stories of the past are told by Mr. Chips as he sits in his chair drinking tea. He is very kind and
he loves the boys at the school.

Walkabout is a dated novel. It contains many inaccurracies of animal and bird habitats. The Animals and birds referred to and written about in the novel could not possibly exist in the area in question. Further, references to appropriate "bush tucker" that the local people would take advantage of is not discussed.
It is extremely racist, the aboriginal protagonist does not get identified either by name or is he given the courtesy of being referred to with capital letters. The author continues to refer to the Aboriginal boy, as "bush boy" until his death. He refers to the Australian Aborigines as being "primitive", but does show how they have successfully lived in a hostile environment for 40,000 years or more. They had a very complex social organisation.
References to Afro Americans as negroes who only undertake menial tasks further highlights the author's insensitivity towards any group that is perceived as different to his ethnocentric nature.
References to the Aboriginal naming of topographical features in the Outback of Australia, further reinforces this point. The Dreamtime legends of the Australian Aborigines support the naming of water holes and mountains or rocky outcrops as being the result of mythical fights, or where the Dreamtime Serpent slept or made his toilet, a far more earthy approach than that proposed by the author, who waxes poetically about "the valley of waters under the earth."
Further diplays of the author's ignorance of the Aboriginal culture is shown with the whole idea of the Aboriginal people's battle with death. What an absurd idea! What culture lives continually in fear of death or dying? The idea of a medicine man pointing the bone has an element of truth, in which the author has taken advantage and used on a young boy. This boy has his life ahead of him and is undertaking his entry toward manhood with his walkabout, why should he even think about dying, what has he done to break a tribal taboo? We are not let into this secret, so we can only assume that the author is using his artistic licence.(Tribe is deemed by some people to be a politically incorrect word)
If this is the only view that some overseas students get of outback Australia and the beautiful Aboriginal people then I would have grave concerns about using this book as a class room text. My students research these details, find all the inaccuracies and come to their own conclusions.

Walkabout is a story of the unification of two cultures that are 10,000 years apart. Peter and Mary, two American kids from Charleston, South Carolina, end up in the ruthless Australian outback where not one person is found in miles, just true desolation, after their plane crashes on a flight to visit their uncle in civilized Adelaide. However they don't encounter what we call civilized. Almost on the point of dying they find an aborigine who saves them from hunger. The boy teaches them how to survive in his habitat from finding alkaloola (water) to how to kill fish in a fresh water pond. The aborigine performs his tribal dances, taking them hand in hand through the weird and mysterious world of one of the most primitive cultures ever seen on earth. One of the most important customs performed by the aboriginal people is the "walkabout" really the initiation to manhood, just like the bush boy is doing in the story, Mary and Peter however are not on a walkabout to manhood but a walk for survival. The author explains the wonderful surroundings with such detail that you feel you are there living every moment. From Koalas to baby Wombats, reading this book is like diving into an ecological realm. A story of insight and warmth straight from the heart. The book accomplishes what it's set out for to teach us more about the aboriginal people, as each chapter, which might seem long but very informative. If you are being assigned this book get ready to consider it a gift and if you are reading by choice you are guaranteed to consider it a very smart move.

This book challenged my intellect and it was very informative about the aboriganals that live in the Australian outback. It involved many aspects of life like, Racial issues and survival. It also has a very good moral, "If there's a will there's a way." It is also informative about some of the animals that live in the desert and how they survive. In my perspective it is just a good book and it kept me occupied. You should give this book a try, I think that you wil like it to.

I read the book "Torn away" and now you will get some information to know if it is necessary to buy the book.
The story is about a young boy,Declan,who is thirteen years old and who is already alone.
His parents and his sister died because of the cruelty in Northern Ireland.
By the authorities he is sent to Canada to his relatives although he wants revenge for his family.
In almost the whole story he is against his new family and he wants to go back but in the end he finds friends and stays in Canada.
At the beginning it is a little bit boring because they explain the whole escape when he has to go to Canada. I have also read a lot about the conflict in Northern Ireland and I thought it would be nothing new but while I read the book I noticed that it is interesting and exciting. In the book there is a lot of tension but it has no open end and I hate books with an open end. It is not very dramatic although you will find said moments. There is one scene where they save a seal and it reminds you of "Free Willy".But all in all it is a book with a lot of information. I think it is not wrong to read this book. After the first pages I liked the book.

We've read this book in class and talked a lot about it and wrote a reading journal.
This book is about a 13-year-old boy who lost his family in a bombing of the IRA and is forced to leave Northern Ireland to stay with his only relatives in Vancouver, Cananda. He is a very headstrong and stubborn boy and tries to escape serval times even from Canada. But in time he begins to like his "new" family and decides at the end to stay with his uncle his aunt and their adopted children in Canada...

We've liked reading this book because it's easy to understand and the story is exciting. Also because we like happy ends. :)

The novel "Torn Away" written by James Heneghan is focused on the life of a thirteen year old boy who lost his family during a terrorist attack and is deported to his only relative left, his uncle Matthew in Canada.
Being involved in a youngsters terrorist group in Belfast, fighting against the Prods(Protestants,the British and the authorities he is forced to leave Ireland, starting a new live in Canada. After his arrival he acts in a very rude, reserved and aggressive way against all attempts to include him in the family. Although he still insists on his opinion, that he wants to leave Canada as soon as possible to take a revenge his family he starts to notice, that he will miss his new family.

We had to read the book in our English-class and so at the beginnig we were not very pleased. But after reading the first chapter which made a strong impact on us, our interest was caught and we enjoyed the novel more and more.

I recently read the Henry James novel, Daisy Miller, as an assigned reading for my high school English class. Although, I tend not to like the classics that much, I would recommend this book, especially to high school students. This book appears to build on the author's interest with psychology. While the theme is pretty obvious, the clash between reality and appearance, it holds the readers attention. In fact, this could be compared to many movie plots or the Real World TV show on MTV. The "ugly" American that travels to Europe. In the process, offending many because of their lack of knowledge of the culture. The Europeans never look beyond the surface. The theme seems like an everyday occurrence.

The story is the difference between appearance and reality. The Europeans, represented by his aunt, only see the superficial and are overly judgmental. They do not see the innocence in Daisy. They regard her as vulgar. Frederick is torn between his friends and relatives who are critical of the apparent loose morals of Daisy. She socializes with men unescorted and stays out very late. She disregards the social mores of the time and the culture she is visiting. Daisy doesn't care about appearances while Frederick cares a great deal about the matter. He has to leave for his home in Geneva, and promises to see Daisy in Rome that winter. In late January, Frederick arrives in Rome to be told by his aunt that Daisy has not changed and is associating with Italian men! Her comments are unflattering towards Daisy. The tone is one of disapproval and suggests immoral behavior.

Isn't this one our main faults of judging people on the appearance? An online reviewer of Daisy Miller commented "...The unreliable narrator is here in his full glory. I say "his" because in Daisy Miller, the masculinist bias of the narrator is the only reason for the story to exist. There is no plot. The standard critical drivel about "American" vs "European" girls is absurd...." Isn't it obvious that this was written in the late 1800's? That was the way of life of that time. However, it still is a tendency of this era only more understated.

I read this book as part of an English course on late-19th and 20th century American literature. It's the first time I've read a novel by Henry James, having so far only seen the movie adaptations of 'Portrait of a Lady' and 'Washington Square'. Having been wary of reading James (because of his reputation for dense, convoluted prose) I was surprised at this novel's relatively brisk plot and overall readability. The story itself, ostensibly a simple one about one man's inability to understand a seemingly complicated woman, also has interesting things to say about gender, class and the relationship between the United States (personified by the heroine) and the rest of the Western world. I was actually somewhat amazed that the image of America created through the characterization of Daisy Miller still rings true 125 years after this book's publication.

I hadn't read James for about eight years or so when I came across a copy of Daisy Miller in a pile of discarded books at a local university. It sat on my shelf for a while longer, as I knew full well that James writes in thick sentences, making up for the lack of volume by quite a bit.

What I found was what I have come to expect from James, even in his early works. This book does a great deal in terms of pulling together many levels of interpretaion: Old World versus New World, common versus exclusive, and also the chaser and the chased.

This last viewpoint in particular is what stuck with me. We have a young girl, and a young man. They meet once for a few days, and the young man becomes utterly fixated on her, if for any other reason that she is playing, in his view, hard to get. When she turns her attention elsewhere, the ante is doubled and tripled when, for a variety of reasons most likely centered around our young hero Winterbourne, the American society in Rome starts to give our heroin the "cold shoulder". Given that James writes most often to examine the person most in focus in the novel, I tend to atribute most of the troubles of this young girl to both herself and Winterbourne, not just the society of the time. This is far from a safe academic interpretation, however.

The notes included in the book are helpful for getting into the mindset of the typical reader of James' day, but are not distracting. Overall, this would probably be suitible for an ambitios middle school student, and just right for most high school students.

Seeking to reprise his earlier success with The Last of the Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper went on to write several other tales built around his heroic character Natty Bumppo (called "Hawkeye" in Mohicans and "Pathfinder" in the book of THAT name). In this one our hero is known as "Deerslayer" for his facility on the hunt and is shown as the younger incarnation of that paragon of frontier virtue we got to know in the earlier books. In this one, too, we see how he got his most famous appellation: "Hawkeye". But, this time out, our hero comes across as woefully tiresome (perhaps it's because we see too much of him in this book, where he's almost a side character in Mohicans). Yet some of Cooper's writing skills seem sharper here (he no longer avers that Natty is the taciturn type, for instance, while having the fellow forever running off at the mouth). But, while there are some good moments & excitement, this tale really doesn't go all that far...and its rife with cliches already overworked from the earlier books. The worst part is the verbose, simple-minded self-righteousness of our hero, himself, taken to the point of absolute unbelievability. He spurns the love of a beautiful young woman (though he obviously admires her) for the forester's life (as though he couldn't really have both), yet we're expected to believe he's a full-blooded young American male. And he's insufferably "moral", a veritable goody two-shoes of the woodlands. At the same time, the Indians huff & puff a lot on the shore of the lake where Deerslayer finds himself in this tale (in alliance with a settler, his two daughters, a boorish fellow woodsman, and Deerslayer's own erstwhile but loyal Indian companion Chingachgook -- "The Big Sarpent," as Natty translates his name). But the native Americans seem ultimately unable to overwhelm the less numerous settlers who have taken refuge from them in the middle of Lake Glimmerglass (inside a frontier house built of logs and set in the lake bed on stilts). There is much racing around the lake as Deerslayer and the others strive to keep the few canoes in the vicinity from falling into the hands of the tribe of marauding Hurons who have stopped in the nearby woods on their way back up to Canada (fleeing the American colonists and the British at the outbreak of English-French hostilities -- since these Hurons are allied with the French). And there are lots of dramatic encounters, with some deaths, but the Indians seem to take it all with relative equanimity, while trying to find a way to get at the whites who are precariously ensconced out on the lake. (It seems to take them the better part of two days, for instance, to figure out they can build rafts to make up for their lack of canoes -- and why couldn't they just build their own canoes, in any case -- and how is it they don't have any along with them since it's obvious they'll have to cross a number of waterways to successfully make it back to the homeland in Canada?) The settler and the boorish woodsman, for their part, do their stupid best to attack the Indians unnecessarily, getting captured then ransomed in the process, while Deerslayer and Chingachgook contrive to get the loyal Indian's betrothed free from the Hurons (it seems she has been kidnapped by them -- the reason Deerslayer and Chingachgook are in the vicinity in the first place). In the meantime the simple-minded younger daughter of the settler (Cooper seems to like this motif since he used a strong daughter and a simpler sister in Mohicans, as well) wanders in and out of the Indian's encampment without sustaining any hurt on the grounds that the noble red men recognize the "special" nature of this poor afflicted young woman (Cooper used this motif in Mohicans, too). In the end there's lots of sturm und drang but not much of a tale -- at least not one which rings true or touches the right chords for the modern reader. Cooper tried to give us more of Hawkeye in keeping with what he thought his readers wanted but, in this case, more is definately too much. --- Stuart W. Mirsk

Cooper's final Leatherstocking Tale, The Deerslayer, depicts young Natty Bumppo on his first warpath with lifelong friend-to-be, Chingachgook. The story centers around a lake used as the chronologically subsequent setting for Cooper's first Leatherstocking Tale, The Pioneers. Tom Hutter lives on the lake with his daughters and it is here that Deerslayer (Bumppo) intends to meet Chingachgook to rescue Chingachgook's betrothed from a band of roving Iroquois. A desperate battle for control of the lake and it's immediate environs ensues and consumes the remainder of the story.

Throughout this ultimate Leatherstocking Tale, Cooper provides Natty much to postulate upon. Seemingly desiring a comprehensive finality to the philosophy of Bumppo, Cooper has Natty "speechify" in The Deerslayer more so than in any other book, though the character could hardly be considered laconic in any. Though the reason for this is obvious and expected (it is, after all, Cooper's last book of the series), it still detracts a tad from the pace of the story as Natty picks some highly inappropriate moments within the plot to elaborate his position. And, thus, somewhat incongruently, Cooper is forced to award accumulated wisdom to Bummpo at the beginning of his career rather than have him achieve it through chronological accrual.

All things considered, however, The Deerslayer is not remarkably less fun than any other Leatherstalking Tale and deserves a similar rating. Thus, I award The Deerslayer 4+ stars and the entire Leatherstocking Tales series, one of the better examples of historical fiction of the romantic style, the ultimate rating of 5. It was well worth my time.

"The Deerslayer" is, chronologically, the first of Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, although the last to be written. It takes place in the early 1740s on the Lake Glimmerglass. Natty Bumppo, called Deerslayer, and his friend Hurry Harry March go to Tom Hutter's "Castle," which is a house built on stilts on a shoal in the middle of the lake, and it is practically impregnable. March intends to get Tom's daughter Judith to marry him. More love is in the air, for Deerslayer plans to meet Chingachgook at a point on the lake in a few days in order to help him rescue his bride-to-be, Wah-ta-Wah, who is a prisoner of the Hurons.

War breaks out, Tom and Harry are captured by Hurons, and the untested Deerslayer must go on his first warpath to rescue them. That sets up the plot, and there follows many twists and turns, ending with a very haunting conclusion. Although the book drags in parts, it's still pretty good.

I would caution you not to expect realism in this book. "It is a myth," D. H. Lawrence writes, "not a realistic tale. Read it as a lovely myth." Yes, Deerslayer is fond of talking, but take his soliloquies the same way as you take Shakespeare's: characters in both men's works meditate and reflect on what they are going through. So toss out your modern preconceptions aside and just enjoy the myth!