- Home
- Historical Fiction
- Across The Endless River Reviewed By Sandie Kirkland Of Bookpleasures.com
Across The Endless River Reviewed By Sandie Kirkland Of Bookpleasures.com
- By Sandie Kirkland
- Published October 9, 2009
- Historical Fiction
Sandie Kirkland
Reviewer Sandie Kirkland: Sandie has a degree in Early Childhood Education and an MBA. She started her career as a kindergarten teacher, and then taught in other grades for a few years before going back to college for a degree in computer programming. At that point, she started teaching at the college level in various technology subjects. For the past twelve years, she has been the CIO of a large community college with about 12,000 students. Reading is her relaxation after days spent implementing projects and working towards future visions of how technology can make others more productive.
Â
Author's Name: Thad Carhart
ISBN: 9780385529778
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday
Publishing Group
Click Here To Purchase Across the Endless River
In Indian culture, the ocean was
called "the endless river" as no one ever sailed across it.
Thad Carhart explores the life of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, who was
the baby born to Sacagawea on the explorations of Lewis and Clark,
where she served as a translator. Because of this connection with
Americans, Jean-Baptiste grew up with connections both to his Indian
heritage, the French trapping culture of his father, and the
American/English culture. Sacagawea died when Baptiste was eight, and
he lived after that with Captain Clark, who treated him as a ward and
provided him with an education. There, he met and grew to know a
German nobleman, Duke Paul of Wurttemberg. Paul is in America to
satisfy his longing to make a name for himself as a natural history
scientist. Baptiste is invaluable to his efforts, serving as a guide
and helping him capture various wild animals.
When Paul
returns to Europe, he convinces Jean-Baptiste to go with him.
What is meant as a short journey ends in Jean-Baptiste staying as
Paul's guest for five years. He learns about European royal culture
and it's strict structure for every part of life. During these years,
Baptiste learns about royal hunting, familial expectations, music,
art and various scientific studies. He also forms relationships with
two women. One is a young widow, Theresa, who is Paul's cousin and
who starts a friendship with Baptiste that turns into an affair. He
also forms a relationship with the daughter of a wine-merchant to
European nobility. Maura is half French and half Irish, and
understands better than anyone else the way that Jean-Baptiste feels
balanced between two opposing worlds.
Thad Carhart has done extensive research into this man's life, and it is evident in his writing. One of the strongest examples is the contrast in hunting. The reader is taken along on an Indian hunt for buffalo, and this writing is exciting and compelling. When Baptiste goes to Europe, this hunting, which is done for survival, is contrasted with the very formalised hunt performed by the noblemen, where one animal is selected, his moments traced, and he is harried to exhustion and then executed. Another example is Carhart's writing of the ceremony that young Indian men underwent to become braves. It is a chilling ceremony, and the reader is transported into the smokey, loud tent in which the ceremony occurs. The contrast in European culture is the stylized dance that Baptiste attends, where all moves are structured and there is a definate pattern to every stage of the evening. This book is recommended for lovers of historical fiction. I enjoyed getting to know Jean-Baptiste, and I think others will also.
Click Here To Purchase Across the Endless River