Little Big Man

Rating:
Summary: Good book, mediocre movie
Review: A fine book, pithy and funny... Please don't bother renting the movie, though! I saw it when it came out--and hadn't read the book at the time--and thought it was hilarious. But now, having read the book, the movie makes me squirm. They didn't do it justice, and though I like Dustin Hoffman, he was execrable in the film. Thank God the '70s are dead forever

Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Tragedy I Have Ever Read
Review: A plodding first chapter by the fictional author of a fictional biography, is necessary because it prepares us for the story of Jack Crabb, Little Big Man. With the second chapter the hilarity begins (with some lapses in the regional speech). There is a minimum of a laugh per page. The tragedy is a man caught between two cultures. He admires the Cheyenne, his adoptive people, but is carrying so much baggage from his original upbringing that he feels shame and guilt. Consequently he belongs to neither. He is a man lost to both as circumstance moves him back and forth between them. The book is culturally, but not historically accurate. Still I believe it ranks with the best American fiction.

Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Tragedy I Have Ever Read
Review: A plodding first chapter by the fictional author of a fictional biography, is necessary because it prepares us for the story of Jack Crabb, Little Big Man. With the second chapter the hilarity begins (with some lapses in the regional speech). There is a minimum of a laugh per page. The tragedy is a man caught between two cultures. He admires the Cheyenne, his adoptive people, but is carrying so much baggage from his original upbringing that he feels shame and guilt. Consequently he belongs to neither. He is a man lost to both as circumstance moves him back and forth between them. The book is culturally, but not historically accurate. Still I believe it ranks with the best American fiction.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Historical Novel About the American West
Review: An impressive combination of history and story, this book really evokes the glory and tragedy of the American West. No, the movie doesn't manage to convey everything that's in the book, although it was a decent try considering when it was filmed. Berger also draws a remarkable portrait of the psychology of being trapped between two cultures and belonging to neither. A book worth reading and re-reading

Rating:
Summary: between the Anglo and the Indian
Review: Berger offers no union between Indian and Anglo. Little Big Man/Jack Crabb continually bounces between the two cultures, belonging to neither, getting solace nowhere, torn by his "white tendencies" when he is with the Indians and by his Indian sensibilities when he is with the white. A novel that for all his humor suggests a divided American Psyche, where the best are tormented by what have been and the worst, the average, stand simply and blind on one side of a way of life or another. Also, a lovely exploration of the process of the making of the American Myth itself.

Rating:
Summary: Unmatched by any author since, but Poirier comes close
Review: Berger's story of Jack Crabb (aka Little Big Man) is unmatched in our literature since, but fellow Berger fans, I have come across a character called Javier (aka the Goat Man) that I think you will enjoy, as well. Goat Man appears in the novel Goats by Mark Jude Poirier. When I finished reading the book, I could only help but think of Little Big Man.

Rating:
Summary: Best Ever Historical Fiction Work on Western History
Review: Have read the book several times--always very much hoped that Berger would do some sort of sequel, and here it is.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever about the American West.
Review: I have my students read this book as a supplement to an American history survey course. It is an good source because Berger's fiction mirrors what often happened during the European-American conquest of the West. From hemanahs to Custer's band playing during the Washita attack, Berger shows that truth and fiction are often separated by a very thin line. At the same time he illustrates that during the battles over the plains, no one group had a monopoly on civility or savagery. Despite of these strengths, I suspect that the real reason my students enjoy the book is because it makes them laugh.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie, but the book is better
Review: I read the book after seeing the movie and was surprised to find the book far superior to the film. And it was a very good movie. I reread my copy so many times it finally fell apart on me. Funny, touching, poignant, horrifying...this is the type of "classic" that should be taught in high school.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I read this book last year and it quickly became one of my favorites. Jack Crabb belongs to both the white and the Cheyenne communities, but he never fully fits into either. This book follows him as he drifts back and forth between the two over a period of 20-30 years, the period of the greatest american expansion into the west and the greatest efforts against the plains indians. This isn't "Dances with Wolves". Jack Crabb has admiration and disdain for elements of both U.S. and Cheyenne civilization.