Rating: 
Summary: Respectfully Disagree
Review: As a lover of historical fiction, I was excited when I found this book. It was slow going at first but I trudged through dealing with the author's jumping around in time with no warning. I became increasingly frustrated with the book as I went on. I eventually became accustomed to the native American dialog but found the trader's dialog inane and annoying. What frustrated me most about the book was the absence of those elements which is why I read historical fiction. There was very little expression of the "wonder" of this trip - particularly the natural wonder. There was little sense of the laboriousness of the trip and the interactions and relationships between the men making the journey (with the exception of Lewis' curious preoccupation with Clark.) The book provided little context of where they were in their journey. At one point they're in the Rockies, and it seems in 10 pages, they're at the Pacific Ocean. I am an avid reader and have not been so disappointed in a long time. I don't know what the author's intent was - it was completely lost on me. This was a major, frustrating, time-consuming disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Dull and Vulgar
Review: As an avid reader of over 30 years, I have plowed through other dry texts to the bitter end. During that time, I have never quit on a slow book.....until now. Brian Hall's "I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company" is historical fiction at its worst. Hall's Thomas Jefferson prattles on and on in the narrative, obviously impressed with his own intellect and vast knowledge on multiple subjects and ideologies. Yawn. Dullness I can tolerate. Excessive grossness and vulgarity, I cannot. Hall portrays Sacagawea as an ignorant savage, totally absorbed in her own body functions. After page after page of such excess, I threw in the towel. My greatest confusion regarding this work is that the Western Writers of America presented it with the 2004 Spur Award for Best Western Novel. The bottom line is - I should be extremely happy to part company with this book by selling it in the Amazon Marketplace.
Rating: 
Summary: A personal journey
Review: Brian Hall shows great skill in immersing the reader in the inner life of his characters. Fans of "The Saskiad" will find more of the same intensity and insight in "I Should be Extremly Happy," but this time the story is told intimately from the point of view of several different characters. The main characters are thoroughly explored, inside and out. Each is a product of his society and upbringing. Through the eyes of other characters we see their virtues and faults, and their internal voices explore their own blind spots and vanities, and their harsh self-assesments. Lewis in particular has many facets: rugged explorer, tender and loyal friend, aspiring intellectual, procrastinator, shrewd leader, and manic-depressive. I found myself identifying with Lewis as though we were kindred souls. Surely not every reader will have the same strong reaction, but I hope that everyone can enjoy a character who is so alive on the page as to elicit such sympathies in at least this one reader. With the character of Sakagewea, Hall has made an ambitious attempt to protray the mental landscape of someone from a very alien society. She has a different viewpoint and different priorities in everything she does, from telling time, to interacting with her infant son, to navigating the world around her. (Prepare to learn new ways of thinking about north, south, east, west, and left and right). And of course her narrative voice is completely unique. While her role in the expedition has suffered its ups and downs in different accounts, here she is neither deemphasized nor lionized. A thought-provoking and absorbing book, this is not a straightfoward historical novel, or a kid's book, or a light read, by any stretch of the imagination. Many times I had to flip back and reread a passages to understand what had happened, and I was constantly scampering for the dictionary, but it was well worth the effort. I'm not a Lewis & Clark enthusiast, so I can't say how well the historical narrative holds together, but taking this novel on its own, I think Hall has succeeded brilliantly in exploring a well-known story in American history though imaginative characterizations.
Rating:
Summary: A personal journey
Review: Brian Hall shows great skill in immersing the reader in the inner life of his characters. Fans of "The Saskiad" will find more of the same intensity and insight in "I Should be Extremly Happy," but this time the story is told intimately from the point of view of several different characters. The main characters are thoroughly explored, inside and out. Each is a product of his society and upbringing. Through the eyes of other characters we see their virtues and faults, and their internal voices explore their own blind spots and vanities, and their harsh self-assesments. Lewis in particular has many facets: rugged explorer, tender and loyal friend, aspiring intellectual, procrastinator, shrewd leader, and manic-depressive. I found myself identifying with Lewis as though we were kindred souls. Surely not every reader will have the same strong reaction, but I hope that everyone can enjoy a character who is so alive on the page as to elicit such sympathies in at least this one reader. With the character of Sakagewea, Hall has made an ambitious attempt to protray the mental landscape of someone from a very alien society. She has a different viewpoint and different priorities in everything she does, from telling time, to interacting with her infant son, to navigating the world around her. (Prepare to learn new ways of thinking about north, south, east, west, and left and right). And of course her narrative voice is completely unique. While her role in the expedition has suffered its ups and downs in different accounts, here she is neither deemphasized nor lionized. A thought-provoking and absorbing book, this is not a straightfoward historical novel, or a kid's book, or a light read, by any stretch of the imagination. Many times I had to flip back and reread a passages to understand what had happened, and I was constantly scampering for the dictionary, but it was well worth the effort. I'm not a Lewis & Clark enthusiast, so I can't say how well the historical narrative holds together, but taking this novel on its own, I think Hall has succeeded brilliantly in exploring a well-known story in American history though imaginative characterizations.
Rating:
Summary: Seeing the clearing in the distance...
Review: Brian Hall's commendable book takes on one of the most venerated moments in US history and comes out a winner. Most often told from the perspective of Meriwether Lewis, the narrative is suffused with his hopes, his fears, and his mercurial temperament. His halting but deep-felt friendship for both his men and for co-captain William Clark is both human and touching. Hall uses a deft hand while treating the possibility of Lewis's homosexuality, as well as Clark's desires for Sacagawea (who, in her dead-on narrative sections, refers to herself as "this one"). An added bonus to the evocative narrative is the fact that Hall quoted extensively from the expeditions' journals and personal letters. Only twice (as the author admits in the Afterward) did Hall fabricate quotes for the sake of the story. That in itself is commendable. I read the book knowing that Lewis would kill himself, but the narrative of the suicide left me feeling pity for the man who, in his last hours, believed that Clark, hundreds of miles away, would be coming up the trail to save him from himself. All in all, I was put less in the mind of James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness, and more into another favorite historical fiction novel of mine, Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.
Rating:
Summary: Seeing the clearing in the distance...
Review: Brian Hall's commendable book takes on one of the most venerated moments in US history and comes out a winner. Most often told from the perspective of Meriwether Lewis, the narrative is suffused with his hopes, his fears, and his mercurial temperament. His halting but deep-felt friendship for both his men and for co-captain William Clark is both human and touching. Hall uses a deft hand while treating the possibility of Lewis's homosexuality, as well as Clark's desires for Sacagawea (who, in her dead-on narrative sections, refers to herself as "this one"). An added bonus to the evocative narrative is the fact that Hall quoted extensively from the expeditions' journals and personal letters. Only twice (as the author admits in the Afterward) did Hall fabricate quotes for the sake of the story. That in itself is commendable. I read the book knowing that Lewis would kill himself, but the narrative of the suicide left me feeling pity for the man who, in his last hours, believed that Clark, hundreds of miles away, would be coming up the trail to save him from himself. All in all, I was put less in the mind of James Joyce's stream-of-consciousness, and more into another favorite historical fiction novel of mine, Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels.
Rating: 
Summary: Too slow for me
Review: Couldn't finish the book which is rare
Rating:
Summary: Vapid commentary on the relationship between Lewis and Clark
Review: Hall had the opportunity to create a major work of the relationship between Lewis and Clark, had it not been for his over-use of 4-letter 20th-century vulgarities that had no bearing on the era. Because of his self-indulgence in "potty-talk", his novel can only be taken as an interesting read, but totally lacking in historical accuracy. Readers might enjoy "Dear Brother", by James Holmberg, recommended by the Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation
Rating:
Summary: brilliant
Review: Henry James once said that any effort to write about a time more than 50 years removed from one's own was worthless and shouldn't be attempted. Alas, poor Henry! He didn't have a chance to read Brian Hall. As a long time admirer of Hall's fiction and non-fiction, I picked up this book with anticipation and read it with absolute pleasure. It is a brave attempt to give credible and engaging voice to characters removed from us not only by time, but also by race, class and sensibility. It succeeds magnificently.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating subject, infuriating prose
Review: I am a big fan of historical fiction, but so far I have given up on finishing this book three times.
The thoughts of Native American characters are presented using a broken English style that in moderation would add flavor to the text, but is so overdone it can hardly be comprehended. For example, proper nouns are not capitalized, which is really frustrating when you have characters with names like 'smells good', 'climbs the hill', etc. running around and you're trying to figure out who is doing what.
The French Canadian sections are not quite as bad (at least the proper nouns are easy to spot!) but the prose is so choppy and sharp that it is hard to wade through it. And it goes on for pages and pages. You don't get just a little taste - it is like this all the time.
As long as I'm ranting, the English characters sometimes go out of their way to use esoteric words that I suppose are intended to add some flavor of the times? Maybe, but I am skeptical. To me it felt like the author was just being pretentious.
Having said all of that, there are some interesting characters and viewpoints in there, and I will probably get back to it again when I hit the bottom of the reading pile... but the thought of this book waiting for me on the night stand has sent me into the bookstore on the way home more than once.
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