I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company

Rating:
Summary: I Was Extremely Happy in this Book's Company
Review: Sometimes I realize at the outset that I'm going to enjoy reading a particular novel. When that happens I like to take my time finishing the book, because I want to savor it; I don't want it to end. In the case of "I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company," I took a very long time to reach the final page.

My knowledge about Lewis and Clark - and the people they encountered before, during and after their epic journey - was broad, but not deep. Certainly I learned much about Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea (Tsakakawia), York, and "Charbono." But this book is so much more than a recitation of events and dates. It is a book that both illuminates and speculates about the lives of extraordinary people.

One complaint from other reviews on amazon.com is about the vulgar nature of some of the language used by Sacajawea and and Charbonneau. I can understand some readers' distate of the words Hall puts in the mouths of these charaters. But I think these words are a completely appropriate way to get under the skin of people whose sensibilities were undoubtedly far different than our own. The somewhat non-linear path the book takes it in telling its stories means squeamish readers can skip those chapters that offend them without doing terrible violence to the flow of the book. But that, in my opinion, would be a silly and sad thing to do.

Others have apparently not enjoyed they way Hall allows Sacajawea to describe her world, a way without using standard rules of English grammer or punctuation. For my part, I found this to be one of the joys of the book, because it was, frankly, novel. It took a little work to catch on to the way Sacajawea used language, and then it became an intriguing, unfolding revelation.

I received far more than I bargined for when I purchased this book (which I first heard about during an interview with the author on National Public Radio, more than a year ago). As Lewis and Clark did for the young United States in filling in blank spaces on a map, so does Hall do to fill in historical spaces left blank about these extraordinary people.

For me, this book was about about many journeys, not just into the interior of North America, but of course into the depths of the human mind, including my own. So there was no choice for me with this book. The farther I traveled with the people in this book, the more time I gave myself to finish the trip. Even so, the journey ended all too soon for me.

Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it!
Review: The average rating of 3-stars on the Amazon display is misleading. Start to scroll through the readers' reviews and you quickly see that each reader either loved it or hated it. My suggestion is borrow a copy or check it out from your local library and read the first four chapters. It should be apparent to you by then as to which camp you will belong.

The author states that his purpose with this historical fiction was to fill in the gaps about the L&C expedition and people involved; at this there is mostly failure. He succeeds in breathing some life into the characters, if previously they were two-dimensional history book names to you. But the more you know about these men and the expedition, the more you can make sense of the book; the reverse is not true.

I read the book as quickly as I could just to finish it and get on with more enjoyable, worthwhile reading. As is said about so many products and services, there is always a group to swear by it and to swear at it!

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: The basic idea of telling the story from different viewpoints is very good. But the iimplementation is terrible. The language used is so forced and sometimes almost unintelligible (eg Sakajawea), that it makes it nearly unreadable. I loved "Undaunted Courage" and had hoped for more insights into this fascinating piece of history. But the author's attempt at "literature" roined this book. I'm sorry I wasted my time and money on it.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautifully Written Historical Novel
Review: This beautifully written historical novel about Lewis and Clark and their extraordinary expedition conveys not just the historical facts of the tale, but also an artist's sense of the emotional and psychological workings of the minds of the main participants in this astounding journey. The author made me realize how a fine novelist is somewhat like an actor who is able to inhabit the mind of a character and convey that character's essence to his audience. To read this book is therefore like making the journey as if the reader were each of the main participants in it. An additional pleasure for me was learning a great deal about the history of this country in this well researched book.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, Wonderful Execution
Review: THIS BOOK IS A SHEER JOY!
The adventures of William Clark and Merriweather Lewis have long been ample fodder for historical prose. Their expedition is probably the most memorable story of "See America First" type travel, and their triumph in exploring an unknown America has been well documented since the Jefferson era. But never has the story been so personal, nor as involving, as Brian Hall's take on their trek.
"I Should Be..." gets its title from Lewis's actual invitation to Clark to join the Corps of Discovery in exploring an uncharted Western America. The novel imagines the dialogue between the men, along with their native guide Sacagawea and Sacagewea's husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and uses the words of the foursome to propel the story from Washington DC to St. Louis, and then through the great Northwest. It removes the tale from the traditional dry narrative type of historical novel, and gives the characters rich, imagined lives that make the expedition almost personal to the reader.
All books of this type rise and fall on the strength of the cast, and Hall has populated his players with the necessary hopes, despairs and neuroses that would go hand in hand with creating a legendary tale. Lewis's grandeur in his mission and Clark's seeming envy at playing #2 in what was described to him as a mission led by equals are among the many plot devices used by Hall to make allready known charecters take on human form. A hysterical and well imagined portion of the book describing the naming of rivers after Lewis and Clark (where Clark gets the short end of the stick) is only one example of how well this story plays out.
Since the book is told in dialogue form, the chapters were Sacagawea describes the journey are difficult (Hall uses a device that blends English and Shoshone that is slightly confusing) but essential to the plot. This is a minor gripe for a book that is revolutionary in its retelling of history.
While everyone is familiar with how the story plays out and ends, there is a coda to the novel that describes Lewis and Clark's lives following the expedition that was new to me. Lewis's post-expedition live was tragic, while Clark became a mainstay of St. Louis society. Taking the book through their post-expedition lives gives Hall a great opportunity to expand on the price of fame and the fall of legends. He hits the mark with eloquence and sincerity.
I had never read anything by Hall prior to this book, so I don't know if the richness of this story could have been foreseen, or if he just got lucky. I will be looking forward to reading some of his other works now, for his talent in bringing character and emotion to one of history's greatest duo was incredibly impressive.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, Wonderful Execution
Review: THIS BOOK IS A SHEER JOY!
The adventures of William Clark and Merriweather Lewis have long been ample fodder for historical prose. Their expedition is probably the most memorable story of "See America First" type travel, and their triumph in exploring an unknown America has been well documented since the Jefferson era. But never has the story been so personal, nor as involving, as Brian Hall's take on their trek.
"I Should Be..." gets its title from Lewis's actual invitation to Clark to join the Corps of Discovery in exploring an uncharted Western America. The novel imagines the dialogue between the men, along with their native guide Sacagawea and Sacagewea's husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and uses the words of the foursome to propel the story from Washington DC to St. Louis, and then through the great Northwest. It removes the tale from the traditional dry narrative type of historical novel, and gives the characters rich, imagined lives that make the expedition almost personal to the reader.
All books of this type rise and fall on the strength of the cast, and Hall has populated his players with the necessary hopes, despairs and neuroses that would go hand in hand with creating a legendary tale. Lewis's grandeur in his mission and Clark's seeming envy at playing #2 in what was described to him as a mission led by equals are among the many plot devices used by Hall to make allready known charecters take on human form. A hysterical and well imagined portion of the book describing the naming of rivers after Lewis and Clark (where Clark gets the short end of the stick) is only one example of how well this story plays out.
Since the book is told in dialogue form, the chapters were Sacagawea describes the journey are difficult (Hall uses a device that blends English and Shoshone that is slightly confusing) but essential to the plot. This is a minor gripe for a book that is revolutionary in its retelling of history.
While everyone is familiar with how the story plays out and ends, there is a coda to the novel that describes Lewis and Clark's lives following the expedition that was new to me. Lewis's post-expedition live was tragic, while Clark became a mainstay of St. Louis society. Taking the book through their post-expedition lives gives Hall a great opportunity to expand on the price of fame and the fall of legends. He hits the mark with eloquence and sincerity.
I had never read anything by Hall prior to this book, so I don't know if the richness of this story could have been foreseen, or if he just got lucky. I will be looking forward to reading some of his other works now, for his talent in bringing character and emotion to one of history's greatest duo was incredibly impressive.

Rating:
Summary: Tracing the Map
Review: Though not necessarily an "easy read," I found this novel rich and rewarding, contrary to the experience of some reviewers here. Author Hall imaginatively recasts the amazing, nation-building "expedition of exploration" of Merriweather Lewis and William Clark. In an adventurous literary conceit, he weaves four voices through the narrative: co-captains Lewis and Clark, native American Sacagawea, and French Trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, finding a unique voice, eyes, and ears, for each guide along our journey. The least compelling, in my opinion, is Charbonneau; perhaps the most is Sacagawea, who probably deserved her own novel. Her passages are sometimes difficult to get through, with their lack of "Western" grammar, capitalized proper nouns, and strange punctuation, but they effectively give voice to the voiceless-despite Sacagawea's profile on the new, gold, one-dollar U.S. coin, little is truly known about her nor many other native Americans who figure in our history.
Lewis' and Clark's narrative voices are more straightforward, though no less compelling. Lewis is a tragic figure, who eventually commits suicide. Hall implies, though does not directly state, a latent homosexuality in Lewis, an unrequited love toward Clark that seems to go beyond the "brotherly" love of soldiers in arms. Clark is more confident and assured and seems to bind the voyage together. As I read the novel, I found myself on the voyage, alongside Hall's quartet, imagined much more effectively than any nonfiction account. It helps to be familiar with the story, as many of the voyage's details are left out or implied.
At the beginning of the bicentennial of this phenomenal voyage, "I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company" makes a great bookmark with Stephen Ambrose's classic nonfiction account, "Undaunted Courage."

Rating:
Summary: Tracing the Map
Review: Though not necessarily an "easy read," I found this novel rich and rewarding, contrary to the experience of some reviewers here. Author Hall imaginatively recasts the amazing, nation-building "expedition of exploration" of Merriweather Lewis and William Clark. In an adventurous literary conceit, he weaves four voices through the narrative: co-captains Lewis and Clark, native American Sacagawea, and French Trader, Toussaint Charbonneau, finding a unique voice, eyes, and ears, for each guide along our journey. The least compelling, in my opinion, is Charbonneau; perhaps the most is Sacagawea, who probably deserved her own novel. Her passages are sometimes difficult to get through, with their lack of "Western" grammar, capitalized proper nouns, and strange punctuation, but they effectively give voice to the voiceless-despite Sacagawea's profile on the new, gold, one-dollar U.S. coin, little is truly known about her nor many other native Americans who figure in our history.
Lewis' and Clark's narrative voices are more straightforward, though no less compelling. Lewis is a tragic figure, who eventually commits suicide. Hall implies, though does not directly state, a latent homosexuality in Lewis, an unrequited love toward Clark that seems to go beyond the "brotherly" love of soldiers in arms. Clark is more confident and assured and seems to bind the voyage together. As I read the novel, I found myself on the voyage, alongside Hall's quartet, imagined much more effectively than any nonfiction account. It helps to be familiar with the story, as many of the voyage's details are left out or implied.
At the beginning of the bicentennial of this phenomenal voyage, "I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company" makes a great bookmark with Stephen Ambrose's classic nonfiction account, "Undaunted Courage."