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Little Big Man

Little Big Man

List Price: $16.00
Your Price: $11.20
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
Summary: A terrific read
Review: I remember reading this and being overwhelmed by its energy, its humor and its human feeling. One Amazon reviewer Deborah L. Cohen wrote beautifully about the way Little Big Man parallels Huckleberry Finn in the guilt , shame doubt which comes with favoring the underdog ( in Huck's case Jim, and in Little Big Man's The Indians) over his own native race and people. This book is filled with humor and real human sympathy. It is a terrific read and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A tall tale about a kid who is raised by injuns.
Review: Little Big Man is a great book for a fun read. I had to read it for a class which pressured me to read it in a certain amount of time so I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I had hoped to. However it was still a good book. It gives great factual information about the old West and about the Indians and their fight to keep their homeland, but at the same time it was fun to read because of some of the crazy adventures that Jack takes part in. Over all I gave this book a three because it was decent and yet had excessive detail in some spots.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the finest American novels
Review: Long before Micheal Blake's politically correct tome "Dances With Wolves" gave voice to other side of the American West, Thomas Berger wrote the expertly crafted, humourous, tragic and down right entertaining "Little Big Man". Written in 1965, when it was still fashionable to portray the Native American as a "in the way savage", Berger deftly blended the genres of tall tale and history in a manner that really has yet to be matched.

The character of Jack Crabb is cut of classic cloth. His story may very well be pure hogwash, but it is filled with touching humanity that underpins all the comedy. Berger portrays The Cheyenne people, or the "Human Beings" as possessing many of the same foibles and warts as their European counterparts. They are not painted as noble savages as in Blake's new agey work, but rather as complex characters deserving of respect and honor.

Berger's General Custer is a wry study of madness that somehow avoids cynicism. One of this book's many virtues lies in its ability to lend the Western myth a critical eye, while avoiding the nihilistic pessimism that frequently goes hand in hand with such work (something the film version couldn't avoid).

"Little Big Man" is a must read to all who love good yarns spun with a big heart and a bigger mind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A wonderful book for Old West fans!
Review: Mr. Berger writes a fabulous, highly improbable story -and records an accurately portrayed (for the era), yet extremely readable social account at the same time. All the fascinating characters- how they behave, where they come from, and what happens to them- are closely based on a past reality, and all is sensitively and skillfully portrayed by a very talented amateur historian. Don't care about the history part of the American West? Read it anyway- this book is so much fun!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HUMOR AND HISTORY
Review: Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, when written, was 20 years ahead of its time. What we now take for granted, i.e., US govt (read: white) anhilation of native Americans, Berger presented to us from another perspective: the Indians'. I was about 12 years old when the movie came out and can still remember how it was much discussed at the time. Make no mistake - for all the wit and humor in this story, it is a very serious subject and for its time was very powerful. Imagine the days not so long ago when George Armstrong Custer was a national hero. This book caused rethinking and revision of white treatment of Indians and Indian culture. Mr Berger's use of a fictional character inserted into historical events was a masterful tool. The humor that our narrator, Jack Crabb, uses to get his point across is infectious, his downhome wisdom sage, and his tender heart touching. For those who enjoyed Mr. Crabb's saga, do not miss his return (Return of Little Big Man), as well as another mockumentary character, Harry Flashman, and his historical adventures, courtesy of George McDonald Fraser.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HUMOR AND HISTORY
Review: Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, when written, was 20 years ahead of its time. What we now take for granted, i.e., US govt (read: white) anhilation of native Americans, Berger presented to us from another perspective: the Indians'. I was about 12 years old when the movie came out and can still remember how it was much discussed at the time. Make no mistake - for all the wit and humor in this story, it is a very serious subject and for its time was very powerful. Imagine the days not so long ago when George Armstrong Custer was a national hero. This book caused rethinking and revision of white treatment of Indians and Indian culture. Mr Berger's use of a fictional character inserted into historical events was a masterful tool. The humor that our narrator, Jack Crabb, uses to get his point across is infectious, his downhome wisdom sage, and his tender heart touching. For those who enjoyed Mr. Crabb's saga, do not miss his return (Return of Little Big Man), as well as another mockumentary character, Harry Flashman, and his historical adventures, courtesy of George McDonald Fraser.


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