Comment

Aug 27, 2015wyenotgo rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
I didn't really begin to appreciate this book until I was nearly 300 pages into it; fortunately, I stuck with it and was rewarded with what in the end turned out to be a great story. My difficulty in the beginning was Vanderhaeghe's method of relating the story -- by constantly changing narrators from one character to another. It's impossible to determine who the real central character is. Virtually every one of his main characters has a few turns at it and I found it difficult to really latch onto any of them, since they would just get started relating the story from their point of view when they would leave the scene for a while and the reader was presented with a completely different perspective. It was sort of like a play made up of an endless series of soliloquys but hardly any real dialogue. Although the tale centres around the three Gaunt brothers, with all of their individual (and less than endearing) personalities, it's the secondary characters such as Lucy and Custis who really add depth and dimension. An account of an idle, spoiled, religious zealot who sets out to "save the red Indian" or one who embarks upon an expedition across the North American frontier, with a flunkey journalist in tow to record his adventures may remind one of why Englishmen abroad have often been so cordially detested but it would hardly make for an interesting read. The problematic position of "half-breeds" like Jetty Potts also greatly enriches the story, along with wonderfully detailed local colour and touches of humour. Fiunally, I must mention the author's tremendous skill in the use of descriptive language, which raises the level of the book to a work of prose.