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ultimatumman's review against another edition
4.0
Not similar and similar to the movie. I've always loved the movie, but the movie material in the book is finished halfway through. Some sections were a little long and some spots too short. Nice summer read.
gma2at's review against another edition
I just couldn't get into this one. It's been on my bed stand for a few weeks now and it's not pulling me in. I got only about 25 pages in and I usually give it 40, but I just couldn't go on.
bupdaddy's review against another edition
4.0
Sure, James Fennimore Cooper has no idea how many people can really fit in a birchbark canoe (he apparently thinks it's upwards of 8), and scenes seem to unfold in areas that are simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive, dark as a cave but light enough to read in, shrouded in waterfall mist but dry. People can emerge from ponds and have their pan and flash pistols work, and as Mark Twain famously notes, Cooper wears out barrels of moccasins using the 'step in the already trod prints so you don't leave a trail' trick.
It's also true Cooper couldn't write 'the dog died' in less than eighty words.
But you know what else? This book rocks. It's intense as the apocalypse, and sometimes his blunt imagery is breathtaking. Here's one of my favorite sentences, as our party has to camp where a massacre has occurred just a few days before, and where Cooper has explicitly told us animals have been feeding on the remains: "...long before the night had turned, they who lay in the bosom of the ruined work, seemed to slumber as heavily as the unconscious multitude whose bones were already beginning to bleach on the surrounding plain."
I mean-BAM! That's a home run.
And we owe this guy a debt of gratitude we can never repay for the rich prejudicial archetypes he blessed our western pulp fiction with...the 'good' noble savage, the 'sneaky' savage, the pure blonde maiden, the wise but doomed darker-haired (and in this book, mixed race - hey Cooper - the 21st century called - props!) sister, and of course Natty Bumpo/Leatherstocking/Hawkeye/le Longue Carabine, the long-haired American Robin Hood who lives outside society and can out-Indian the Indians. Would Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman have had Sully if Cooper hadn't given us Hawkeye first?
It's also true Cooper couldn't write 'the dog died' in less than eighty words.
But you know what else? This book rocks. It's intense as the apocalypse, and sometimes his blunt imagery is breathtaking. Here's one of my favorite sentences, as our party has to camp where a massacre has occurred just a few days before, and where Cooper has explicitly told us animals have been feeding on the remains: "...long before the night had turned, they who lay in the bosom of the ruined work, seemed to slumber as heavily as the unconscious multitude whose bones were already beginning to bleach on the surrounding plain."
I mean-BAM! That's a home run.
And we owe this guy a debt of gratitude we can never repay for the rich prejudicial archetypes he blessed our western pulp fiction with...the 'good' noble savage, the 'sneaky' savage, the pure blonde maiden, the wise but doomed darker-haired (and in this book, mixed race - hey Cooper - the 21st century called - props!) sister, and of course Natty Bumpo/Leatherstocking/Hawkeye/le Longue Carabine, the long-haired American Robin Hood who lives outside society and can out-Indian the Indians. Would Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman have had Sully if Cooper hadn't given us Hawkeye first?
mcdanielca7's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
amibunk's review against another edition
2.0
This is one of the few books that I think the movie is better.
gossamer_lens's review against another edition
3.0
Really boring beginning... But overall good and semi interesting.
colorfulleo92's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. This is one of the most recommend books for me, especially when I said I enjoy Moby Dick. This is described as really exciting and fun adventure, with some violence. I had probably to high hope for this one, I didn't find this exciting, didn't get on with the writing style and thought the characters was to stereotypical. Not a book for me
emilyjoy828's review against another edition
4.0
I wanted to burst into tears at the end of this book.
joelkarpowitz's review against another edition
4.0
Slow going but I liked it. Interesting look at the era through the eyes of the romantics. I think I still prefer the movie, but overall an enjoyable read.