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A review by book_concierge
Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
4.0
Audible Audio performed by David Aaron Baker, Scott Sowers, and Henry Strozier.
3.5***, rounded up
Berger’s novel purports to be a memoir/autobiography of Jack Crabb, written with the help of ghost writer Ralph Snell. “Snell” opens the prologue thus: It was my privilege to know the late Jack Crabb – frontiersman, Indian scout, gunfighter, buffalo hunter, adopted Cheyenne – in his final days upon this earth. He goes on to relate how he learned of the reportedly 111-year-old man living in a nursing home, who claimed to be an eyewitness to Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The bulk of the novel is Crabb’s first-person account is life experiences from about 1852 to 1876. Snell then returns in an epilogue to explain that Crabb died shortly after relating that last chapter (Little Bighorn), and he regrets that he was unable to learn more of Crabb’s many exploits through the decades.
I was completely entertained by this novel of the American West. Berger gives the reader quite the raconteur in Crabb, with a gift for story-telling and colorful language. By the narrator’s own account, he certainly has a gift for landing on his feet, managing to get out of more than one potentially deadly scrape by his wits or sheer dumb luck. As he grows from boyhood Crabb is kidnapped / adopted by a Cheyenne tribe, taken in and sheltered by a minister and his wife, “works” as a gambler and gunfighter, hunts buffalo, marries a Scandinavian woman who speaks limited English, and eventually becomes a scout for George Armstrong Custer, thereby witnessing the US Army’s defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Along the way he rejoins the Cheyenne tribe numerous times, listening to the advice of Old Lodge Skins, and relating much of the culture and traditions of that Native tribe, as well as what life was like for the European settlers during that time period.
If the scenarios stretch credulity, well that is part of the fun. We have always looked on the American West with a sort of awe and wonder, elevating many of the historical figures to the level of superhuman legends. Berger sprinkles Crabb’s recollections with a number of these people: Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp and Custer, among others.
In the epilogue Snell writes ”I leave the choice in your capable hands. Jack Crabb was either the most neglected hero in the history of this country or a liar of insane proportions.. It’s fun to imagine that some “Everyman” did witness so much history first hand. His exploits could easily be the inspiration for “Forest Gump.”
The audiobook is performed by a talented trio: David Aaron Baker, Scott Sowers, and Henry Strozier. I do not know which narrated which sections, but they were all good.
3.5***, rounded up
Berger’s novel purports to be a memoir/autobiography of Jack Crabb, written with the help of ghost writer Ralph Snell. “Snell” opens the prologue thus: It was my privilege to know the late Jack Crabb – frontiersman, Indian scout, gunfighter, buffalo hunter, adopted Cheyenne – in his final days upon this earth. He goes on to relate how he learned of the reportedly 111-year-old man living in a nursing home, who claimed to be an eyewitness to Custer’s Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The bulk of the novel is Crabb’s first-person account is life experiences from about 1852 to 1876. Snell then returns in an epilogue to explain that Crabb died shortly after relating that last chapter (Little Bighorn), and he regrets that he was unable to learn more of Crabb’s many exploits through the decades.
I was completely entertained by this novel of the American West. Berger gives the reader quite the raconteur in Crabb, with a gift for story-telling and colorful language. By the narrator’s own account, he certainly has a gift for landing on his feet, managing to get out of more than one potentially deadly scrape by his wits or sheer dumb luck. As he grows from boyhood Crabb is kidnapped / adopted by a Cheyenne tribe, taken in and sheltered by a minister and his wife, “works” as a gambler and gunfighter, hunts buffalo, marries a Scandinavian woman who speaks limited English, and eventually becomes a scout for George Armstrong Custer, thereby witnessing the US Army’s defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Along the way he rejoins the Cheyenne tribe numerous times, listening to the advice of Old Lodge Skins, and relating much of the culture and traditions of that Native tribe, as well as what life was like for the European settlers during that time period.
If the scenarios stretch credulity, well that is part of the fun. We have always looked on the American West with a sort of awe and wonder, elevating many of the historical figures to the level of superhuman legends. Berger sprinkles Crabb’s recollections with a number of these people: Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp and Custer, among others.
In the epilogue Snell writes ”I leave the choice in your capable hands. Jack Crabb was either the most neglected hero in the history of this country or a liar of insane proportions.. It’s fun to imagine that some “Everyman” did witness so much history first hand. His exploits could easily be the inspiration for “Forest Gump.”
The audiobook is performed by a talented trio: David Aaron Baker, Scott Sowers, and Henry Strozier. I do not know which narrated which sections, but they were all good.