Smarter people than I have noted that the Captivity Narrative is America’s first indigenous literary genre. For what it’s worth (not much!) I happen to agree. Stories about white men, women, and children taken by the Indians have been told on these shores since long before the United States came into existence. Increase and Cotton Mather often took time off from spreading their particular form of hyper-violent, sexually repressed Puritanism to package the these kinds of tales into religious tracts. Over time, Captivity Narratives have taken many different forms. Sometimes they have a religious message. Other times they’ve been used for propaganda. There are coming-of-age stories (The Son), vengeance stories (Hannah Duston; The Searchers), and the occasional white man who finds his true self among the “savages” (Dances With Wolves). Thomas Berger’s take on the Captivity Narrative, Little Big Man, certainly beats all. There is no clean storytelling arc, even though Captivity Narratives usually come with an arc built-in. There is no overriding theme exploring the vast gulf between cultures, or the cost of revenge, or the price of civilizing a wilderness. This is a shaggy dog story, centered on a 19th century Forrest Gump named Jack Crabb, who somehow finds himself witnessing some of the most famous events of the American West: the Battle of the Solomon Fork; the Washita Massacre; the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Along the way, he scouts for George Custer, irritates Wyatt Earp, and cheats Wild Bill Hickok at cards. Little Big Man’s conceit is that it is the first-person reminisces of 111 year-old Jack Crabb. In the novel’s extremely funny Forward, written by the pompous, hopelessly naïve “Man of Letters” Ralph Fielding Snell, Crabb is found in a nursing home and encouraged to relate his story. He does so in an inimitable voice that segues seamlessly between tragedy and farce, comedy and drama. At some points, it even verges on the profound, usually when Jack is in conversation with Old Lodge Skins, his adopted Cheyenne father: “[I]t is finished now, because what more can you do to an enemy but beat him? Were we fighting red man against red man – the way we used to, because that it a man’s profession, and besides it is enjoyable – it would now be the turn of the other side to whip us. We would fight as hard as ever, and perhaps win again, but they would definitely start with an advantage, because that is the right way. There is no permanent winning or losing when things move, as they should, in a circle. For is not life continuous? And though I shall die, shall I not also continue to live in everything that is?The buffalo eats grass, I eat him, and when I die, the earth eats me and sprouts more grass. Therefore nothing is ever lost, and each thing is everything forever, though all things move.”Jack is ten years-old when he joins the Cheyenne. It is a case of mistaken captivity, which I will not attempt to explain other than to note that it’s one of the cruder farcical aspects of Little Big Man. Over the course of the novel, which begins in the 1850s and ends in 1876, with Custer’s defeat, Jack will leave and return to the Cheyenne several times, though he was “a white man and never forgot it.” Berger’s treatment of the Cheyenne – through the voice of Crabb – is fascinating. It is a far cry from the monolithic, savage portrayal of Indians that dominated popular culture before the revisionist period of Vietnam-era America. But at the same time, this is not an adoring portrait of the Cheyenne. They are not treated as noble freedom fighters or ahead-of-their-times environmentalists. Rather, they are treated as a collection of individuals with their own traditions and mores (this seems like an obvious goal for a writer, but clichés and stereotypes are so much easier). Crabb’s voice is stripped of piety and political correctness. He is blunt in his criticisms and critiques, of which he has many. In other words, Berger has managed to imbue Crabb with an authentic voice. Crabb sounds like a progressive, open-minded man of the 19th century. This is to say, he is progressive, but relative to his peers. Because Little Big Man is anecdotal, it depends on its big set pieces. Its success is its ability to recreate historical events with the Jack Crabb twist. The massacre of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne at the Washita, for instance, is masterful. It begins with Jack suddenly finding himself in a polygamous marriage – a sequence that is subtly played for the obvious laughs. Following that interlude, Jack plunges us into the horror and chaos of a dawn cavalry charge. The two sequences are jarring in exactly the way that life is jarring. Any mention of this novel (published in 1964) must contend with the 1970 film version directed by Arthur Penn and starring Dustin Hoffman. It is a great movie, but it is far broader in its characterizations, especially that of Custer. The novel is deeper, richer, and more rounded. Custer is still a fool verging on being a madman, but Crabb comes to have an odd sort of respect for him. Other historical figures are also given an illuminating light. Berger’s Hickok, for example, is mesmerizing. An accomplished killer who is trapped inside his own reputation, always with his back to a wall, nervous and afraid, warily on the lookout for the next man who’s going to try to kill him.Little Big Man apparently made a mild splash when it first debuted. Since then, undoubtedly helped by the movie, the novel has grown in esteem. The American West is the going-place for understanding America. The promise of the western frontier is at the root of all our national myths: independence, freedom, upward mobility. It is no surprise that so many classic works of literature spring from this fertile ground. Little Big Man is certainly a classic. When Berger died this past summer, this was his monument, the first line in his obituary. However, it is a hard book to pin down. It is revisionist in that it gives Indians a voice; in that it puts a human face on gold-plated legends; and in that it subverts many hoary tropes (among them, the Captivity Narrative itself). At the same time, because of the uniqueness of Jack Crabb’s perspective, Little Big Man never draws attention to its revisionism. It isn’t preachy in the way that other revisionist works can get preachy. Little Big Man’s greatness comes from its ability to recalibrate American history but still remain utterly American. Big and sweeping and full of impossible characters. A Twain-like epic of lies, all told with a grin.
I don’t know where all the Westerns have gone, but I miss them even more after reading this book. I miss that last great American frontier and all the freedom and foreigness it held. I miss it all the more so now that we Americans have seemingly abandoned that “last frontier” of outer space in the face of intractable partisan bickering and the banal reality of our broken economic system. It is a sad day indeed when the last great spokesman for the once-mighty U.S. Space Program is Newt Gingrich. Anyway, this book depicts the American West in a much more nuanced way than any book or movie to which I have been previously privy. The narrator is an old man of questionable moral fiber and possibly dubious veracity who is reminiscing about his long-past adventures in the West. He describes the recklessness of the pioneers heading out into the wild with very little grasp of the dangers they might encounter and only the sketchiest of ideas as to their plans if they reach their intended destinations. He recounts the random establishment of great cities founded on faded memories of gold dust and broken promises of riches. He meets all the Western archetypes: the dirt farmers, teamsters, shysters, hucksters, preachers, whores, gun-fighters, railroad coolies and freed slaves. Some of them are famous, like Wild Bill Hickok, or infamous, like General G.A. Custer, but most of them are the central casting extras who actually built the West.The most interesting characters by far are the Indians (I refuse to call them “Native Americas” for numerous reasons including, but not limited to, my advanced age, general irascibility and the fact that they were not “native” and rather only the first ones here). While most Westerns either depict Indians as noble savages or bloodthirsty murderers, this book makes clear that, just like Anglos, there were both good and bad members of their race. What made them uniformly different than the American interlopers they encountered was their completely different world view. Distilled to its bare essence, the difference is that white men are concerned with what “should be” and Indians are only concerned with “what is.” That simple difference explains all the tragedy which befell the Indians and the eventual triumph of the U.S.A.The best character in the book by far (which is really saying something because this book overflows with amazingly complex and varied figures) is an old Indian chief who appears throughout the entire narrative at the most interesting moments. His dialogue matches the best which HBO’s Deadwood ever had to offer, but never descends into the cryptic New Age mumbo jumbo which I find so annoying. He is a timeless presence and infinitely wise, but never rises to the ranks of greatness among his own people because of his inability to keep his hands off other Chiefs' women, which is what I loved about this book. It is full of Shakespearian tragedy, horrific barbarity and deep philosophizing, but it never stops being action packed, funny and endearing. In short, it is everything which I ever imagined the West to be: a real place, with real disappointment and problems, but also with real promise and all the pleasures of life. This book is, for me, everything which Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian was so disappointingly not, with its pervasive darkness, absence of humor, lack of any likeable characters and impenetrable symbolism. I highly recommend it.
What do You think about Little Big Man (1999)?
Sometimes a book is a good friend. Not "like" a good friend. An actual friend. You open your eyes in the morning and you remember that it is there, your friend, and you know you'll get through. This book was a good friend. Maybe it was Jack Crabb's (the narrator) unique, funny, irreverent, wise, one-hundred and eleven-year-old voice that sparked the friendship and kept it going. For a few days there, I sat next to Jack, by A fireside, listening to stories about his life growing up with the Cheyenne, about gold mines, poker games, gun fighters, Custer's battles. Or maybe it was Berger's respect for courage in its different colors, shapes and sizes that sealed our bond. It could have been the book's touch - you know, not heavy, but substantial. Light but not silly. Comforting but challenging. Inspiring. Giving you strength and humor. How hard is that find? As hard as a good friend.
—Francisco
Had thought this one could be quite heavy going which is why I had never read it before - thought that it was just about a boy brought up by the Cheyenne but actually the lead character switches between living with the Cheyenne tribe and living as a cowboy/frontiersman and comes across all sorts of famous people from the era. So the book becomes a very readable novelisation of the history of the American West and fascinating in its detail of the Cheyenne way of life - parts of it are also very amusing ! Highly recommended for anyone interested in this subject and an easy and very enjoyable read.
—Stephen
Thomas Berger is a serious storyteller. His novel, "Little Big Man," was both an excellent novel and movie starring Dustin Hoffman.In the story, we read the reminiscences of Jack Crabb, plainsman who dictated the story when he was age one hundred and eleven.Jack Crabb was captured by Cheyenne Indians and raised by them after they massacre the members of Jack's family's wagon train. In a humorous manner, he describes being raised by the Indians and meeting many famous people that populated the west. He is the narrator who stands apart when Indians are being massacred by Union Cavalry, when the Civil War occurs and in great detail, the Battle of Little Bighorn where Gen. George Armstrong Custer met his end.Jack returns to white people after a battle between soldiers and the Cheyenne. He marries a blond haired German named Olga, and they have a son, Gus. After a time of happiness, another raid kills people around Jake but Olga and Gus are taken by the Indians.In one humorous and entertaining segment, Jack assumes that Olga and Gus are lost and marries an Indian named Sunshine. They have a son and come to believe that a child should be able to choose their own name. While out walking, their son made a motion toward a certain scene and was given the name, Frog Lying on a Hillside.Jack meets and befriends such famous historical figures as Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp.He also details the last days of Gen. Custer and the Company G of the 7th Cavalry.Jack also meets a bar girl who introduces her to a younger woman who worked at the bar. She convinces him that she is his niece and he sends her to a school for young ladies and marries a wealthy man.I enjoyed the reading and was sorry to see the story conclude.
—Michael
