Little Big Man: A Novel

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 truly talented amateur historian. Don't care about the history part of the American West? Read it anyway- this book is so much fun!

Loved the book and its attention to historical detail. Jack's laconic narrative is both funny and brutal. I would recommend this one to any American history buff or someone looking for a good, long read...

Thomas Berger's most famous book, a novel firmly ensconced in the picaresque tradition, may well be one of the longest Western tall tales ever written (and there's a sequel!), featuring the most longwinded frontiersman in the history of American literature. At its best, Berger owes much to Cooper and less to Twain and otherwise to the many historical and anthropological sources he consulted. Even Walt Whitman, in his guise as a nurse in love with a drummer boy, gets an unlikely two-paragraph cameo ("I ain't going to mention [his name], for he got quite a reputation in later times for his robustious verse, some fellow told me once"). The concoction is both episodic and epic, and the adventures of anti-hero Jack Crabb make up a considerable and compulsively readable yarn, beginning with his boyhood kidnapping by a Cheyenne tribe through a lifetime of allegiances alternating between Indian warriors and white frontiersmen, punctuated by run-ins with the likes of Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Chief Black Kettle, George Custer, and any number of women claiming to be Calamity Jane.

Given Berger's imaginative and deliberately ludicrous storyline, it's disappointing how predictable and repetitious much of the plot is. Twists and secrets are so ham-fistedly veiled that what Crabb divulges as if they were surprises or revelations are anticipated pages and chapters in advance. Adding to the obviousness, Berger seldom passes up a chance to rustle up a supposedly forgotten character or long-lost relative at a convenient (or inconvenient) pass. Similarly, the humor is not the sort that sneaks up on you unexpectedly; rarely deadpan, Berger's comedy has all the subtlety of a tomahawk employed in a full-frontal assault. Much of it is the kind of knee-slapping, countrified corn those of us old enough to remember "Hee-Haw" will recall. "If he ever would introduce a drop of water to his face, he might have come out fairly good-looking"--cute enough, but that's about as good as it gets. I found myself rolling my eyes far more often than I was chuckling.

Then, too, the colloquial patter employed by Jack Crabb seems artificial and flat. He "talks" in a semi-drawling voice many Easterners probably imagine when they conjure up a cowboy with a college degree, or at least the kind of prairie poke who knows how to toss around his god-given share of colloquialisms, with a few ten-dollar words thrown in for good measure. To account for this oddly bookish lack of tonality, Berger frames his account with a fictional scholar who says he cleaned up the old-timer's prose to make it more palatable to readers' tastes--but this metafictional ploy can seem a cop-out rather than a cleverly ironic technique. In an introduction to the latest paperback edition, literary scholar Brooks Landon argues that this dissonance is intentional, that the "vernacular ring" of Crabb's prairie-talk masks "the sophistication of the Jack's narrative technique"; I would suggest it's the other way around, but either way strikes me as an excuse rather than an explanation for the prose style. Berger certainly doesn't expect you to trust most everything Jack Crabb says, but I was unable to believe even in how he said it.

Berger leaves open the question of whether Crabb is an unsung hero or "a liar of insane proportions." Which, if you think about it, raises the question: who is really spinning the tale we're reading: Jack Crabb or the "man of letters" Ralph Fielding Snell? And: what's the point of a literary hoax if it's transparently incredible? Furthermore: are we expected to appreciate the inescapable paradox that the entire "transcription" couldn't convincingly be read aloud by anyone? Such questions suggest the issues I have with this exercise: where some readers see irony or ambiguity or even parody, I see a lack of rigor in the novel's prose and its themes. The preposterous plot and the stylistic excesses require a suspension of belief I was never able to achieve. (And, I'll admit, the same could be said about most picaresque novels, including more recent fare such as Umberto Eco's "Baudolino.") It may be a fun read at times, but a 450-page caricature (and a sequel!) is an awfully long endurance test for a story so calculated in its telling, gaudy in its humor, scattered in its satirical aims, plodding in its postmodern winking. Nevertheless, one has to acknowledge that the book's panoramic sweep and the everywhereness of its polymorphic narrator will continue to appeal to many readers, especially those who enjoy Western epics and historical fiction.

I grew up in Montana hearing about Custer and the Little Bighorn. I saw the movie of this novel when it came out in 1970, but didn't realize how much I was missing. Berger's novel conveys far more of Jack Crabb's wry attitude towards Indians and whites alike. You get much better character sketches, and e story is fleshed out a little more. These touches keep you reading until the end, even though you know the broad historical strokes.

You end up wishing you could talk to Jack Crabb yourself about how the West changed, over and least a few beers. Berger makes Custer, Wild Bill Hickok who died over aces and eights, and other historical characters step out of dusty books and come alive.

Highly recommended.

Seeing a recent TV broadcast of the 1970 film adapted from this book reminded me how much I enjoyed reading the novel almost 50 years ago. The good news is that I found it just as entertaining and thought provoking today, which is not always true of the books that I liked when I was younger.

Most older folks probably already know the basic plot, even if only from viewing the movie, which was a box office success. The narrator is 111-year-old Jack Crabb, telling the story of his younger self: of his capture at age 10 by the Cheyenne Indians; of his raising as the adopted son of a chief; of his return to the white world and endeavors as a shop keeper, buffalo hunter, gambler, and mule skinner; and finally, of his being the only white survivor of Custer's battle at the Little Big Horn. While jumping from one incident to the next in a picaresque manner and being generally ironically humorous, the novel is also historically accurate as to the details of life in the Old West, based as it is on extensive research. It is, of course, highly improbable that one person could have been present at so many significant events and have known so many noteworthy people, but that is of little matter because Jack is more than believable as an interpreter of the real story of the West, as opposed to the myth.

The thought-provoking aspect comes from Jack's situation as a member of both the Indian and the white world. Through his eyes we can better understand the values and ideas of both groups. It seemingly became inevitable that one viewpoint had to prevail, because the two peoples saw life in such different terms. Neither was all right or all wrong, but obviously someone had to change for co-existence to be possible.

I would go so far as to say that this is the best book ever written about the white man versus Indian problems in the Old West. Little Big Man is one of those under-recognized novels which deserves a place among the classics of American literature.

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.