That was all, unless you counted the way he had felt about living and the fun he had had while time ran along unnoticed. It had been rich doings, except that he wondered at the last, seeing everything behind him and nothing ahead. It was strange about time: it slipped under a man like quiet water, soft and unheeded but taking a part of him with every drop - a little quickness of the muscles, a little sharpness of the eye, a little of his youngness, until by and by he found it had taken the best of him almost unbeknownst.
He wanted to fight it then, to hold it back, to catch what had been borne away. It wasn't that he minded going under, it wasn't that he was afraid to die and rot and forget and be forgotten; it was that things were lost to him more and more - the happy feeling, the strong doing, the fresh taste for things like drink and women and danger, the friends he had fought and funned with, the notion that each new day would be better than the last, good as the last one was.
A man's later life was all a long losing, of friends and fun and hope, until at last time took the mite that was left of him and so closed the score. Manly, yes, but I liked it, too. View all 7 comments. It wasn't quite sunup when Boone awakened, hearing the sharp chirp of a winter bird that spring was giving a voice to. The others were sleeping, except for Summers who was sitting up and shivering a little. Poordevil was snoring a kind of whistling snore, as if the gap in his teeth gave a special "The days were gone when a man could sleep as long as he wanted and get up lazy and eat some meat and lie down again, glad for warmth and a full stomach and even the ice that put the beaver out of reach.
Poordevil was snoring a kind of whistling snore, as if the gap in his teeth gave a special sound to it. Every time the bird cheeped, he would stop and then start in again, maybe getting the cheep mixed up in his dreams". View 2 comments. Aug 03, Lorna rated it it was amazing Shelves: american-west. The Big Sky by A. And of course, Teal Eyes. This was an amazing book beginning in Kentucky then traversing the Missouri River from St. Louis to the beautiful Rocky Mountains exploring big and wild places in the early and unexplored west.
As I read this book, I found myself referring frequently back to the map that plotted their journey with all of the key events along the way as I tried to imagine life in that time. Part of me just would love to mount a horse and ride off into the sunset! It was a lovely introduction to this book to have the Foreward written by Wallace Stegner that I think says it all: "A.
Guthrie's 'The Big Sky' does not belie its title. It is a novel lived entirely in the open. The big wild places are both its setting and its theme, and everything about this book is as big as the country it moves in. The story sweeps westward from Kentucky to St.
Louis and up the interminable Missouri through Omaha and Pawnee country, past Ree and Sioux country, into Stoney and Big Belley and Blackfoot country, and there, riding on the boil of its own excitement, it waits out its climax.
Bigness, distance, wildness, freedom, are the dream that pulls Boone Caudill westward into the mountains, and the dream has an incandescence in the novel because it is also the dream that Bud Guthrie grew up on. View all 14 comments. Aug 26, Jessaka rated it it was amazing Shelves: western.
A Wayfaring Stranger Kentucky. Boone, age 17, saw his drunken father coming at him again. He had had enough beatings over the years. He picked up a piece of firewood and wacked him hard across the head with it. His father lay unconscious on the ground. He ran into the house and began packing. He even took his Indian scalp, maybe for good luck. Telling his mother goodbye, he began walking, staying out of sight of anyone who could later identify him, for he believed that if his father, if alive, would come after him, if not, either way, the law would.
Seeing a man in the woods, he ducked out of sight. The lawman had seen him and took note to remember what he looked like because he was suspicious of anyone who did not wish to be seen. Boone met with trouble. Along the way Boone met and made friends with a man named Jim. They became very close. Jim even helped Boone get out of trouble a few times. They traveled together and joined some Creole fur traders as by boat on the river. For Boone, the past was getting further behind.
Meeting up with more trouble, Boone and Jim went on alone. Next, they met a Blackfoot man named Poor Devil. Poor Devil had just walked into their camp with an offering, a slain antelope. Now, he was to travel with them.
They went the big Rendezvous, a gathering of the mountain men, the selling of their furs, the partying, the sharing of clap, all that good stuff. The men they met were vulgar and one wanted to kill Poor Devil. Another wanted a city woman with her perfume instead of the Indian women that he had been sleeping with that smelled like grease and smoke from the campfires. I thought of how it must be to sleep with any one of the men, how they must smell like maggot- laden garbage from never bathing.
Of course, they were not looking for romance. I believe I read somewhere that perfume was invented to cover up body odor. So, with perfume, you have two stinks instead of one. Moving on. Boone spotted a buffalo, took up his rifle, aimed and fired. The buffalo looked like he was stunned, then fell to the ground. I closed my eyes and put the book down while fighting back tears.
The buffalo did not know what was happening. As they fell to the ground, other buffalos began surrounding the fallen to see what was wrong. They came upon an Indian village. The Blackfeet were all dead. The heartless white man had left his mark on purpose.
And in every village that they came upon, there were no survivors. He was just sitting on the ground. They approached him carefully, and after gaining his trust, they helped him as best they could. I thought of him often after they left him there. Boone asked after a certain woman, a Blackfoot that he loved. The old man told him where he might find her if she were still alive. Leaving the old man, Jim and Boone went searching for her.
And I was right; it was a horrible idea. Origen unknown Note: Beautifully written. A ten-star read. I am a fan. Jan 06, Bobbi rated it it was amazing Shelves: five-stars , pulitzer , historical-fiction-west. It was written in but doesn't get read much any more. A shame. Guthrie was appalled by the Western cowboy books that were being written.
He wanted to write a novel that followed some of the first men to live in the harsh, lonely environment of the West. His work was carefully drawn from historical sources, journals, diaries, and numerous trips to the area. The characters in The Big Sky were not romanticized; mountain men were "hardened, cold and brutal people and their heroism was hidden within tedious, dirty, dangerous or even squalid events.
He left his Kentucky home at 17, fleeing an abusive father, and spent years crisscrossing the West. He was a trapper, a hunter, a loner, spending most of his time by himself or with one or two friends.
Eventually he finds a Blackfoot squaw with whom he settles down for a time, but ends up leaving. Guthrie's prose is wonderful and you can feel the beauty as well as the dangers of the landscape. It filled him full; it blew into him through his eyes and nose and mouth and drove through his skin.
It was something he didn't feel alone or hear alone but that he knew in every part of him as a man swimming would know the water. It's what we've all felt at one time or another, that, by our presence, we've destroyed the beauty which drew us there. This is a book that each generation should read again. View all 3 comments. Dec 03, Tara Rock rated it it was amazing. Truly a western Masterpiece.
There was never an inclination to skip over those descriptive portions as they were majestic and so very vivid, bringing as much, if not more, to the story as did the endearing characters. Highly recommend. The central character of the book is actually the unspoiled wilderness, which is lovingly described throughout the book by Guthrie, a Nieman Fellow from Harvard, who grew up in Teton County, Montana listening to the stories of local cowpokes and dreaming of days gone by.
The frequent use of the "n-word" may be shocking, but appears to be accurately portrayed as a self-referential part of mountain man jargon. Apr 25, Sue K H rated it liked it Shelves: unread-bookshelf. Boone Caudill was a man, a very bland man. Luckily he had some friends I could stand. Boone was tortured and volatile which could have had the makings for a great character. I was excited to see where it would go but the trip up the Missouri River was at times more arduous for me than it was for them.
I wanted to glide downstream to civilization even if I could be robbed, beaten, and thrown in jail by a backward system. I can understand why people love this so I couldn't bring myself to g Boone Caudill was a man, a very bland man.
I can understand why people love this so I couldn't bring myself to give it less than 3 stars. I know it was a groundbreaking book and it paved the way for authors like Wallace Stenger and Larry McMurtry.
If I hadn't recently fallen head over heels for Lonesome Dove and Angle of Repose , maybe I would have liked this better. Lonesome Dove excelled at the fast pace driving narrative and character development whereas Angle of Repose had gorgeous prose and contemplative brilliance. The Big Sky couldn't match those, but where it mostly fell short for me was in the character development. The novel's strengths were its landscape descriptions and the contemplative passages that were in the voice of Dick Summers and Jim Deakins.
If either of them were the central character instead of Boone Caudill, I'd probably have liked this a lot more. There is one point where Dick Summers beautifully describes the first time he saw Jackson's Hole and the Grand Teton and then compares it to the current time: "It was all in the way a man thought, though the way a young man thought.
When the blood was strong and the heat high a body felt the earth was newborn like himself; but when he got some years on him he knew different; down deep in his bones he understood that everything was old, old as time, maybe - so old he wondered what folks had been on it before the Indians themselves, following up the waters and pitching their lodges on who had gone before. It made a man feel old himself to know that younger ones coming along would believe the world was new, just as he had done, just as Boone and Jim were doing, though not so strong any more.
I love hearing stories about how people overcame obstacles, worked hard, and managed great things with little resources.
I should have loved this, but there were too many parts that either bored me or felt inauthentic, especially when it came to Teal Eye. Then the ending made me so mad, that I refused to read the last 44 pages.
It wasn't passionate anger of beloved character being wronged, it was the disgusted-type anger that thinks "come on. I'm reading The Way West next month. I believe it focuses on Dick Summers who was my favorite of the three main men.
That leaves me hopeful that I will like the second installment much better. I also haven't been in the best of moods lately so that could have contributed to not being able to bond with this book. View all 12 comments. Jun 02, Lori Keeton rated it it was amazing Shelves: 5-stars , cultural , adventure , american-west , own-it , historical-fiction , favorites , reads , western , indians.
This is an adventure story as well as a love story. We are taken up the Missouri River on a keelboat and through the mountains and valleys hunting buffalo, trapping beaver and fighting Indians with these men. We witness their bonding and their mischief as well as their savagery and their violence. It is quite evident that he was witness to the beauty of the mountains and valleys he writes about so well. This is a novel that takes place out of doors and you definitely feel that openness and wide expanse of the plains as well as the breathtaking beauty of the mountains and valleys.
From the top, Boone could see forever and ever, nearly any way he looked. It spread away, flat now and then rolling, going on clear to the sky. It occurred to Boone that this was the way a bird must feel, free and loose, with the world to choose from. Boone Caudill is a restless and angry young man who leaves his Kentucky home fueled by an abusive situation with his father. The only thing that makes him happy is being out in the open in the wilderness.
There was the sky above, blue as paint, and the brown earth rolling underneath, and himself between them with a free, wild feeling in his chest, as if they were the ceiling and floor of a home that was all his own. Whiskey and squaws become a way of life as well as killing buffalo and trapping beaver while at the same time taking scalps and trying to keep his own. He is a man more comfortable in the world of the Blackfeet than the white man.
He makes an ultimate decision that alters him forever and questions whether or not Boone, the mountain man, has a future.
They travel together learning the mountain man ways and becoming well versed in the lessons they receive from their mentor, Dick Summers. Jim is the social one, who needs to have interaction with others and to have fun. He looks forward to the Rendezvous where he can experience a civilized way for a time before returning to the wilderness.
Dick is older and has been able to keep one foot in the wilderness and one in a future settling down and planting roots. These men see their livelihood changing with the depletion of the buffalo and the beaver as well as the sickness that wipes out many Indian tribes altogether.
While Dick realizes the need for change himself, it is Boone who holds on to the extinct way of life that he loves. But new times are a-coming now, and new people, a heap of them, and wheels rolling over the passes, carrying greenhorns and women and maybe children, too, and plows. Jun 06, robin friedman rated it it was amazing. Loneliness And Freedom In The Old West The genre of the American Western has had a long history through dime and pulp novels and magazines, radio, television, and film, and novels and stories.
Although much of the genre deals in stereotypes, many Westerns are thoughtful and imaginative, including A. Guthrie's novel, "The Big Sky". Guthrie -- wrote a series of six novels on the settlement of the Montana territory of which "The Big Sky" is the first chronologically and in the ord Loneliness And Freedom In The Old West The genre of the American Western has had a long history through dime and pulp novels and magazines, radio, television, and film, and novels and stories.
Guthrie -- wrote a series of six novels on the settlement of the Montana territory of which "The Big Sky" is the first chronologically and in the order of writing. It is a many-layered work in its themes and characterizations. The book cuts against many stereotypes of the West; and it cuts as well against current standards and thinking, both those of today and, to a degree, those when the book was written.
Today's readers will want to reject the racist language of the book, most of which is in dialogue sections. There is much to be thought about and enjoyed in this book which will challenge and inspire a sympathetic reader. The primary character, Boone Caudill, receives a complex portrayal as both anti-hero and hero.
At the age of 17, Boone runs away from his poor farming family and from his abusive father to seek a life of freedom as a trapper in the West.
Boone is a violent, unsociable loner and killer. He is portrayed realistically and sharply and in many sections of the book it is difficult to feel sympathy for him. Yet, Boone also is shown as living his own life and pursuing his dreams within his own lights in a manner given to few people. The other two major characters in the book are also mountain men.
Jim Deakins, in his mids, is good-natured and reflective. He becomes Boone's companion early in the story as the two head for the West. Dick Summers, a middle-aged mountain man, serves as mentor to Caudill and Deakins. Summers has had extensive experience in the West but he also has a stake in a more conventional society in his attitude and in his ownership of a small Missouri farm. The book follows the adventures and changing fortunes of Caudill, Deakins, and Summers, as they journey miles on the Missouri River on a keelboat and as they pursue the wild life of freedom in the Montana territory.
The novel is stunning in its descriptions of the river and of the large lonely places, mountains, wildlife, and seasons of the West. The book is realistic in that the author makes clear the anti-social, to say the least, characters of the individuals who would choose to pursue and who excel in such a life. The characters are violent and mean in many respects and their life is hard, fragmented and lonely. The book offers an extended and on the whole sympathetic portrayal of the Indian tribes and of their battle with the weapons of the white settlers and with their illnesses of smallpox, alcoholism, and venereal disease.
The primary Indian character is a beautiful young woman, Teal Eye, with whom Boone falls in love. With its violence and realism, "The Big Sky" is still strongly romantic. The author is clearly in love with place and has a nostalgia for a wildness which even in the late s was fast disappearing. He also shares a love for his characters and for their quest for freedom which he contrasts with the life of suits and ties in jobs which lack feeling and in lives which lack passion.
In many ways, the book is with Boone and his companions while recognizing their large weaknesses. In addition to its elements as a history, the book is a reflection on the nature of certain concepts of freedom and individualism which still retain their power to move people's minds and hearts.
To my mind, the book probes these questions more convincingly than some more modern, much praised novels such as Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom".
The book also includes a great deal of theological reflection offered by Jim Deakins which fits in well and enhances the context of this story of the old West and of freedom. The predominant tone is of secularism and humanism.
Contemporary readers will struggle with the racist language of this book and with its ideas of freedom, individuality and sex which probably will not be entirely their own. It is a virtue in a book to make the reader think and to see different perspectives, whether the perspectives come from the past or from the future. I enjoyed this Western with the grandeur of its portrait of the West and with its portrayals of a rare, flawed and wild way of life. This is a book for reflective readers of American literature and for lovers of the West.
Robin Friedman Dec 04, Tim rated it really liked it. I want to go to big sky country and I want to do it on horseback and I want to trap beaver and I want to hunt buffalo for food and shelter and I want to trade with Native Americans and I want it to be the 's Shelves: ultimate-reading-list , historical-fiction , westerns , fiction , novels.
I tried--truly I did. Guthrie is a Pulitzer Prize winner and this has been called his masterpiece. It's not badly written by any means, quite the contrary, but this is one of those books I find way too dark in terms of the characters--and I say that as someone that loved The Color Purple and The Kite Runner. But then, both those novels have very appealing protagonists you can root for, here the major character never seemed anything but despicable, not simply just a scoundrel like in Little Big M I tried--truly I did.
But then, both those novels have very appealing protagonists you can root for, here the major character never seemed anything but despicable, not simply just a scoundrel like in Little Big Man , and this novel lacks the leavening humor of that one. Set on the American frontier from to , this novel is centered on Boone Caudill, who the introduction tells us, is destined to become a savage "mountain man.
He leaves home at seventeen after punching out his abusive father and stealing his prize rifle, and his even more cherished razor strop--made from an Indian's scalp. Before he's eighteen he'll be collecting his own Indian scalps--and will have contracted "the clap" from a prostitute. Moreover, well more than half-way through the novel, the only female character of note, Teal Eye, a blackfoot tribe member, is practically mute. And the stereotypical, wince-worthy depiction of Native Americans didn't help, even if I make allowances for the filter of the white characters' perspective and that contemporary views might be overly romanticized.
I mean, "heap? Also, the narrative is frequently punctuated with the word "nigger. It's rarely if ever used to even refer to blacks--apparently the "mountain men" often use it to refer to themselves. But it's one aspect of the novel that made this a tiresome and unpleasant read for me. There's not one character that engaged my sympathy or interest. Those who care far less about characters being likeable and have more tolerance for brutality and graphic violence might find this more enjoyable.
View 1 comment. May 13, Adrian White rated it it was amazing. An absolute classic of the American West. A flawed hero; an epic quest; a doomed love story. Violence, escape, redemption, survival. Without this book there would there could be no Lonesome Dove and no Blood Meridian - it really is that key a book. And looking back, it is the natural successor to the first half of Huckleberry Finn. No one book will ever capture the whole of what it is to be a part of the North American continent but this key novel comes as close as any that you care to name.
Oct 13, Michael Finocchiaro rated it liked it Shelves: series , pulitzer-fiction , americanth-c , novels , western , out-of-print-used-archive-org , fiction.
I read this one because it is the first of a trilogy, the second book of which, The Way West , won the Pulitzer Prize. I found it was an interesting story, but was a bit put off by the racism and misogyny. Racism as AmerIndians and blacks are presented as inherently inferior to whites and misogynist especially towards female Indians who are portrayed as prostitutes and at best submissive wives. It is the story of the West in the s and 40s, setting the stage for the Oregon Trail story i I read this one because it is the first of a trilogy, the second book of which, The Way West , won the Pulitzer Prize.
It is the story of the West in the s and 40s, setting the stage for the Oregon Trail story in the aforementioned second book. The characters of Boone, Jim, and Dick are the most developed and yet none of them really grew on me all that much. There was a moment which I found made little sense towards the middle where Boon and Dick narrowly escape a massacre and it is never explained how Jim somehow survived the incident and hangs out with them again. I found that the ending was largely unsatisfactory as well.
It still gets 3 stars though because of the more anthropologically interesting writing about life in those frontier days which was fairly well-described. I hope that the next book will be better. Aug 20, Lori rated it it was amazing Shelves: so-good. Three mountain men ,each with their own reasons for living in the wild country away from civilization, witness the last of the days of trapping beaver, mingling with various Indian natives, the open, virgin rivers,mountains, plains, forests and vast sky.
The raw, stark beauty of cunning survival in the unmastered , natural world carves deeply into the soul of eac The Big Sky is an intimate look at the American West just prior to the Great westward migration to the far shore of the Pacific Ocean. The raw, stark beauty of cunning survival in the unmastered , natural world carves deeply into the soul of each man.
Guthrie,Jr writes in a kind of English that does not rymne yet is total poetry. This is a sweeping,glorious, gritty American saga at it's finest.
View all 4 comments. Likely first read this in the early 60s, on my bunk in an USAF barracks. Then, it would have received a 5-star rating. Read most of Guthrie's book thereafter, but after Way West, can't recall connecting with his characters.
My longest college essay probably springs from Guthrie, a comparative look how Blackfeet and Crow Indians interacted with the trappers. Joseph Walker non-fiction now most dominates my memories of the Mountain Men. Jan 20, Franky rated it liked it Shelves: adventure , reading-challenge , western. This is one of those books that started off with a bang and ended with a whimper. I really was hooked for the first two parts of The Big Sky. The novel opens with Boone Caudill, a teenager, running away from his abusive pap and trying to make it on his own out into the world.
He has a series of adventures and episodes, meeting some foes, some allies, as he tries to find his footing away from home and out under the big sky. It at times almost felt like a Western version of Huckleberry Finn, with This is one of those books that started off with a bang and ended with a whimper.
These moments, Guthrie really captures the essence and feel of high adventure and of the West. However, the book does not keep this momentum going. Starting with Part 3, and then beyond, he becomes less and less the intriguing character. While there is a slight character arc, as Boone does change, he seems to only changes for the worse.
I actually felt like the co-stars of the novel, his two partners, Jim and Dick Summers, had more character depth. I suppose that Jim is somewhat of a contrast to Boone, but I guess this helps to balance these two characters out as the plot advances.
Alongside this, and I know that this book is written from the perspective of the Old West, but there were too many problems with the depiction of other characters. Moreover, the adventures of Boone and his buddies seem to get a tad repetitive, especially in the second half, which tends to drag and get muddled and meandering despite the many conflicts that consume Boone. Still, I did enjoy certain aspects of The Big Sky. The writing and description of nature, the great outdoors and certain points of the plot were picaresque and illustrative.
Guthrie often puts the reader right there in time and place, under the Western skies. Sep 02, Irene rated it liked it. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker.
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