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52nd out of 166 books
—
31 voters
The Heartsong of Charging Elk
by
James Welch
From the award-winning author of the Native American classic Fools Crow, a richly crafted novel of cultural crossing that is a triumph of storytelling and the historical imagination.
Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and journeys from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the back streets of nineteenth-century Marseille. Left behind in a Marse...more
Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, joins Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and journeys from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the back streets of nineteenth-century Marseille. Left behind in a Marse...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
October 2nd 2001
by Anchor
(first published 2000)
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The novel opens with Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, waking up in a French hospital near the turn of the 20th century after already living through the Battle of Little Big Horn, the forced relocation of his nation to a reservation, and a stint with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. It was in this show that he fell ill while on tour in France, and now he is left in the hospital and the show has moved on without him. Charging Elk leaves the hospital and starts on a journey that he hopes will eventuall...more
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It is hard to read a book as The Heartsong of Charging Elk by James Welch which has such a heavy atmosphere of despondency and confusion. As I finish it, I find it difficult to shake the melancholy of the novel, even though it ended on a positive note.
Charging Elk is a young Lakota who signs up with The Buffalo Bill show and toured through France. He has had a wild adolescence living with a friend in the wild and refusing to go to the reservation, but when the opportunity presents itself he join...more
Charging Elk is a young Lakota who signs up with The Buffalo Bill show and toured through France. He has had a wild adolescence living with a friend in the wild and refusing to go to the reservation, but when the opportunity presents itself he join...more
As per usual with novels I read for school, I did not read the back of the book, as it tends to ruin the first half of the story for me. For this reason, I was rather surprised, and dismayed, when I found out this would be all about Charging Elk in fin-de-siécle Marseille. I was hoping for something that would have more to do with Native Americans in their homeland, but alas.
Perhaps it is because I had to read this book in one weekend, but it felt rather long. Also, the story hardly ever seemed...more
Perhaps it is because I had to read this book in one weekend, but it felt rather long. Also, the story hardly ever seemed...more
Welch hit a little close to home with this novel. As someone who has lived cross-cultural transitions, language barriers (including those where I thought the barrier didn't exist and that ended up being a rather big barrier), as someone who has cyclically (and eternally?) pondered the question of "where is home?" and who wonders why a passport needs to carry more information than names and place of birth and present address, who feels she has lived and sometimes still lives in that in-between st...more
I grabbed this one from someone in my book club who loved it; I can say it is a fascinating story. Probably a 3.5 stars? It is certainly historical, and there are some novel elements (details of daily life, unfolding of plot), but the writing was so forced in many places that I almost would have preferred to simply read the true story of Charging Elk's life. In the author's dreamed-up version, Charging Elk has some definitely painful challenges, but he and the people he meets become predictable...more
I randomly found this at the used bookstore and decided to pick-it-up mainly because it was endorsed by Sherman Alexie, my favorite. I was intrigued by the plot throughout the novel, which was more complex than I anticipated. Not knowing much about the French culture, I found this book enlightening for it's cultural and historical aspects. It resonated many of the Native American issues presented by Alexie, which I am familiar with, although in a much more up-front literary style, rather than Al...more
In The Heartsong of Charging Elk, author James Welch has captured a resiliency of spirit that will haunt the reader long after the book is finished and put away. The book was written over ten years ago, and as I have read other stories by Welch, I'm not sure why I never picked this one up, but I didn't. As much as I feel that James Welch was a brilliant writer, his stories, with the exception of Fools Crow, always left me too sad; however, a librarian in Browning chose it as a discussion group b...more
Imagine a North American Indian chosen because he had not been assimilated into the reservations in the 19th Century. Imagine him joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a rider - and then getting left behind in France. Such is the nature of this wonderful story very loosely based on a true event. Welch enters the mind of our hers (and indeed he is one - and much more than a cliché'noble savage'). His gradual awareness of the society of which he becomes part is beautifully caught in unfolding t...more
Honestly, I thought this was a lukewarm and boring book. Granted, it's an interesting idea for a story, and some parts were intriguing. Also, Welch is a skilled writer capable of creating thoughtful passages. Overall, though, this one just didn't touch me. I felt little to no urgency while reading, and Charging Elk just didn't spark for me as a compelling character. I would recommend this to readers interested in Westerns and the Wild West -- which I am not. Perhaps they will get more from it th...more
Welch died is 2003, three after this, his fifth and last, novel was published. It is the second novel I’ve read of his—the first was read a very long time ago and is only dimly remembered unfortunately—and it’s a very good one. As a boy Charging Elk, an Oglala Sioux, witnessed the great Sioux victory over Custer and the 7th Cavalry on the Greasy Grass. But soon after that triumph the Sioux were coming in, unable to sustain their way of life on the plains. Charging Elk and his friend Strikes Plen...more
Not a great read but a very interesting story about a native American born in the time when he witnessed his people getting sick and surrender to the reservations. He joins the Buffalo Bill show that travels to Europe and gets injured in France. They leave him behind and he is stuck in the counting without knowing the language (French or English)
Nice history pieces and some insight into both the French and Lakota cultures.
Nice history pieces and some insight into both the French and Lakota cultures.
Oct 13, 2011
Kristine
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
admin-bookclub
Fascinating piece of historical fiction about Charging Elk, a Native American performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in France, who was hospitalized and consequently left behind as the show moved on to other venues in Europe. His struggles begin with not knowing much English and even less French, combined with cultural differences and circumstances that take Charging Elk further and further away from his dream of returning home to his Lakota family. The first half of the book moved somewha...more
I absolutely loved this book. It includes the same descriptive, melancholy, and almost whimsical story telling style of "Fools Crow" and "Winter in the Blood" , but takes place in turn of the 20th Century France and weaves together two very different worlds so beautifully. I read it several years ago and find myself wanting to pick it up again!
Similarities with "Little Big Man". Using the mythological structure of "a stranger in a strange land" transports an Oglala Sioux who fought at the battle of The Little Big Horn to France and Marseille. Totally engrossing and compelling. I wonder if anybody has purchased the movie rights - I would definitely like to see this as a movie!
I would actually give this book a 3 1/2 if you could give half stars. It gets off to a very slow start, but about half way through the book it takes off and becomes much more interesting. Based somewhat on truth, though I'm not sure how much, this piece of historical fiction is a sad look at what becomes of one of the late-day Lakota Indians who gets left behind in France after traveling with a Wild West show.
I really wanted to like this a lot, and the story is fascinating -- based on the true event when an Indian with Buffalo Bill Cody's show is left behind in Paris -- but for some reason this book was just not that great. I kept reading, thinking, "Get better, get better!" and it never really did.
A good book about a young OIglala traditionalist who goes to France with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, gets stranded there, & has to make his way in that strange culture. The prose is just serviceable, but the intimate details attending this clash of cultures is fascinating & illuminating.
I have been a longtime fan of Welch and this book just places him even higher in my estimation. A beautiful book, a narrative that seems simple and straightforward yet is infused with deep heart and with a warm, aching humanity. The closing pages were luminous.
So very sad...there were a few spots I thought the writing was not as strong as the rest, but overall, the character of Charging Elk was so engaging that Welch pulled me through. Not as good as Fools Crow, in my mind, but well worth the time spent to catch a glimpse of what it might have been like to be an American Indian lost in a strange land without a language in common with anyone.
What a good read! I do wish it had more of an ending- I want to see if there is a book on the life of Charging Elk, I'm super curious now!
Total page turner. I'm going to check out more stuff by the author, for sure.
Total page turner. I'm going to check out more stuff by the author, for sure.
The book has its moments, I enjoyed all of the historical information gained, but the female characters are too flat. I'm not sure I would have picked it up and finished it if not for being required of me.
Great author and great story background, but it just wasn't doin it for me. I love James Welch, but this book is so slow and boring. I quit it in the middle, maybe it gets better
Not quite as good as "Fools Crow", but still a good read. Set in Marseilles around the turn of the 20th century.
Strong setup, falters at times, but the writing has the same haunting quality that Welch captures like no one else.
This book opened my world of what it might be like for a Native American living in France during the time of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The shift in settings of Charging Elk's experience in Marsielle to the world of Greasy Grass, Custer and Crazy Horse provide us with lessons in history and give us opportunities to learn about clashing cultures, and the strength of one man to be true to himself. James Welch has since passed away, and the literary world lost an American master, one who happen...more
This is onw of those surprising good reads that really makes you think.
I loved this book - the story line was a lot different to what was expected.
Beautifully sad story of a Blackfoot man's dislocation in 19th-century France-
The premise of the book - Charging Elk, a young Oglala Sioux, who had known Crazy Horse, joins Buffalo Bill's traveling circus and is abandoned in Marseille - intrigued me. Oh man, it was beautiful. I loved every word of it. And I have a crush on Charging Elk now.
Would have gotten higher rating without the sex scenes
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welch shows us how to write a tragic story without falling into despair | 1 | 2 | Apr 10, 2013 05:06am |
