What do you think?
Rate this book
Dark Rider
A novel based on the life of Stephen Crane
505 pages, Unknown Binding
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 11, 2016
Stephen Crane is my favorite author. I discovered him in my high school english class reading ahead when I got bored. I found a piece from Crane’s Black Riders poems. I dislike most poetry. I’m a strictly narrative type of reader, for better or worst. Sometimes I find poems that are so good and true, however, that my prejudices about the form are set aside (Langston Hughes is another poet I love). My high school class didn’t even cover Crane, so there was always a sense of fate in my finding Crane when I did. His writing inspired me. It still does.
I spent my college years studying Crane and researching him in whatever ways various classes would allow, be it various literature classes through to humanities. Suffice to say I know a hell of a lot about Stephen Crane, haha.
Aside from Dark Riders being an disengaging bore, what annoys me is that Louis Zara lets the reader think he has some secret trove of Crane research only he had access to.
Let me be clear. Dark Riders is NOT a biography. In many cases, it contradicts basic and well known details of Crane’s life. Zara sells the story in terms of, well, he was just life Crane, so his interpretation should be valued above all else. And the guy’s research is simply spotty. I’m being generous because I could say he is outright misleading the reader, but this book is old. Maybe Crane academia wasn’t as established as it is today (although Crane seems much less valued as a writer today, sadly).
I bought this novel because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of Stephen Crane being a character in historical fiction. He’s perfect for that, and I hope another writer takes that idea and runs with it one day.
Zara falters first by being a terrible writer. And then more egregiously by suggesting that this is the real story.
The real story happens to be a lot more exciting than anything in Dark Rider. Moreover, Crane was a journalist. The real story is in his work most of the time.
My last gripe is Zara suggesting Crane was exaggerating his adventures. I’m sure Crane blustered like a lot of guys like him. Hemingway being a spiritual child of Crane is telling. But Crane wrote FICTION and JOURNALISM. Crane mastered both. He was also a little purple in his writing, sure. he was a passionate writer. A poet. Probably a little high most of the time (who knows?). There’s nothing to suggest he stretched the truth in his journalism.
The whole point of Crane’s appeal, his importance, was his representing the world as it was. He showed people what they otherwise avoided looking at. He was one of the first socially conscience novelists and journalists.
The idea that Crane somehow misrepresented the truth is bewildering. Even in his writing Red Badge of Courage (before he saw any war personally) came after lengthy research and interviews of ex-soldiers.
Zara says that when Crane eventually saw war in Cuba he came from the battlefield bursting with ideas. The truth is Crane was more or less cashed by the time he saw war. Whatever was special about Crane was beaten from him by the rigors of the life he lived, as nothing he wrote after the age of 25 was nearly as good as before his adventures in the Spanish civil war with the Rough Riders (led by Teddy Roosevelt). By then Crane was simply a war correspondent. And a damn fine one. His reportage leading up to his death at 29 is available online.
Point being Louis Zara’s novel is ridiculous.
I spent my college years studying Crane and researching him in whatever ways various classes would allow, be it various literature classes through to humanities. Suffice to say I know a hell of a lot about Stephen Crane, haha.
Aside from Dark Riders being an disengaging bore, what annoys me is that Louis Zara lets the reader think he has some secret trove of Crane research only he had access to.
Let me be clear. Dark Riders is NOT a biography. In many cases, it contradicts basic and well known details of Crane’s life. Zara sells the story in terms of, well, he was just life Crane, so his interpretation should be valued above all else. And the guy’s research is simply spotty. I’m being generous because I could say he is outright misleading the reader, but this book is old. Maybe Crane academia wasn’t as established as it is today (although Crane seems much less valued as a writer today, sadly).
I bought this novel because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of Stephen Crane being a character in historical fiction. He’s perfect for that, and I hope another writer takes that idea and runs with it one day.
Zara falters first by being a terrible writer. And then more egregiously by suggesting that this is the real story.
The real story happens to be a lot more exciting than anything in Dark Rider. Moreover, Crane was a journalist. The real story is in his work most of the time.
My last gripe is Zara suggesting Crane was exaggerating his adventures. I’m sure Crane blustered like a lot of guys like him. Hemingway being a spiritual child of Crane is telling. But Crane wrote FICTION and JOURNALISM. Crane mastered both. He was also a little purple in his writing, sure. he was a passionate writer. A poet. Probably a little high most of the time (who knows?). There’s nothing to suggest he stretched the truth in his journalism.
The whole point of Crane’s appeal, his importance, was his representing the world as it was. He showed people what they otherwise avoided looking at. He was one of the first socially conscience novelists and journalists.
The idea that Crane somehow misrepresented the truth is bewildering. Even in his writing Red Badge of Courage (before he saw any war personally) came after lengthy research and interviews of ex-soldiers.
Zara says that when Crane eventually saw war in Cuba he came from the battlefield bursting with ideas. The truth is Crane was more or less cashed by the time he saw war. Whatever was special about Crane was beaten from him by the rigors of the life he lived, as nothing he wrote after the age of 25 was nearly as good as before his adventures in the Spanish civil war with the Rough Riders (led by Teddy Roosevelt). By then Crane was simply a war correspondent. And a damn fine one. His reportage leading up to his death at 29 is available online.
Point being Louis Zara’s novel is ridiculous.
Displaying 1 of 1 review