The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis

by Michael Pritchett

While writing a biography of his famous namesake, Bill Lewis, a high-school history teacher, nearly loses himself in his attempts to understand one of the great untold stories in American history—the adventures and subsequent suicide of Meriwether Lewis. Even as he struggles to illuminate that strange and exuberant time and and falls under the spell of the elusively seductive persona of Capt. Lewis, Bill finds himself fighting his own personal crisis, brought on by a clinical depression that threatens not only his book, but his job, his family, his 13-year marriage, and his own survival past the age of 40.

In this rich, confident debut novel, Michael Pritchett not only authentically recreates the world through which Lewis and Clark forced their way, but also finds extraordinary parallels between Capt. Lewis’s doubt about manifest destiny and the contemporary uncertainty of the introspective modern male at a time when all our values are in question.

Genres: Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[John]

Hemingway dreamed of a "big, twohearted river," in one of his most American stories, & few of our recent novels have risen so bravely & splendidly to his challenge as this one. Michael Pritchett's debut rides a risky & extraordinary combination of currents. It dramatizes both the Lewis & Clark Expedition, as it was suffered & celebrated by the men on that voyage, a journey inspirational yet well-nigh insane, & an early-21st-C. marriage under strain, the marriage of the gifted yet hobbled Bill Lewis, a descendent of the Expedition’s “Captain.” Across the centuries, Pritchett establishes an essential, excruciating link, that of clinical depression. Lewis, remember, did himself to death, first with alcohol & megalomaniac fantasy, & then — in a horrifying night in Tennessee, rendered here with both sensuousness & a respect for the mystery beyond what our senses contain — with pistol & razor. Pritchett’s imaginary second protagonist, Bill Lewis (his first name recalls Lewis’ fellow Captain, another invigorating figure in the novel, more soldierly but less visionary), works in fits & starts on a groundsbreaking new history of the Expedition. He's earning his living, however, as a Missouri high-school teacher, a paygrade that lags far below his gifts. But then this Lewis suffers the same acedia as his forebear, “that siege engine of mental illness.” Bill’s grim spells have his wife Emily drifting away, losing patience, & his son Henry suffers that affiliated melancholy, anorexia. Yet the novel never lapses into whining. Piercing, rather — that’s how Pritchett feels, page by page. I’ve rarely enjoyed pervading sorrow so much, wanting to read deeper into it, evening after evening. Finally, this novel invites comparison with Fitzgerald’s GATSBY, no less, in that the protagonists scrape & claw their way through desires they can never consummate (Meriwether’s cross-racial, for Sacagawea, & Bill’s for a student already pregnant out of wedlock). “Melancholy fate” here is grounded in horizon-to-horizon promise, in immeasurable hope: the bewildering sumptuousness of a New World that once seemed ripe for any energetic man’s taking. Pritchett reminds us how that promise still goads us, even as it leaves bereft. Actually, my fellow-readers, I’m surprised this book hasn’t gotten more — & more bell-ringing — attention here.

[Heidi Weaver]

Intertwining character didn't do anything for the Lewis story.

[Rose Anderson]

I was taking a class from the author when I read this book so I was able to get a great deal of extra insight into this book.

[Darby]

I didn't finish reading it. I decided I didn't like it. I enjoyed the history of Lewis and Clark, but eventually it felt very oddly slanted to fit the story. I also didn't like how the main character described his dislike of his wife and was plotting an affair with one of his students or the wife of his friend. I like reading uplifting books, this is not that.

[Wendy]

Blech. I finally gave up on the historic sections and just read to find out whether or not Bill kills himself. Not the kind of question I really like to have about the protaganist. If he was so damn depressed, how did he get the energy to pack and go on a fancy picnic, remodel his student's entire house, and oh yes, write a book?

[Jeremiah]

A tale of Meriwether Lewis on his famed traverse of the north american continent intersperced with one of his descendents dealing with a suicidal teen and wandering eyes outside of his marriage. Very poorly edited. I finished the book to learn about the fate of Lewis and Clark after their voyage. Sad.

[Sara]

This had an elegant sadness about it, but the ending was atrocious in my opinion, and some of the parallelisms were just too obvious and overwrought. The idea of this novel and much of its execution are worthwhile, but it's poorly over- and underdeveloped in certain significant ways.

[Rita Arens]

I'm not a huge fan of two storylines in one book, but the writing in this book is very good. That Lewis is a naughty boy.

[Jim Swike]

Story or Lewis and Clark, I found hard to follow, if you choose to read it, enjoy.

[Lindsey]

Excellent book. Buy it and read it.