The Great Karoo

by Fred Stenson

From award-winning author Fred Stenson comes a richly evocative new novel, at once brutal and tender, spare of language, and profoundly moving.

The Great Karoo begins in 1899, as the British are trying to wrest control of the riches of South Africa from the Boers, the Dutch farmers who claimed the land. The Boers have turned out to be more resilient than expected, so the British have sent a call to arms to their colonies — and an a great number of men from the Canadian prairies answer the call and join the Canadian Mounted a unit in which they can use their own beloved horses. They assume their horses will be able to handle the desert terrain of the Great Karoo as readily as the plains of their homeland. Frank Adams, a cowboy from Pincher Creek, joins the Rifles, along with other young men from the ranches and towns nearby — a mix of cowboys and mounted policeman, who, for whatever reason, feel a desire to fight for the Empire in this far-off war.

Against a landscape of extremes, Frank forms intense bonds with Ovide Smith, a French cowboy who proves to be a reluctant soldier, and Jefferson Davis, the nephew of a prominent Blood Indian chief, who is determined to prove himself in a “white man’s war.” As the young Canadians engage in battle with an entrenched and wily enemy, they are forced to realize the bounds of their own loyalty and courage, and confront the arrogance and indifference of those who have led them into conflict. For Frank, disillusionment comes quickly, and his allegiance to those from the Distict of Alberta, soon displaces any sense of patriotism to Canada or Britain, or belief that he’s fighting for a just cause.

The events of the novel follow the trajectory of the war. The British strategy of burning Boer farms, destroying herds, and moving Boer families into camps weakens the Boer rebels, but they refuse to give up. The thousands of Boer women and children who die in the camp make the war ever more unpopular among liberals in Britain. (In fact, this conflict marked the first use of the term “concentration camp” in war.) Seeing the ramifications of such short-sighted military decisions, and how they affect what happens to Frank and the other Canadians, is crucial to depicting the reality of the Boer War. By focusing on the experiences of a small group of men from southern Alberta, Fred Stenson brings the reality of what it would have been like to be a soldier in this brutal war to vivid life.

The Great Karoo is a deeply satisfying novel, marked by the complexities of its plot, the subtleties of its relationships, and the scale of its terrain. Exhilarating and gruesome by turns, it explores with passion and insight the lasting warmth of friendship and the legacy of devastation occasioned by war.

Genres: Canada, Fiction, War, Historical Fiction, Africa

496 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2008

Reviews

[Steven Langdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Boer War, for Canadians, is one of those obscure colonial misadventures that never quite figures in our history, yet seems to have roused great passions at its time (1898-1902.) This well-written novel provides a rich texture within which much of the Canadian experience in South Africa plays out. The War itself emerges as tedious, confused and in the end virtually pointless. But against this senseless and often brutal canvass, the novel focuses on three young Canadians from frontier Alberta who make the voyage to Cape Town to serve in the Canadian Mounted Rifles. Frank Adams, Jeff Davis and Ovide Smith are close to each other, yet their war experiences differ greatly -- one becomes a daredevil scout tracking the enemy in search of heroism, then oblivion -- another commits himself to caring for the horses, and is tricked into death -- and Frank, despite himself, grows up and into responsibility. These intertwining experiences, moving over the years amidst a set of vivid characters, produce an interesting and involving novel. In the process, you learn a great deal about the Boer War, much about relations between aboriginal and white communities in Alberta, and more about the racist society being constructed in South Africa by both the Boers and the British.

In the end, both Jeff and Frank make it back to Alberta. Like most contemporary Canadians, they try to forget the Boer War. But its human dimensions endure in their lives. Fred Stenson's accomplishment revives those human dimensions for us all.

[Patrick Nichol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brilliant novel from Albertan Fred Stenson. I've never read Stenson before, but I was eager to give his fictional account of the Boer War a try.

I agree with another reviewer that the book is richly layered with information. But that is also its hinderence because The Great Karoo is not an easy read.

Having said that, I also believe this is a book that needs to be savoured, not rushed.

Those of us from Western Canada will beneit from his portrayal of Alberta cowboys - or drovers - fighting and dying in Canada's first great test as a nation.

[Ken Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southwestern Alberta is among my favorite places on earth. This work of historic fiction, which weaves the families and land of Pincher Creek country with world events (specifically the Boer War) provides an enriched perspective on this unique land and people along the northwest border of the Great Plains.

[Sanford O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't know of many books covering the Canadian involvement in the Boer War. This was a good one - well-scripted by Stenson. A story of young men involved in a conflict that makes little or no sense - something that rings just as true today.

[Kchalvorson Halvorson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonnie,
This story about men from Pincher Creek, Alberta,
becoming involved in the Boer War was particularly
interesting for me because of Grandfather Mault's
participation in the war and my own familiarity with
the Pincher Creek area.

[Kris Unger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alberta cowboys and native americans fighting the Boer rebels in South Africa, in defense of the British Empire - a nice immersive account of a war and time I knew little about...

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the act of reading more than the story with this book.

The main character, Frank Adams, is venal, his motives for joining the army opaque, and there is no real tension to the character, no set of principles that motivate his actions other than personal (eg. sexual in the case of his “love” for Alma, the daughter of a Boer farmer turned rebel.) Frank Adams is about as interesting as ugly wallpaper. If that’s your thing, then whatever floats your boat, maybe you’ll enjoy this book more than I did. Similar to Frank, his buddy Ovide is a bland enigma. His reasons for joining the army are an open question in the story and the answer, or lack of one, remains like an uninteresting aftertaste for as long as it takes for the most interesting character, a half indigenous soldier who lives and loves on the Blood reserve, but is curiously named after the ex-president of the secessionist southern states in the US (what Marx called the “Slaveocracy” 1. ), to tie up some loose ends.

There is a decidedly pro-Boer element to this story. Maybe that’s what turns me off. I’m glad someone wrote about the Canadian contribution to the Boer war, and I like Historical Fiction for its power to spark in my imagination a sense of life in a certain context. But the take on the historical context of the story is questionable. Its narrative revolves around the experiences of the main character, a young man who volunteers for the Canadian Mounted Rifles, a regiment of the Canadian Army formed generally from the cowboys, ranch hands and police of the region of what is now southern Alberta.

Before the British Empire could annex the goldfields in southern Africa they had to subdue the Boer. This was the objective towards which the Canadian state sent its armed forces, Frank Adams and buddies included. The Boer were people of European ancestry who had settled in the region of southern Africa. The Boer had fought previously to occupy the land and exploited the vast, and deep, gold deposits. But the British Empire had ceased to be satisfied with the first part of their strategy to possess the gold. In the late 1870’s the Boer republics had been landlocked during recognition. An armed raid and a couple decades passed, and the second part of their strategy to obtain the gold, war, was launched. If obtained, the gold was worth perhaps 700 million pounds to the Empire's economy in 1898. In 2013 Pounds this was perhaps almost 110 billion.

Certainly it was sold as a war of emancipation. The Boer had first subdued the indigenous Africans and, in order to exploit the land and ultimately the gold, had turned them into labour under oppressive and deadly conditions. One history reports a newspaper article of the day that notes 20% of the African workforce in the mines died every year. The same history notes that in the late 1890’s (98/99 is the point of reference in the history I am referring to 2.) there was an African labour force of 80,000 in the mines. For context, Johannesburg (the urban centre that served the goldfields) had a Boer population of 50,000 with perhaps another 50,000 Boer throughout the region.
There was also a large population of Europeans (including those from North America) who flocked to the region. Those who migrated (the ”Uitlander”, as the Boer knew them) generally came from settler regions of the British Empire and other European nations, were denied voting rights by the Boer republic. But, despite the subordination of Indigenous Africans by the Boer (an economic system the British Empire was generally content to continue) it was this denial of the vote to non-Africans that was used as an excuse to go to war by the British Empire. Canada sent over 7000 troops (3.), despite the war's unpopularity. The first overseas deployment of the Canadian military, for context the first ever deployment of the military was about 15 years previously in Canada’s annexation of the north west. (4.)

So Frank Adams finds himself adrift within the context of war, feels alienated from its aims, and war and the army be damned. Nevermind the massive historical events that he has volunteered to make himself a part of, fine, but he learns nothing. Sure it is acknowledged that the Boer had an economy that depended on the enslavement and subordination of the indigenous population. But in the story representatives their population's role is limited to a secondary one where they are either labourers or tribespeople (who, and the inclusion of this scene is questionable, are content to sanction the purchase of Frank from his cross-dressing lesbian acquaintance.) Heck, one of Frank’s closest acquaintances is a black guy (sarcastic irony intended). One review of this book observed that it was thoroughly researched, and that the story was secondary to this historical research. I didn't like this story either, but also I think the historical research seems partial. In other words, the story here (a dubious take on the Boer War) is primary and the historical facts (that Canada sent several thousand soldiers) are merely window dressing.

Perhaps Frank and Co. are meant to be two dimensional. Perhaps this story is about the ugly wallpaper of humanity and how it feels disconnected from the events that form the context of its life. Perhaps we aren’t meant to have strong feelings about the characters. But the plot is self-serving (revolving as it does around Frank Adams) in as much as the story stitched together based on an interpretation of the facts that ultimately excuses the horrific reality of historical events. The real bummer is that it was recommended and lent to me.


Notes:
1. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...
2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
3. https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibiti...
4. a historical footnote alluded to directly, but any connection between the two remains largely unexplained in the story.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could have been such a good book! Great premise based on the actual event of Alberta cowboys and their precious horses traveling to the other side of the world to fight for The Empire in the Boer War. The plot is so weak, almost random. The storyline follows the main characters as they pinball from battle to battle. A better map on the endpapers would have been helpful. I enjoy historical fiction and literary westerns but Stenson is no Larry McMurtry nor Guy Vanderhaeghe. All that research deserved a better story/author.

[Lynn Bornath · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much happened for long stretches in this book and while I'm sure that was true in the real war, it didn't make for riveting reading. Historians will likely find much to enjoy but it wasn't the book for me.

[Bonnie Way · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about the Great Boer War in this novel. Read my full review at The Great Karoo.

[HelenJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed the Cochrane Ranch in Alberta connection and the Boer War in Africa. I got a little tired of all the endless marching and slogging and waste of horses and men. I think that was the major point though. How useless and pointless these wars are!

[Raimo Wirkkala · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book served very nicely to both fill a gap in my historical knowledge and to spur further interest in reading about that subject. While it is a novel and not a history of the Boer War the author has made extensive use of real-life participants and actual events.

[Moira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt all the frustration and futility of the Boer War through this book.

[Alex Moll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I spent the first 27 years of my life in South Africa and have enjoyed a longer spell living in Western Canada: I really enjoyed reading The Great Karoo. The evocation of landscape and people and the historical accuracy in SA seemed almost faultless to me. There are monuments in SA to the horses of the Boer War and this book is a tribute to the horses and men who cared for them. Racism and its comrade, imperialism are appropriately highlighted in ugly display. I found the prose to be well crafted and was fully engaged, reading this in a few sittings. Recommended for those who enjoy well written historical fiction, horses and insights into human relationships. I will be looking for more of Fred Stenson’s writing.

[Ian Kittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I have read on the Boer War and by this author.

I enjoyed the content about the conditions the soldiers lived under. The reason as to why this war was fought is still unclear to me. Obviously, the treatment of the black citizens with no voting rights was wrong. This was a very different time in history.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

[Carolyn Templeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, the two young cowboys who join the army and set off for the Boer War, seem to be boys that I have known. I loved Stenson’s character development, the story is one that few are aware of.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my type of reading but it held my interest and in spots I couldn t put it down.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this book in stages. It was long and slow to start with but the second half was more a 3 1/2 star.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

good novel about canadian cowboys from alberta serving for england in boer war. lots of "local color" and of course futility and death and uselessness of war.

[Ibis3]

Edition irrelevant.2009-02-05

[Joanne Seitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Learned a lot about Boer War and cared about the Albertans who went to fight. but then it got a bit too detailed.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed a long, kind of hard read but so interesting to learn about the second
Boer war and how Canadians were involved. Interesting also how horses were used

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

read t page 246