An Embarrassment of Riches

by James Howard Kunstler

On orders of President Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Walker and his botanist uncle, William, set out to search the southern wilderness for a live specimen of Megatherium, the giant ground sloth, and suffer kidnapping at the hands of pirates and torture by redskin savages

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1985

About the author

James Howard Kunstler (born 1948) is an American author, social critic, and blogger who is perhaps best known for his book The Geography of Nowhere, a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He is prominently featured in the peak oil documentary, The End of Suburbia, widely circulated on the internet. In his most recent non-fiction book, The Long Emergency (2005), he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society and force Americans to live in localized, agrarian communities.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Connie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what the appeal of this book is. There are those who appear to believe it's historically accurate, or at least historically accurate fiction. It's not; it's intended to be satire. And it's just derivative and not funny, which makes it pretty unsuccessful as satire. I guess it was worth a read to confirm that Kunstler is the inveterate crank he seems to be in his nonfiction writings, but I actually have no clue why my library would have this in its collection. Maybe it was free.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was ridiculous. It's historical fiction that is meant to come off farce-like and it succeeds with flying colors. It was outlandish and unlikely but it had me chuckling and rolling my eyes throughout.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pres. Jefferson sends a botanist and his nephew on an expedition to the south to find the giant sloth. They encounter river pirates, a floating palaces occupied by the heir to the French throne, and white Indians. Very interesting well-drawn characters. Satiric humor not be be taken seriously.

[Sharon Zink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure what an embarrassment of riches has to do with it, but it was a pretty good book. It is a spoof on the Lewis and Clark expedition. These explorers go south and have all manner of adventures.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a historical novel of the west and the people who explored it.

[Veno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imitation or parody of J. F. Cooper??

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great frontier adventure. Recognized some of the historical recounts that were part of the adventure from other authors. Lots of others that were new to me.

[L.T. Fawkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Howard Kunstler $1.99 **** In 1803, Thomas Jefferson, miffed by a French zoologist's claim that the fauna of NA is inferior in every way to that of the rest of the world, summons a Boston botanist and his nephew to Washington, shows them a giant claw, and commissions them to travel through the southwestern wilds toward New Orleans in search of the "giant sloth."

Their adventures in this fast-paced, funny page turner are fun on many levels. Great change of pace from the usual blah blah blah.

[John M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took awhile to get into it... A few redeeming moments/characters. Some gratuitous (often needlessly) violence without being all that realistic about what the actual conditions of the early American wilderness was like.

All in all a quick read, but I have a feeling I won't remember much of anything about the book in two months.

[Embarrassing Solutions · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an adventure reading this book! Great writing style and character development. It was a long read though, but has some interesting sections.
Its kind of a swashbuckler book and though sometimes entertaining the story was a little long and arduous.

I'll be looking for other works of James Howard Kunstler in the future.

[rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very droll account of an uncle/nephew pair getting into trouble up and down the mississippi in the 1800s. It took me a while to get into this but there were a couple of pretty funny (if a bit cliche) moments.

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

some good moments. kind of lost me in the middle but found me quickly.

[Leandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was, by far, one of the strangest books I've ever read, but it was very entertaining and certainly unique!

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

An attempt at something akin to "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" with 1/32 the charm or creativity.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my typcial type of book, but not bad. Some very gruesome parts, but interesting if you like historical fiction, adventure, and nature.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just not my type of book. Also I'm not sure I got the point of it, which based on others' comments, I don't think I'm alone.

[Long Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny in parts and droll in others. Therefore overall, an average read.
Definitely not historically accurate.

[Rosemary · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has no redeeming quality in my mind. It is vicious, ghoulish, foul. It’s thin disguise as historical is not sufficient to get me to read more of the book.

[Randy L. Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read Mr. Kunstler's blog "Cluster Fuck" instead. I read the book being reviewed. Throughout I asked myself why was this written.