Centennial by James A. Michener

James A. Michener's Centennial is a masterpiece of historical fiction. To be honest, it's probably more non-fiction than fiction. As the cover blurb suggest, not only does this book entertain, it also educates. Michener starts at the very VERY beginning. All the way back before dinosaurs. He follows the evolution of the horse and the beaver. Two crucial animals in westward expansion. Horses for transportation and beaver for the fur trade.

I learned that scalping was not originally and Indian thing. (In honesty, I found this out when my boyfriend told me, but he'd read the book before I had.) It was something the French and English taught them in order to prove they'd completed a task for them. Certain tribes kept the practice while others decided it wasn't their thing.

Perhaps one of my favorite characters in the book was Pasquinel, the very matter-of-fact courier des bois who lived his life with no regrets. He seemed to have the right amount of charisma that I didn't begrudge him his two wives. I will admit that later in the story he makes some choices that I didn't agree with, but this was because Pasquinel was also an oppourtunist. The allure of money was too great. While his partner, Alexander McKeag was the true naturalist. At one point he gestures to the great and vast wilderness around them and asks Pasquinel, "Isn't this enough?"

Levi Zendt's story began frustrating--Being from a small gossipy town myself, I could really empathize with him. And if there was still uncharted territory in the country, I would've headed that way myself. His guide, Sam Purchase, was so bigoted and distasteful. But then that's how people were. I think that's what got to me. And Michener does it well: The people's attitude towards the Indian. How they declared it was God's Country, Indian's were 'Godless Savages', and therefore the land rightfully belonged to the White Man. And how certain these people were of this. Michener dives into this attitude really well. And rather than just putting a blanket over it and just saying there were people who fear & loathed Indians, he gets into the thought processes and people's reasonings during that time period.

There are many other characters as this book starts at the very beginning and spans all the way up to the 1930s making a skip to the present(1973) for the closing.

Each Character's story shares the same theme. The American desire to explore and willingness to take a chance. Those western pilgramages are why poker is a so very American game and so very fitting that it should be associated with those times. Each of these characters are looking for something better than what they had. Things get desperate and depressing, but to steal a phrase from Josey Whales, they endeavored to persevere. It was a time when the people who succeeded were the most determined, if not down right stubborn.

Anyone who loves Indian and Cowboy lore will love this book. History buffs especially. It's a big book(a little over 1000 pgs) But it's spanning a long time period. And really, you don't notice it once you let yourself get engrossed in it. Then, you can go get the mini-series staring Robert Conrad and Richard Chamberland. Me? I goofed and watched the mini-series first. But it was the mini-series that made me want to read the book. Oh, hell. It doesn't matter what order you experience them in. Just be sure that if you experience one make sure you experience the other.