James Wilson (1)Besprekingen

In the beginning of the book, the author acknowledges that many of the tribal names we're familiar with are actually disrespectful. Yet the author uses these terms in the book, without telling us which names are slurs and thus shouldn't be used. This is incompatible with a respectful view of these peoples.

This is a groundbreaking, critically acclaimed history of Native Americans struggle for survival against the tide of invading peoples and cultures. Spanning over 500 years – from the first European contact to the campaigns of Indian activists today – Wilson's narrative incorporates insights from ethnography, archaeology, Indian oral tradition, and the authors years of original research in charting the epic story of a clash that would reduce the Native American population from an estimated 7 to 10 million to only 250,000 today.

Litt oppmanning før jeg entrer denne boken. Forordet er som ment, ganske klargjørende. Veldig tidlig blir det tydelig hvor store utslag de kulturelle og ideologiske brillene de hadde med seg fikk for europeernes analyser vedr. det de møtte. En ting var kontrastene mellom europeiske og "amerikanske" levemåter, noe annet var de begrunnelser som lett kunne anes i funn rundt antallet som bodde der, manglende inkludering av utryddet befolkning (sykdom og nedslakting) og svak forståelse av hvordan deres landbruk var og hvordan arbeidsdelingen mellom kjønnene var - dvs hele bildet av hvilke samfunn møtte de der. Deres form for rettsforståelse ble ikke anerkjent, ei heller det at 2 -regimentslæren til Luther ikke var etablert hos dem.

I think I appreciate the project of The Dark Clue more than I admire its actual execution. It takes (beloved) characters from The Woman in White and does some awful things to them... but doesn't it need to? The project of the novel is such that showing the darkness in a character I already know, admire, and love is essential to its success. If it had been about two other Victorian investigators, I wouldn't've cared-- but this novel needs me to be horrified.

Unfortunately, in the execution it doesn't quite come off. My front cover blurb says "Read 50 pages and you will be gripped" and calls it "A Novel of Victorian Suspense," but at page 50, all that's happened is that Walter Hartright has been asked to write a biography and he's talked to John Ruskin. Riveting! More significant, there's a point about halfway through the novel where Walter and Marian both start to despair based on what they've learned... but they haven't learned a thing! Later, they learn (and do) stuff worth despairing over, but the events don't justify their reactions at the point they actually have them.

One evening, celebrated children’s author Corley Roper meets a woman named Mary Wilson in a graveyard. Both have suffered the recent loss of a child, and both are more or less adrift in the world—Roper is estranged from his mad wife and finds that he cannot write anymore. Later, he embarks on a search to find out the secret of Mary’s birth.

Set nearly a hundred years ago, this novel is sort of sepia-toned, in a way. The tone of the novel is dark in parts, and it promised to be a kind of a Gothic mystery. The story as it moves you along is compelling enough, but the ending left me wanting more—and not in a good way, because it was extremely anticlimactic (I don’t want to spoil anything, but it made me think, “that’s it? Why the heck did Roper even bother?”). From the blurb on the back of the book, Wilson wrote this novel about his grandmother, but I’m afraid that he made quite a mountain out of a molehill with this one—Mary’s secret isn’t particularly new or interesting. And it’s not much of a secret, either, as you will find out if you read this book.

I loved the atmosphere of the novel, but it was marred by characters who behave in unlikely ways. Why is a young American woman running around Europe unescorted? Why are pretty much all the characters so laissez-faire about the possibility of divorce in an era when divorce still wasn’t taken lightly? There are also a number of really wild coincidences—Roper goes in search of Alice, and the first hotel he enquires in happens to be the hotel at which she’s staying! The novel also touches on a number of different ideas and movements that were starting to take shape in the early 19th century (early psychology, cubism), but he never really delves into them. In short, this was a short novel with a lot of promise; it just didn’t hang together well for me, I’m afraid.