If thou art desirest to read this prodigious zenith of 18th Century American literature, then thou mightest need to acquire a voluminous dictionary to assist thine desire to understand the vaunting and antediluvian language found therein, as it appears that the most excellent author, James Fenimore Cooper, possessed a vocabulary of, well, lets just say it's um, better than mine...
I'm not going to outline the plot in detail. If you want that, then click here. I wish I had taken my own advice and clicked there first just to get a good look at the cast of characters. It took me about 75 pages to realize that Duncan and Heyward were one and the same (i.e. Duncan Heyward). Many of the Indian tribe names and descriptions left me confused. Several passages jumped right into the middle of action-packed material so quickly that I had to re-read several paragraphs and some chapters to know what was going on. It really is a wonder that I finished this book - I feel like a master of perseverance!
So I will just say that I have mixed feelings about this book. Exciting it is. Easy to understand it is not. Most of the story is very thrilling because there is always a chase - bad guys looking for good guys and vice versa. Kidnapping, murder, massacres, disguises, love, betrayal, etc. The story is chalk full of movie-worthy material and I fully understand why the Daniel Day Lewis version made about 12 years ago is rated R. I am going to try and get my hands on a PG 13 version that I saw a few years ago (by the time I read the book I did not remember a darn thing about the movie). The BBC also made a miniseries in the 1970's that I am going to order from Netflix. I understand that this latter version is very true to the book and well done, but the entire cast, including Indians, are British actors. I'll give it a try.
In the end, I give it three *** stars - there would have been more stars if it was easier to follow the story. I can now boast that I have read the very manly The Last of the Mohicans book. Can you?
1 comments:
I hope to join you in the next few months in boasting I have read it as well. :) I do have to admit that I did watch the rated R version of the movie years ago and really liked it! I know...shame on me!
Post a Comment