Waiter Rant
When Amy and I were at the Tea Room a couple weeks ago a man walked in with a small group and proceeded to raise a ruckus. He didn’t like the table they assigned. He didn’t like the next table. He got angry and firm, finally taking a table near the back despite the protest of the staff. Quite rude and quite thinking he was the only one in the restaurant.
When he sat down his mother, who likely taught him such behavior, said, “First you give them a chance to do it right, then you help them do it right.”
We laughed out loud. Their assumption of what they were owed did not disguise the fact they were merely boors.
I’m glad I don’t have to deal with such people every day.
But waiters and waitresses do.
The author of Waiter Rant started out thinking he would like to help people as a priest. He began to study for the priesthood but left when the corruption and the scandals started getting too much. Had a degree in psychology and tried his hand in the mental health care business. Also corrupt and scandal-ridden. Stayed honest, got fired.
Wandered around a little. His brother got him a job in a restaurant. Also corrupt and scandal-ridden, but at least there are no illusions. Stays a waiter. Moves to a nicer place. Begins to write about his experiences on a blog. Then in this book.
That’s the background.
The book is a memoir of sorts, but not a typical kind. It’s anonymous. It also dwells on a particular setting and makes particular points along the way. It’s a memoir with a mission, and this is to illuminate the often hidden world of restaurants. The Waiter, as he is known, touches on important concepts such as management, illegal immigration, rude customers, good and bad service, holidays, waiter revenge, hygiene, and assorted other topics. Each chapter has a particular theme.
Yet, these themes aren’t at all obvious at first. The writing is that good. The Waiter is brilliant at showing not telling, that tricky art that foils lesser writers. We are given a story, not a mere rant. He is descriptive, insightful, observing, and honest. The themes are held within an overall story that is his life, a life that has many twists and turns and disappointments.
These disappointments and disillusionment become our boon, however. Because of his background, and his great capability, we are given a wonderful view into an often disguised world. The Waiter brings to bear not only his expertise at his profession, but also psychological and spiritual insights, making this book a surprising deep read. But never overbearing and certainly never self-righteous. The honesty sometimes ventures into the vulgar, but always understandably so. It’s not only the story of a man trying to find his way and providing great commentary as he goes. It’s also a manual of restaurant etiquette and personalities, becoming a mirror to our often unconsidered actions.
This really is a great book, amazing insight and amazing writing throughout. Profound and readable, all while dwelling on often mundane issues. I’m going to be recommending this to most everyone I know.
Now, I sort of wish he went back into the priesthood, or maybe tried out being a Protestant pastor. I can only imagine how good he would do looking at the convoluted world of church life. But, I suspect his mission is greater than that.
He’s a waiter. He’s really a writer. And this book should be bought. Waiter Rant is a brilliant book. Ten stars if I could.
A Persistent Peace. An Autohagriography
Throughout Christian history there has been quite an interest in men and women who did great things, whether in this world or within their soul. These men and women weren’t seeking self-satisfaction. Rather, they were truly seeking God and his work in them and in this world. The interest in such people often insisted they be viewed as saints, objects of devotion if not worship. Biographies written were often filled with stories of great victories, moral pronouncements, heroic stands. Little was said that would suggest these people had real personal histories or daily struggles or lived in complex times.
Glossing over the negatives, and thus the whole truth, these biographies were meant more as inspiration than history–inspiration for those already walking in their footsteps, devoted to the cause and method.
A Persistent Peace: One Man’s Struggle for a Nonviolent World
I was disappointed, however. A Persistent Peace is a history of the icon, John Dear S.J, and even more the story of the names and places involved in the Peace movement since Reagan.
But we never really get to know the man, John Dear. The gift of an autobiography is that we can see not only the events, but also the internal perspective, wrestling, frustrations, development of the subject. John Dear seems to open up, but often only in ways that bolster the sense of his superiority. People around him don’t understand him. They are bored or angry or confused. Dialogue is pontifications of his teaching to the ignorant, even hateful, opponents or less ignorant friends. This is coupled with a hero worship of sorts, in which Dear seems to reveal himself most by talking about the people he wants to be like. But, all throughout it seems a lot of the real John Dear remains hidden, hidden because it seems he is still unwilling to be truly transparent about who he is and where he came from.
In the foreword, Martin Sheen writes, “I suspect that much of John’s character was formed, as it is for all of us, during adolescence, that critical period when every level of physical, emotional, physiological, sexual, and spiritual development begins to emerge.”
I suspect this too. Only A Persistent Peace gives nothing of this. We begin with John in college at Duke. We are given only the barest glimpse of his family life, which is decidedly upper class and filled with powerful influences. Indeed, he mentions his father and mother only in passing again and again, often as sources of introductions for people he proceeded to lecture about peace issues.
So, we don’t really ever get to see the man, only the image of the peace activist seeking the way of Jesus in this world as he sees it, fighting against the benighted masses who disagree, not only with the goal but also the method–public protest and nuisance. This is not a review to argue such tactics, however, I can’t help but think that being empowered because of arrests for public behavior is entirely different than the martyrs arrested for their message. Speaking the message is perfectly fine and accepted, a fact I think grates against those who seek to find identity within a pampered martyrdom.
Because of this I was disappointed with the book. We are left with more of a polemic than a story, again and again told rather than shown. Which places me outside of the target audience, to be sure, which is almost certainly the choir of people who already celebrate the message, goals, and tactics of John Dear as being the true expression of a “faith that does justice”.
Giving this a star rating was difficult even still, because I realize for many this is precisely what they want and need. Hagiographies were popular, and still are, because people need heroes presented in a certain light and need the empowerment that comes from seeing their causes as black and white, good versus evil. I give it three stars because I do not share the initial assumptions and was seeking a history of the man rather than a story of places, and celebrities, and events that make up the Peace movement. I wanted to learn about the man, not the symbol.
Here is a quote that I think would best help readers to determine the worth of this book. John Dear upon arriving at the Pentagon says, “it was the center of death for the whole planet, its prime purpose to organize the empire’s killing sprees at the behest of the multinational corporations and their politicians.”
If you agree with this, then you will see this as a five star book, speaking truth to power, and modeling heroic activism. If you disagree, you will find this book likely confirming what you like least about the Peace movement, even if you happen to agree with many of their ideals.
This is not particularly an interesting or insightful autobiography. It compares poorly as such to the recent works by Jurgen Moltmann about his life in theology, A Broad Place: An Autobiography
This is a book for the choir. If you’re wearing the robes then have at it, enjoy it, for it is certainly written with passion. It is also a good history of the last decades of the Peace movement. In fact, I wish Dear had not styled this a story of one man’s struggle and instead more honestly made this a book of many people’s participation.
As such, I’m left thinking Dear is trying to impose himself as a major figure, seeking the identity of his heroes Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, but falling flat despite his many arrests and popularity within a certain segment of particular activists. He wants to be seen and applauded and affirmed.
Which makes me wonder what his life was like before Duke and with his family. Which makes me also wonder if maybe he really should have become a Franciscan after all.
All That Road Going
For most of my life, as long as I can remember at least, I’ve enjoyed people watching. Airports are great. So are train stations. Sitting on a public bench or at a table looking out at the sidewalk of a busy city also make great spots. What is the fascination? I’m not sure. I think it’s because all these people represent such different stories.
I watch and I ponder and I absorb the different faces and different styles and different postures. Different places offer different casts of characters. Different classes or races or likely histories.
All That Road Going is a book for those of us who people watch, because it’s this treat we are never given in real life. It’s a look into the thoughts and stories of various characters all on their way. That the setting is a Greyhound bus means we are looking at the particular people who would ride a Greyhound bus, not exactly the symbol of roaring success.
The style is literary fiction. Mojtabai is a gifted writer, with a sharp eye for detail and insight about humanity. Her prose is well-crafted, offering both readability and vibrant descriptions of her often bland, maybe even forgettable settings. This is a book about people we might not notice, in places we would likely ignore or dismiss. But instead of dismissing them, Mojtabai dwells, sits with them and encourages us to see real people.
The book itself feels like Mojtabai was interested in doing character sketches, and then found a convenient way to tie these various sketches together. Not only is there no real plot, there isn’t a consistent narrator. Each chapter, for the most part, gives us the perspective from a different seat. The bus driver makes the most appearances as we learn his values and perspectives. Mojtabai crafts her writing to fit each narrator as we go, making the prose itself become insight into the characters, and done so with expertise.
All That Road Going is a very good book. Well written and quite interesting, if you like character studies. Low ratings that I’ve seen seem to be not a reflection about this book as much as they are about the fact some people just don’t like this type of book.
If you are wanting an action packed plot or flowing story this likely isn’t the best book. If you people watch and would love to have just a taste of what it would be like to hear the stories of the people walking by or sitting near then this is a wonderful treat.
So Brave, Young, and Handsome
Got a nice selection of items from the Amazon Vine program this month. One I especially want to feature here. The novel So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Lief Enger. Here’s my review:
“I said, ‘Most men never have the chance to be both things at once, the hero and the devil.’
‘That is ignorant. Most men are hero and devil. All men. That is what ruins it with wives.’
‘She wanted just the hero?’
‘Bad men or good she would’ve had me either way. She couldn’t endure both, however. She said to pick one and to be that thing only so that she might trust me until the day of Jesus.’”
There is a perspective in some ancient cultures about in-between places and times. Dawn and dusk, which lie between night and day. The seashore, that lies between water and land. Halloween, that time in which the spirit world and the physical world are perilously close. During these moments, in these places, it is both and neither all at once, indistinct and undefined. So too human life encounters these moments in identity. People are often caught in this nebulous middle, seeming one thing and another all at once. Sometimes this is being caught between their actions and their ideals, or their sin and their virtue. They are half-people of a sort, unrealized and unformed, without an identity of their own.
Some stay in this place their whole lives, never becoming, and never discovering themselves for who they really are. Others cast off from the dock, refusing to settle any longer for what was, and yet not yet knowing who they can or should be. It is a journey of becoming a whole person.
So Brave, Young, and Handsome is this story told of three primary characters, with a few others thrown in along the way. It is a road story telling of a physical journey that brings out the metaphysical of each of the characters, but not in a mushy, spiritualistic, heavy-laden way. And that’s what is so brilliant about the book. It’s not philosophy. It’s a great tale in the tradition of great American writers from decades past.
This is a book about in between times and in between people drawn with immense clarity and insight, while retaining a direct and sparse prose. Enger tells us of an era and certain characters, a story not a message. It is in this story, however, that we see so much of real life as it so often is: in between.
We are between the old and the new, the good and the bad, the honest and the false, the artist and the laborer, the young and the aged, the adventurous an the prosaic. The characters hope, but don’t know how to find this hope. What they do is carry on, having tasted something of who they know themselves to be they won’t let themselves go back. As Enger says in his acknowledgments, “Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic.”
What I like so much about Enger’s work is that it is so hopeful. Absolutely honest, mind you, there’s no false hope to be found here or sentimentalism seeking to manipulate our emotions. These are real people, faults and all. But unlike so much contemporary literature and film Enger doesn’t feel a need to obsess with corruption or ruin. His is a book that shows people who are not handsome, or young, and rarely brave. But they want to be, and be such in ways that matter to them, not to others around them. They are seeking wholeness for themselves.
Not all succeed. Some do, but not in the expected ways.
“For at the same time he lost everything–the very direction of his own steps–he won the thing he held so precious he wouldn’t approach it in words.”
It is a story of real life. Not gritty, corrupted, malformed caricatures. Real people, or at least characters who are desperate to become real people, who learn what it is to be a real person.
With all this depth and insight it might sound ponderous. But it’s not. It’s very gentle and easy-going. It moves along at a varied pace, with enough movement to never seem tiresome and enough twists to never seem predictable. My only slight irritation is that sometimes Enger jumps ahead a bit and is so eager to bring a slight twist that he breaks the moment with unnecessary foreshadowing, sort of a “you’ll love what comes next!” moments. I wish he just let us experience the story as it happened a bit more. But this is a minor qualm and he does even this within the contexts of a fitting narration.
It’s a brilliant book, in craft and theme and insight. It’s the best work of contemporary fiction I’ve read in a very long time and guess it will be my favorite book of 2008.
distracted
I got back into posting and then fell off. Well, there are a few reasons for that. One is because of that Amazon Vine program I talk about occasionally, where I get a few free items each month in exchange for a review posted on their website. A few days ago I got Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 and between the weather being extraordinary and having to unload programs, do a fresh install of a new operating system, and reload programs on my desktop I’ve not been thinking about the usual posts. Vista works quite wonderfully, by the way. Very beautiful. I’m quite impressed.
Now I feel better about avoiding the ostentation of the white middle class bourgeoisie that is Macintosh. 
The other reason is because I’ve a post brewing in my head on my conference experiences that relates to the session on peace. I very much enjoyed the session, but have some questions and thoughts which are, well, political. I’ve a political side to me that I don’t often express any more, not least because most of those who I know and who I resonate with on so many other issues tend to have sharply different political opinions. And being that my publisher is associated with the Quakers, it’s not entirely fitting that I spend time talking about my various thoughts on war and peace.
I’m somewhat in a murky middle on that issue, and might be offensive to different sides. So, that post is still brewing. And the brewing process tends to get in the way of other thoughts.
But I do have a few pictures of a chipmunk that I’ll be posting today.
The weather is quite cold and overcast this morning. Though, yesterday I did get some more software in the mail: CorelDraw Suite x4. It seems quite, quite user friendly and robust (without having the dreaded Adobe bloat) so I might get caught up in that instead.
Air Mouse!
I don’t just get the chance to review books in Amazon Vine. Occasionally I get another kind of product. A sports snack bar, or deodorant. Sometimes even a more expensive product. Like the Logitech MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse
I’ve been using this for a couple of days now and I love it. Part of my responsibilities is designing web and multimedia material for use in a classroom setting. In the last decade the use of multimedia has gone way beyond popping a video into a VCR or using a stack of transparencies. With the tools available there can be an amazing array of interactive material that a teacher or presenter can use to augment their efforts. The best I’ve seen this work is not with each student hunched over their separate computers but with effective use of a projector that allows the teacher to involve the whole class in a multimedia exploration of the topic.
The only problem is that the teacher is tied to their computer. They can step away but always have to keep returning in order to interact with the material.
This mouse solves that problem, letting a teacher or presenter of any kind free to move around, interact with students, completely untethered. With very simple movements of the wrist the cursor moves just as with an earth bound mouse. With essential buttons that control volume, play/pause, scroll up/down, along with the standard mouse buttons this mouse is absolutely perfect for use in a dynamic classroom setting.
I found the mouse is most effective with some distance from the computer. It works fine at the desk, and close up, but there are more difficulties keeping it aligned. Step away from your desk and this mouse is amazing. Very exact in movements. Almost magical in its spatial recognition.
If you work at a desk, this just isn’t worth the money. If your work or play would be enhanced by having freedom to step away from a fixed point you can’t find anything better. It does take a little while to get comfortable with the movements and the buttons. You can’t hold it the same way as a regular mouse and everyone likely has a more steady way of using it. But once I got a feel for it I moved around the web, enjoyed a movie, and practiced a presentation without hardly even thinking about the mouse. It becomes like an extension of the hand.
While it seems to be marketed as more of a remote control for computer media such as music or movies, I see this much more as a tool that could help interactive teaching go to the next level.
I’m going to be highly recommending this mouse to the teachers I know and everyone who uses a computer as a presentation tool.
The Making of a Tropical Disease
Last month I took a bit of a detour from my normal reading and had a go at The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease)
Once upon a time there was a mosquito. And this mosquito carried something with her and gave it to everyone she met. Men in peculiar outfits sprayed all over the land, and the mosquito was banished, in that land at least.
This is the story of malaria. The story that I’ve heard.
But the actual story of Malaria is a lot more complex. Who would have, for instance, expected a history on a supposed tropical disease to begin with a study of a city in Northern Russia? The Making of a Tropical Disease does just that.
Honestly, this isn’t always a fun book to read. Some books are very good about inspiration and motivation and glide along in presenting the chosen perspective. This isn’t about inspiration or motivation. It is more ambitious. There are times in which it slows down and gets into details and spends a long time one what might seem a minor point. But, this negative isn’t really a criticism. These seemingly minor points are in fact important, and it is the tendency to gloss over such points that undermine so many attempts to respond.
This certainly is a well written book. Randall Packard is a very good writer, and even with my above comment I must add he does a wonderful job of making personal connection. In his journey through the history of where malaria spread he does not only relate facts and figures. He tells a story, and in telling that story has written a very, very solid history.
But more than a history The Making of a Tropical Disease is also really a book on global policy. Packard does not hide this fact. He is making the point that malaria is not simply a story about random mosquitoes who live in unfortunate places. Rather, malaria is a disease that responds to human interaction, and throughout history there is a direct correlation between policy, politics, land use, economics and the occurrence of malaria. Humans interact with this world, and this interaction is not neutral but rather creates changes. These changes can bring open the door to ill effects.
This is not simply asserted and then policies recommended that fit some pre-conceived political bias. Rather, Packard is very scientific and very good in his history, laying out clearly the practices and results that led to malaria in certain regions. He respects the use of sources and when making a leap in interpretation or dealing with a situation in which clear records might be sketchy he admits this. His interpretation of data, however, seems solid even when he must depend on inference.
Packard is laying an absolutely solid foundation to a holistic policy in regards to malaria, and more than malaria. In a way this is a very post-modern book. The pre-moderns suffered from nature. The moderns sought to conquer nature, overwhelming it. The mass application of DDT resulted. Packard builds a middle ground, arguing that we should neither be victims but nor should we deny our own impact. Instead, by understanding nature, malaria and mosquitoes and land and water and humanity, we can develop intentional policies that that reflect the unintentional answers to past malaria outbreaks.
This really is an extraordinary book. For those who are interested in diseases it makes for an interesting read. For those who are interested in global politics and policies it pushes beyond the usual responses and builds a solid case for real, lasting and healthy actions that can literally save lives and entire regions from decay.
My perspective on malaria was at the same time begun and provoked, leading me to see so much of global realities with a new understanding. Very few books can be considered transformational, but Packard really did transform my thinking.
This should be a required book for anyone involved in global studies.
random book goodness
Here’s the game:
- Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
- Find Page 123.
- Find the first 5 sentences.
- Post the next 3 sentences.
- Tag 5 people.
Now this is going to be a bit of a surprise. Sure, someone might think Patrick will have some theology musing or spirituality suggestion or at least a tale of derring-do upon the high seas. Nope. If I was on my bed, I would lean over and open my book of Complete Works of O. Henry. But since I’m at my desk, and not near my bed, my nearest book is utterly a bit random. It’s one of my Amazon Vine books for the month. I get a couple free items each month from Amazon.com. All I have to do to keep getting items each month is post a review of what I’ve received. Some months I get electronics. One month I got power bars. This month it was books. One was the first volume of a biography of Napoleon. But that’s not the one closest to me. No, closest to me is even more outside my usual. It’s The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria by Randall M. Packard.
While not exactly the most heartwarming reading, it’s actually quite interesting, especially for folks concerned about global welfare and politics. But, for a longer review, I’ll wait till I finish the book and post my dues on the Amazon site.
For now, it’s just the sentences. Page 123, sentences 6-8:
“It contributed to a major reduction in malaria mortality in Italy, which declined from 490 per million in 1900 to 57 per million in 1914. Yet morbidity rates over the course of this period, while fluctuating from year to year, remained essentially constant. Despite the hopes of Grassi and Celli that the massive distribution of quinine could lead to the eradication of malaria in Italy, the quinine campaign had little impact on transmission.”
I’ll let you know how the book ends. I think the butler did it.
I guess I’m supposed to tag people.
Some names then. Amy, Jim, Peter, Christina, Erik, Debby and well, anyone else who reads this. I loooove knowing what people are reading. So if you decide to follow up, post a link in the comments and let me know.
Oh, and just because I’m curious if I was typing this while sitting on my bed. Here’s the bit from O. Henry, near the end of his story “The Ransom of Mack”.
“He will,” says I.
“There was lots of women at the wedding,” says Mack, smoking up. “But I didn’t seem to get any ides from ‘em. I wish I was informed in the structure of their attainments like you said you was.”
Indeed.
From the Vine — Every Day Lasts a Year
This is one of those rare treasures of a book that hardly seems real at first. Primary documents are the foundation of history. For me this is especially true when the documents are not official political or military papers but are instead a reflection of the average person within a certain context or era.
And that is what these are. Every Day Lasts A Year: A Jewish Family’s Correspondence from Poland
They were Jewish.
But this isn’t a book about the Holocaust or World War II or Polish history. This is a book about a family living in the midst of a crisis, trying to live as they could. It is a book about the contrasts between history on a grand scale and mundane details of daily life. In these all too often mundane details, however, the specter of Nazism is ever present, even if not mentioned.
The letters themselves take up about 180 pages of this 280 page book. They are well edited and formatted so as to make for easy reading, presented without commentary except for the occasional footnote clarifying a point of history or making note of a translation or transcription issue. These are not great literature, but that is the point. They are the kinds of letters sent by family members to one of their own far away. And they are amazing insights into life.
The first hundred pages is made up of three essays. The first by the son of the letters recipient. He tells the story of Joseph, his father. While the prose is not the best, the story is well told and quite interesting. We get to know the one who is so present and yet so silent through the later laters. It is an engaging story, not only because he was able to escape Poland but also because of the immense legal troubles he had when he got to the States. The US tried to deport Joseph back to Europe just when Europe was exploding into war.
The second two essays are much more academic in tone. The first details the Nazi rule in Cracow throughout the war. The second is broader in scope, giving a background to Jewish life in Poland before and during the war.
Overall this is an incredible book, amazing for anyone interested in World War II, Holocaust studies, social history, or Poland. My only critique, and it’s a picky one, is that I felt the book was a little unsure who to target as an audience. It is very accessible to a popular audience interested in the topic, but at times the essays feel a bit too rigid and stolid. It takes a while to get to the actual letters, and at that point it is a huge shift in reading style. I almost would have liked to have the letters at the beginning with the two academic essays at the end for reference.
Again, a picky complaint. Overall, Every Day Lasts a Year is an extraordinary book, mostly because those we meet in it were not extraordinary at all but just regular men and women caught up by hell on earth.
Hundred in the Hand
I mentioned a while back that I was chosen to participate in the Amazon.com Vine Voices program. That means each month I get a list of items and can choose two to review. It’s a promotional strategy Amazon is trying, and that means I don’t pay a thing for what I get. Lovely. I’ve been dutifully receiving and writing since August, but I’ve not been noting that here. I figure if I’m going to get free stuff I should promote what I’ve been looking at even a little more. Ever since my book came out I’ve realized even more how nice reviews and promotions are. Gives me a warm feeling to know someone has paid attention to what really is close to my heart. This is probably much less the case for companies who sent me electronic items, but I figure it’s only fair to start posting all my reviews here, not just the ones on creative works. So, I’ve some catching up to do. I realized early on in literature classes that reviews and critiques are likely my least favorite form of writing, and I’m not particularly great at them. But, I write what I can. And so here it is.
I’ll start with my most recent review.
Hundred in the Hand (Joseph Marshall’s Lakota Westerns)
“Most people who are of the Earth live according to the truth that comes from the Earth,” the old woman went on. “One truth is to take only what you need. It is a truth that was not always known, but we know it now. A nation of many people needs more land on which to hunt. We took this land because we were many and needed it. We took it from the Crow people. They fought us, but they understood that we are a nation of many more people. So they moved aside, not because they were afraid, but because they were wise… But we do not need to take any more of the land. The Long Knives are different. They take what they do not need, and I think some of us are learning their ways.” (Hundred in the Hand, p. 167)
It is a reality of human culture that we see the world through our own values and priorities. We excuse and promote and honor and abuse to fit our perspectives, making those who compete against us the villains and those who fight for us the heroes. The story of the American West has long been told according to the perspective of the white settlers who came to find what they saw as new land, and new opportunities, to spread out and find a new freedom. Yet, there were people in that land who had already found their own freedoms and life.
Hundred in the Hand is the story of the people who were already there, people who were being pushed aside as more and more white settlers and soldiers came into the land. Although, a little foreign perspective at first Joseph Marshall’s skilled story telling quickly draws the reader into the world of the Lakota and we begin to understand the events of the late 18th century from a different set of values and a different set of priorities.
At first the prose would catch me every once in a while, however I soon realized that this was being told as more of an oral tale, and in my head I tried to read it as though I was sitting and listening, rather than sitting and reading. The cadence and the voices began to live and I felt a part.
The story is not complex. It is mostly about various ambushes and preparations for these, with subtle character studies and gentle scenes that give insight into the Lakota perspective. But, in all of this we are smoothly drawn into the perspective of the Lakota, who faced the white soldiers with courage, and a little confusion.
Yet, this is not the whole of the book. About 100 pages in Marshall decides to bring in a white perspective, and so on and off through the rest of the book we occasionally see the story from the eyes of a white man, neither soldier nor settler who involves himself in various ways into the tale. Honestly I felt that while well written this ‘white’ perspective became a weakness for the book. Seeing the story solely through the eyes of the Lakota was a valued experience, and it seemed just when I was thinking along with them, I was pulled back, back into the typical stories and typical perspectives. I wish I could have gone through the whole book seeing the white settlers as true foreigners, and felt even more thoroughly the perception of the Lakota.
Yet, that is really the only negative. Hundred in the Hand is an engaging story that really is a valued addition to the genre. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
I gave the book four stars.
