Reviews

Comme des ombres sur la terre by James Welch

paola_mobileread's review against another edition

3.0

A very interesting book for me, and one I am very glad to have read. The "native-indian" style of writing (in which days are counted in terms of sleeps, months in terms of moons, seasons in terms of the expected arrival of Cold Maker, and so on) plunges the reader immediately inside the Lone Eaters camps, and there are so many little details that provide a very vivid picture of what life was like for the Indian Blackfoot Tribes at the end of the 19th century, how they felt, what made their society click and turn.
For this alone I think Welch well deserved all the praise he got for this novel. But in terms of narrative, to me it felt perhaps too preoccupied with using the characters to provide the information, and in this way they come around somewhat flat. Many of the characters are wisdom and patience personified, and in this the novel seems to perpetuate the mith of the "good savage" which I find hard to swallow especially as what is portraied is a society in which superstition is so engrained. In many ways this novel reminds me of Achebe's [b:Things Fall Apart|37781|Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)|Chinua Achebe|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1352082529s/37781.jpg|825843], which is however much more edgy and convincing.

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Grief, Death, Violence, War, Sexual content, Medical content, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Slavery

shadowknight17's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

3.0

lyellboi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

jimbo_cheezemas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The attempt to reconstruct a society is admirable and the work done there is evident, but ultimately, Welch fails to create a truly real world. It maintains the distinct flavor of modern America in its perceptions, but this is natural given its existence as a modern American novel. The best part of this book are the characters, whose natural complexities help the reader to ignore the weaker aspects of the work. Unfortunately, the main character, White Man's Dog, is an exception to this rule. Overall, this is a passable, but not great novel. Within the context of Native American literature, it is worth a read, though there are much better examples to work through.

cami19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

vooravond's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

mgoodbbc's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

aiyanajak's review against another edition

5.0

this book is so good but made my heart ache

beckysee's review against another edition

4.0

Easily the best Native American historical fiction I've ever read. The story is written candidly and doesn't omit any disturbing occurrences, forming an honest depiction of the events leading to the Marias Massacre.