A wonderful narrative, impossible to categorize

books:


	• Son of the Morning Star: Custer and The Little Bighorn Evan S. Connell North Point Press, 1997 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 54 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Totally Entertaining

Being a longstanding, confirmed student of the frontier Indian War era, Custer and his likes, etc., by now I must have read and collected several hundred books on these topics. In my opinion, Connell's is one of the very best and most entertaining, compelling, witty, and informative "reads" in this genre. Perhaps its not "perfect" (I have long been aware of some of the criticisms that have been directed toward it, some of which may be substantive and others just silly), but -- and this is unusual for me -- I found myself reading it all the way through more than once when I first got it a few years ago. I highly recommend this book.

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A wonderful narrative, impossible to categorize

On a whim, I purchased this book at a London bookshop in the late 1980's, and was immediately captivated by it. Since then, I have reread Son of the Morning Star at least half-a-dozen times, each time with greater pleasure. Notwithstanding the passage of more than two decades since its original publication, "Son of the Morning Star" remains magisterial. One Amazon review I read denigrated this book because it was, according to the writer, inadequate for the serious historian. Perhaps. There exists no shortage of books devoted to Custer, intended for the "serious historian," among them Evan's 1999 exhaustive "Custer's Last Fight." "Son of the Morning Star" does not purport to cater to the "serious historian." It is, as Dee Brown remarked, "unique and for that reason should endure." Buy it. Read it.

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A Captivating Read

Those who study the Little Big Horn battle seem to fall into two camps where this work is concerned, some love it for it literary style, others loath it as it doesn't adhere to a strict timeline in recounting the events preceding and encompassing the battle. Instead, this book is a literary collage but its coverage is so well written that it is absolutely captivating. It encapsulates the spirit and mystery of the Little Big Horn like no other book. It's all here-the "hotspur" Custer as Connell calls him, the defiant Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, Reno described by the Crow scouts as "frothing at the mouth," the surly Benteen, Keogh and Comanche, spurious survivor stories galore and the evocative landscape of the battlefield itself. All captured in words and conveyed in a highly entertaining manner. It's almost as if Connell says we can never solve all the mysteries of this battle, so let's dispense with chronological history and just have fun! Besides, there are tons of excellent histories that do follow the conventional route that one can turn to for a more ordered look.

My first visit to the Little Big Horn took place in 1994 and I took a special paid tour that included the Crow's Nest. I remember our guide talking about Connell and how, when he was shown factual errors in the first edition of this book, he readily agreed to change them and acknowledlged his mistakes. Our guide said that not all authors are that way where their books are concerned. Speaks well of him and his book. Only drawback--the index is very scanty so don't rely on it if you look for references for, say, the names of all of Custer's officers.

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Son of the Morning Star

I have been to the battlefield and have read and seen numerous documentaries of the Big Horn" battle (even watched the made for television series by the same title as this book), and I can say that the series was not as good as the book and neither has anything else I have seen or read about that fatal day in Montana over one hundred and thirty years ago.

Best Custer Book On The Market.

As a student of history, especially the Battle(s) of the Little Big Horn and Custer, Son of the Morning Star, provides an unbiased look at this crucial western battle. This book provides great details on the various tribes as well as Indian leadership. It does not show George Armstrong Custer in any kind of good 'light'.
Extremely well written.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Custer's Last Stand is among the most enduring events in American history--more than one hundred years after the fact, books continue to be written and people continue to argue about even the most basic details surrounding the Little Bighorn. Evan S. Connell, whom Joyce Carol Oates has described as "one of our most interesting and intelligent American writers," wrote what continues to be the most reliable--and compulsively readable--account of the subject. Connell makes good use of his meticulous research and novelist's eye for the story and detail to re-vreate the heroism, foolishness, and savagery of this crucial chapter in the history of the West.

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