Name: Patrick Book's review of The Revenant by Michael Punke
Item: The Revenant
Rating: 3
Author: Patrick Book

Michael Punke

A story of survival on the American frontier chronicles the exploits of fur trapper Hugh Glass, who is attacked by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his fellow trappers, but survives and treks through the wilderness to seek justice.

A Novel of Revenge

The Revenant

Kathleen Boyle

Patrick Book

This is, aside from a very woeful depiction of First Nations peoples, a solid 3.5 star novel. And at least a partially-true story, so that's neat!

altlovesbooks

"The goal each day is tomorrow morning."

I didn't realize going into this book that a) it's actually a movie as well with Leonardo diCaprio, I guess? and b) that the main character, Hugh Glass, was an actual guy. This guy was horrifically mauled by a bear, left to die by a guy who stole his rifle to boot, somehow survives based on grit and determination, and swears vengeance -- to get his rifle back. I'm no gun person, but that must have been a hell of a rifle. 

The book hops POVs a bit during the book to keep tabs on the main players in Hugh Glass' story, which I liked so that I could appreciate the few times when Hugh Glass was this close to his mark without even realizing it. Glass meets several companions along the way, and I particularly liked the group of French guys he befriends. Their story is particularly touching in a way I was simultaneously expecting and not expecting at the same time. I also really liked the ending, because it didn't take the predictable Western ending route. I appreciated that.

This was quite an adventure book, and even sparse on atmospheric details sometimes, it was still an enjoyable read.

Colleen

This review contains some minor spoilers.

The Revenant was my bookclub's selection for May. I love most survival stories - both fiction and nonfiction. I grew up on Hatchet and Jack London Stories. So normally I eat these type stories up. But The Revenant failed to resonate with me on any level. 

To start with, I am uncomfortable with fictionalized accounts of real people. Cameos by historical figures in well-researched historical fictions are one thing, but authors' manipulation of facts in order to spin their stories is unnerving. Either do enough research to write a nonfiction or write something original. Granted much of the details of Glass's life are unknown and he has been built into a tall tale, however Punke took massive liberties with the story. Admittedly, the book does acknowledge that only the bare outline is true and the rest is all a figment of Punke's imagination. They did not try to pass it off as nonfiction. But this book went beyond inventing some details. The entire premise of the book - that Glass went through all of this - was driven by an all-consuming need for revenge was made up. So since the crux of the book is fabricated, the story looses its legs entirely. (view spoiler)[It made it so much worse that at one point fictional Glass does EXACTLY what he is so furious about himself. He leaves a man for dead so that he can save his own skin. He spends about thirty seconds contemplating the irony of that before charging along his path of revenge. (hide spoiler)]

Even if you are not bothered by the falsification of reality, the book has many more hurtles. The writing is flat and uninspiring. The man made a bear attack boring for crying out loud! And a wolf attack. And an encounter with a rattlesnake. And battling to survive in the wilds. And being chased by enemies. All of out it draggled out in a monotonous and lackluster tone. I kept thinking that the author was trying to make the book seem like it was written back then but in attempting that plunked out a story so stiff and stroppy that any tension, suspense, or poignancy was drowned in the dullness of the writing. 

The characters were lifeless and unemotional. Everything in the narration was chunky descriptions of what the characters were enacting. There was no insight into their thoughts or emotions. I found it impossible to be emotionally invested in this story. For example, here is the scene where Glass's commander is considering whether or not to abandon him:
"The captain had thought of abandoning Glass outright. In fact, so great was Glass's suffering that Henry wondered briefly whether they should put a bullet in his head, bringing his misery to an end. He quickly dismissed any notion of killing Glass, but he wondered if he could somehow communicate with the wounded man, make him understand that he could no longer risk the entire brigade."This is a leader debating whether to leave a man for dead. Where is the emotion?!? That should be a moving scene. Instead it has the all the emotional turmoil of deciding what to have for dinner.

It is a short story, but it took me a while to read. In fact, if the bookclub meeting had not been pushed out, I would not have completed the book on time. Brief as the book was, the story still had to be padded out by stuffing in unnecessary backstories of other characters. And as I mentioned, the entire book failed to capture my attention.

I found the section with the French trappers to be particularly annoying because their accents were written out. Actually, their dialogue was written normally first then repeated with the accent. Nearly all of it repeated. Ridiculous conversations written out then immediately repeated with the accent written out phonetically. It was absurd and unnecessary. An example: 
"'Get us some good supper, Mr. Hunter.' 
Geet US some goood suPEUR, MeeSTER HunTEUR." The story did seem to have a decent amount of historical research, and Punke seems to know a decent amount about nature survival. But it was not nearly enough to save this story. The bottom line is that this story was only popularized because of the movie and its Oscar fame. Goodreads displays some of the statistical data on books, and from that it is clear that prior to the movie this book was almost unknown. It has been out for well over a decade, but it was unknown until it was adapted into a film. And even once the movie drew attention towards the book, it seems that people's lauding of the text was driven by the former not the merit of the book itself. It sounds harsh, but the sudden success of this book seems obviously due to the bandwagon affect not to any greatness of the book itself. 


Note: After initially writing this review, I read through some of the other reviews. Almost all of them talk about Leonardo Decrapio's performance in the movie. There is much more discussion of the movie than the actual book. So I am more convinced than ever that this book's success is driven almost entirely by the movie.

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 2 Stars
Writing Style: 1 Star
Characters: 1 Star
Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star
Attention to Detail: 3 Stars
Originality: 1 Star

Makayla Woolfolk

I enjoyed this book very much, but I daresay I liked the movie more!

Summer Stanley

Was not expecting to like this book at all; I was simply "trying something new". Although it became a bit to gruesome at times, I thoroughly enjoyed the saga. Glass is a bad ass.

Annalee Harris

Hugh Glass: frontiersman, tracker, bear-attack survivor. In the cold autumn Rocky Mountains, it seems like Glass has confronted the worst of foes, but he quickly learns that it isn't the predators stalking the forest that are the most dangerous; it's his own company. Fearing an immanent attack, they leave him for dead, but not before robbing him of the two things he needs to survive: his knife and prized rifle. Glass, consumed with the image of exacting revenge, begins to crawl.

The Revenant tells a somewhat fictionalized account of the real-life events that happened to Hugh Glass. Though much of his life is shrouded in mystery, Punke utilized numerous sources to make his novel reflect as much accuracy as humanly possible. The result is a shocking and unbelievable journey of revenge, hatred, and desperation.

The novel is very historical and there are passages that read more like a textbook than a revenge story, but Punke can't be faulted for that; the goal of the novel is two-fold: to teach you about the amazing figure that was Hugh Glass, and to draw you in with the dramatizations. The Revenant is smart, treacherous, informative, and difficult to put down.

I.m. ruzz

I followed Those who wish me dead, a book aiming to be a movie, with a book about to be a movie I couldn't wait to see. The trailer for the upcoming movie was outstanding and I stumbled on the book so I bought it. I didn't, exactly, expect to like it even if it had good reviews, because I was primed by the previous book to not so much want entertainment as to want a story that brought my thoughts to things I'm already thinking of in more cohesive ways. I often try to read books on topics I'm mulling in hopes the themes will help gel ideas I can't quite come to terms with. 

Life and death, hardship, suffering and survival are always background themes I'm interested in and this book was rife with them. it's an interesting way to follow the previous book because while this one purports to be the same sort of thing (a book that doesn't dig too deep into ideas, rather is more action focused) it manages to remain more literature than pulp while doing so. 

It's well written, the characters are fairly well-rounded (though most of them sound like versions of the main character in tone--which is basically the largest issue in modern writing) and it's based in historical fact, though some of it has been punched up or altered to serve the needs of the author. 

The short review is if you're in the mood for an action type book, that still has cerebral elements and reads at a higher level than the north american readers baseline this is a good place to start. You won't be changed by it, it won't draw anything new out of you, but you'll enjoy it for a time and it likely will stick with you all the same.

Francine Corry

Birta Ösp

Kaylee Ray

Hannah Yoon

Mt Tetzel

Michael Hacker

Astor Reinhardt

C. J. Daley 

Kaylin Twardowski

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Hugh Glass is among the company’s finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. Two company men are dispatched to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies. When the men abandon him instead, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out, crawling at first, across hundreds of miles of uncharted American frontier. Based on a true story, The Revenant is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

James Miller

AN UNFORGETTABLE NOVEL OF REVENGE, SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE, STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO The year is 1823, and the trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company live a brutal frontier life. Trapping beaver, they contend daily with the threat of Indian tribes turned warlike over the white men's encroachment on their land, and other prairie foes--like the unforgiving landscape and its creatures. Hugh Glass is among the Company's finest men, an experienced frontiersman and an expert tracker. But when a scouting mission puts him face-to-face with a grizzly bear, he is viciously mauled and not expected to survive. The Company's captain dispatches two of his men to stay behind and tend to Glass before he dies, and to give him the respect of a proper burial. When the two men abandon him instead, taking his only means of protecting himself--including his precious gun and hatchet-- with them, Glass is driven to survive by one desire: revenge. With shocking grit and determination, Glass sets out crawling inch by inch across more than three thousand miles of uncharted American frontier, negotiating predators both human and not, the threat of starvation, and the agony of his horrific wounds. In Michael Punke's hauntingly spare and gripping prose, "The Revenant" is a remarkable tale of obsession, the human will stretched to its limits, and the lengths that one man will go to for retribution.

Kathleen Boyle &
The Revenant by Michael Punke

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