"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

16 November 2016

Meandering.


I mean to tell you this story the only way I know how. That is to say, I will tell it like a river. It may meander here and there, but in the end it will always find its way to the sea.

Two hundred years ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark launched their wooden boats up the Missouri River in search of the illusory Northwest Passage, a journey that would capture the American imagination and help forge a young nation's identity. Now, in a riveting debut novel, Allan Wolf tells the story of this extraordinary voyage through the eyes of not only the famed pair but also several members of their self-named Corps of Discovery. Here, in powerful, lyrical language, is a medley of voices from a surprisingly diverse crew — from the one-eyed French Indian fiddler who pilots the boats to Clark's African American slave; from the young Shoshone woman who has a baby en route to Lewis's Newfoundland dog, a "seer" whose narrative resonates long after the book is closed.

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