Book Review, Dances With Wolves, By - Michael Blake

My thoughts on 'Dances With Wolves', By - Michael Blake

A top class western and much more... definitely a four Star book...

Ordered to hold an abandoned army post, John Dunbar found himself alone, beyond the edge of civilization. Thievery and survival soon forced him into the Indian camp, where he began a dangerous adventure that changed his life forever. Relive the adventure and beauty of the incredible movie, DANCES WITH WOLVES.

It is important to read a book, and, discover what the writer wanted to achieve, before putting down a review or a critique of any work. In that regard, the book is a triumph, since, it brings the reader up-close,  empathizing with the loss of ancient civilizations, through the spread of human population that has been unleashed upon the earth. It reveals the hidden world of the Comanche and other Indian tribes and their struggles as they recede deeper in to the country before running out of ground, and, before being crushed under the technical advancement of guns and cavalry that even their unsurpassed valor cannot withstand. The book helped me realize the loss that we all must share, as we build modern cities and encroach further in to a countryside, whose citizens existed harmoniously for generations, but, can no longer live without the identification of cards and the decay of a healthy life as our cultural pollution reaches them. The book, it provides a historical  and cultural landscape of the ancient Indian civilization, it is a small window with very few details, but, enough for it to be included in the reading program that anyone may design for young readers of today.

The second aspect, that a book may be judged by is the story-line. Here again, the book triumphs, taking the reader on a simple yet well constructed set of events, making for a fast paced page turner. The events help understand how a modern human could be made to fall in love with what outwardly appears as ancient barbaric ways. Eventually, he embraces the Comanche, becoming a part of the ancient tribes, assuming their ways, assuming a name and a family that they, the ancient ones, bestow upon him. His transition of identity from a western soldier in a uniform, to a Comanche warrior ornamented with bones and such is at the center of the story, and makes for a journey where the reader himself comprehends how and why a man can be influenced to drop all that he has achieved, in order to take up all that he knows nothing about.

The third aspect, that a book may be judged by, is the medium, namely the usage of language, by which the story is delivered to the reader. Strangely, here the book comes up short. The writing is a bit heavy-handed and often the metaphors fall a bit flat. It is true, that a lot of the writing tries to bring alive phraseology used by the original Indian language, Lakota, in the 1800's. The author deals with this aspect well, but, it is the pure English narrative that could have been a bit more expansive, in order to match the locales and the country and the big themes that the book is set in. The book was released in the late 80's and was responsible for resurrecting the genre 'Western' across the states. It is one of the best Western's that I have read till now.

This is a must read book, even if you have seen the movie!