Books this year: a book diary

The Last of the Mohicans is the second in a series of five novels about a woodsman/scout/marksman/mythic figure named Natty Bumppo (aka Hawk-eye, aka Deerslayer, aka Leatherstocking), his Mohican “brother” Chingachgook, and Chingachgook’s son Uncas, who’s the titular “last of the Mohicans” (really, his father’s the last one, because Uncas dies in this book and Chingachgook lives another four decades, but whatever). It’s set during the French and Indian War, although it’s more about rescuing a pair of damsels in distress from the Indian that’s kidnapped them (a vile, violent, manipulative man who also happens to belong to a tribe allied to the French).

As an adventure story, it’s actually fairly entertaining - lots of suspense, chases, tracking, a few grisly murders, tight spots, improbable escapes, convenient coincidences, and feats of bravery and derring-do. The prose - well, it’s not what I consider elegant, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ponderous. Judge for yourself.

It’s an incredibly racist book, though its racism is that odd sort which would be offended if you called it racist. The Native Americans are constantly referred to as savages, though sometimes this means barbarian cannibals and sometimes it means “noble savages.” Hawk-eye constantly reminds whomever he’s talking to that his blood is “without a cross” of Indian blood, even though people might think otherwise because he’s such an awesome woodsman/scout/hunter/whatever. At times this anxiety about purity is ridiculous: the French Indians have named him “La Longue Carabine,” a name he takes issue with on the grounds that his gun is a rifle, and not a carbine.

The ending bothered me: the older of the two kidnapped (half-)sisters, Cora, who is “remotely descended” from an African, is the one who dies at the end (and in such an unceremonious way!), while the younger, fairer, blonde sister marries a strapping young major in His Majesty’s Royal something-or-other. I don’t think Cooper would say so if one could put the question to him, but it seems obvious (at least to me) that the novel’s internal logic requires that Cora die, because she’s a tiny bit not white.

I hate recommending books merely because they’re “classics,” so I won’t recommend this one; I’ll say, instead, that you should start with The Pioneers, and move on from there if the spirit so moves you.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Books read by Christopher, 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.