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| Yellowstone River |
New York : Picador, 2015.
262 p. : maps ; 21 cm.
Given that the movie version of this book was critically acclaimed, I decided to give it a read. I'm glad I did. It's not a great book, but it is a good one. Punke has taken the mostly true story of Hugh Glass, an 1823 frontiersman, and fictionalized it into a solid revenge and survival tale.
I found The Revenant a compelling read, hard to put down, as Glass manages to survive harrowing experience after harrowing experience. Beginning with his near fatal mauling by a grizzly to his almost being killed in an ambush toward the end of the novel, Glass is a fascinating figure - damned to experience shocking pains and injuries, and yet charmed in that he always walks away from them a survivor. The revenge aspect was less interesting to me. Part of what fuels Glass' survival is his determination to live and bring retribution to the men charged with watching over him, who instead robbed and abandoned him. It's not a noble pursuit, but it feels realistic.
Along the way, there is some subtle and fascinating changes in Glass' attitudes about satisfying his desire for revenge. But the power of the novel lies in Glass' remarkable skills, grit and ability to make quick and risky decisions that ultimately save his life.
The movie on the other hand, seems to have opted to bump the violence levels up several notches and to make revenge and gore the heart of the film - "pain porn" one reviewer calls it. I think that's too bad, since in a more compassionate director's hands the film really could have wrestled with the troubled spirit of the frontiersmen and the ultimate emptiness of revenge attained. That is at the heart of Punke's novel and is why I'll stick with the book and let others suffer through the film.
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