Black Hills

Having read four previous Dan Simmons novels, I anxiously awaited this 2010 novel. I certainly was not disappointed! This is a imaginative historical novel sprawling over sixty years. In this book, you will meet many well known figures such as: Wild Bill Cody, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the famous sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. The Lakota indian Paha Sapa and Gen. George Armstrong Custer share the spotlight (and the same body) in this astonishing tale. After reading The Terror and Drood, I didn't think Simmons could write anything more peculiar. Boy, was I wrong.

Each chapter in this book jumps back and forth to different years in Paha Sapa's life. The first starts in 1876 during the battle of Little Big Horn. Paha, a ten year old boy, counts "coup" (touching a enemy unarmed) on Gen. Custer just as the General is killed. Now the unbelievable happens - the General's ghost jumps into Paha's body. The ghost will talk to Paha throughout the book about many things, incuding his sexual escapades with his wife, Libbie. Later, Paha goes on a Hanbleceya, a vision quest , and sees the Wasichus (white men) as giants eating up the land of "The Six Grandfathers", the Black Hills. The struggles of the "natural free human beings" known as the Lakota or Sioux  versus the Wasichus is a theme throughout the book.

The book skips to 1893 during the World's Fair in Chicago, back to 1876, and forward to 1936. In 1893 in Chicago, Paha is working in the Wild West show for Bill Cody, and meets his future wife, Rain de Plachette. During this chapter skipping, there is a interesting confrontation with Paha and the construction crew building the Brooklyn Bridge. This happens in 1933 when the ghost persuades Paha to visit Mrs. Custer on her 91st birthday so the General can see his wife for the last time. This is a very funny and also very sad meeting in N.Y.C.

The guts of the book has to do with the project in South Dakota known as Mount Rushmore. Paha gets hired as a powderman for the sculptor Borglum. As the years pass and Paha becomes a explosive expert - his real reason for being there becomes obvious. He wants to blow up the monument! He wants to do it during the unveiling of the Jefferson face, while Franklin D. Roosevelt is in attendance. In Paha's mind, this will stop the Wasichus from destroying the Black Hills and satisfy his vision quest.

Does he succeed? Does Paha Sapa (I love that name) survive? What happens to the President or Gutzon Borglum? Sorry, you will have to read 487 pages of this great novel to find out! I highly recommend this book.

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

Comment: The act of counting coup, especially unarmed, was considered a high honor for a Sioux warrior and earned an eagle feather that had to be painted red if he was wounded. The Mount Rushmore project took from 1927 to 1941 to finish with the final cost coming in at $989,992.32. Although the project was highly dangerous, not one worker was killed. Since the Lakota wanted to show that they also had great leaders, the Crazy Horse Memorial is being carved in the Black Hills 17 miles away. The sculpting of Crazy Horse started in 1948 and is not finished yet! Also as a historical note at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Mr. Ferris introduced his famous Big Wheel.