4.0
The Dying Grass
ByPublisher Description
"The reading experience of a lifetime ..."--The Washington Post
The National Book Award winner takes readers inside the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce Indians
In this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War, with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the U.S. Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn as they fled from northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. Vollmann’s main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph, but his pursuer, General Oliver Otis Howard, the brave, shy, tormented, devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel, we see him as commander, father, son, husband, friend, and killer.
Teeming with many vivid characters on both sides of the conflict, and written in an original style in which the printed page works as a stage with multiple layers of foreground and background, The Dying Grass is another mesmerizing achievement from one of the most ambitious writers of our time.
The National Book Award winner takes readers inside the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce Indians
In this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War, with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the U.S. Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn as they fled from northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. Vollmann’s main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph, but his pursuer, General Oliver Otis Howard, the brave, shy, tormented, devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel, we see him as commander, father, son, husband, friend, and killer.
Teeming with many vivid characters on both sides of the conflict, and written in an original style in which the printed page works as a stage with multiple layers of foreground and background, The Dying Grass is another mesmerizing achievement from one of the most ambitious writers of our time.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Dying Grass Reviews
4.0
“It took about 50 pages for the rhythm and the style of writing to click for me but I loved the whole thing. Super super underrated, I don’t really see anybody talk about this book. I’m glad my library had a copy.”
LikeableMemorableMorally ambiguousMultilayeredOriginalStrong relationshipsUnforgettable protagonistAddictiveDisjointedGripping/excitingNonlinear narrativeSlow-pacedAtmosphericBeautifulBleakDarkEtherealEvocative imageryExpansiveGrittyImmersive world-buildingInnovativeMajesticRealisticRusticSetting fits the storyVivid descriptionsBeautifully-writtenOriginalTakes getting used toAnimal abuseChild lossDeathMurderRacismSexual assaultWar violence
Diverse representationMinor characters stand outMorally ambiguousEpic scopeNonlinear narrativeSlow-pacedSteady pacingBleakDarkGrittyRusticBeautifully-writtenOriginalTakes getting used toAbuseBigotryChild abuseChild lossDeathDomestic violenceExplicit sexual contentFat phobiaGriefMisogynyMurderRacismReligious intoleranceSexual assaultViolenceWar violence
“A 1400 page epic about the Nez Perce war of 1877 written in such a peculiar but addictive style; The Dying Grass is one of the most incredibly, important and phenomenally realised books I have ever read.
There is nothing else out there like The Dying Grass - well maybe there are other books like this but they will only have been written bbq William T. Vollmann. His writing is so experimental, but something that conveys so much. He uses the layout of the page as a landscape, something that reflects the beauty and harshness of the American West as well as explore a whole host of characters in a matter of sentences.
This is a historical fiction that explores the violence that occurred between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army after the Battle of Little Bighorn. We follow the key characters who lived during this period.
I can honestly say I've never read anything that has been researched like this. There are footnotes, a hundred pages of notes and references, everything is done to the last minute detail. Vollmann is my kind of author and I cannot wait to read some more by him.
The Dying Grass took quite a while to acclimatise to given the grandiose style but after a hundred pages or so I was in, immersed, hooked and couldn't put it down. There is so much beauty here, such amazing dialogue and language and the content reflects exactly the happenings of 1877 - it is honestly heartbreaking. Three scenes absolutely destroyed me and the connection I had to the characters, the animals, even the landscapes, had me in a chokehold.”
About William T. Vollmann
William T. Vollmann has written nine novels, four collections of stories, six works of nonfiction, and a memoir. He has won the National Book Award for Europe Central, the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction, and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Other books by William T. Vollmann
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