Obtain The Dying Grass: A Novel Of The Nez Perce War Imagined By William T. Vollmann Issued As File

I may propose an alternative to the chic literary movement dubbed THE NEW SINCERITY, it would be this: Vollmann's Seven Dreams, and I would dub it HISTORICAL DISAPPOINTMENT.


The Dying Grass is much reminiscent of the scope and disaster of Vasily Grossman's own masterpiece of the latter century sitelinkLife and Fate, and equally set in terms of historicalconstraint which is ultimately unchangeable.
Despite its focus upon the minutiae of personal struggles for power and decision making within enclaves of either American soldiers or Nez Perce leadership, the scale and the stakes here are huge, the emotional weight heavyand yet we already all know its ending.
The underlying linkages between Vollmann and Grossman here aside from WTV's own stated admiration of the latter's big war novel are in their dual deployment of historical fiction as explanation and discourse upon the modern moment in which they find themselves.
Despite the relative distance of WTV from his subject matter as opposed to Grossman, the despair over the loss of what has never been experienced is no less heartwrenchingly rendered herein.


This book is sincere in its disappointment, sincere in its scope of loss and death, and most sincere in its certainty of these events as the inescapable past and foundation upon which the entirety of the United States has come to be the country it is.
Though it is a rather large book, one of its most impressive aspects is the way that it is constantly pointing beyond itselfto the process of the entire eradication and displacement of the Native populations in order to make way for the expansion of the nation state to the antiimmigrant and antileftist fearbaiting that led so many otherwise good intentioned people into impoverished "territories" in which their only option was conscription into an army which was happy to use their lives as fodder against its current enemies to the civil war as a destabilizing force that ultimately failed everyone who participated in it while extending its social disruption into the dispersal and rearrangement of populations that could feed the interest of the growing corporate behemoths we still live with today.


This book is farreaching, fardamning, and consistently made me hope against hope that the resolution of events could be anything other than what I already knew it to be.
It is from that disappointment and despair we must come to work against the foundation laid in blood and bone against the nature of American history and understanding which would prefer erasure and forgetfulness over remembrance and opposition.
To understand clearly that we live on stolen land and that there must be some other option to passively justifying itthough I wouldn't say profound disappointment is enough, this book makes it a starting point to come to grips with the much larger question: What is to be done



A hundred and one years after independence, we find a country expanding westward at a cosmic rate, fleeing the carnage of a civil war and inciting new conflicts and bloodshed en route.
In pursuit of land, resources, and power, treaties are broken, territories are seized, battles ensue, and entire peoples are dispersed and destroyed, Those who were once allies are made bitter enemies,

For such a profound subject and monstrous text, The Dying Grass is often minute in scope, Yes, it covers the major decisions and events that made up the Nez Perce War, but its prime concerns are two reluctant leaders and a surrounding motley chorus of characters, who, when cobbled together, form the cast and cause of this violent and deeply unfortunate conflict.
Throughout, William T. Vollmann reminds us that war is not solely the purview of generals but also forged from the thoughts, desires, and actions of its soldiers, civilians, and victims, many of whom care far less about politics and strategy than a new pair of boots, some land of their own, a rowdy evening at a saloon, or, often, returning home to their families and previous ways of life.
By situating much of The Dying Grass directly on the ground, war becomes much messier and uglier but also more personal and tangible,

Vollmann's fractured narrative, which, in giving voice to so many characters, pivots quickly and frequently between speaker, external/internal voice, and the past and present, offers more than enough cadence and momentum to propel the reader through this massive work.
To steal a recurring phrase from the text, it's "beautiful and automatic," andsimplya thrill to read, The story of this campaign is one somehow not included in any of my American History classes, The Nez Perce were moved from a large reservation and told to go to another, about/th the size, Most refused. There were some retaliations and the war began, The US Army chased Joseph and his tribe from southeast Washington, across Idaho, into Montana, into Yellowstone, and back north to almost the Canadian border, There were skirmishes along the way, By October, in northern Montana, the People Indians were cold, wounded, and beginning to starve,

If I had understood how Vollmann writes, I might never have started this and that would have been my loss, While the novel is long War and Peace long that isn't the real challenge in reading this novel, The prose itself flows easily enough, Vollmann has chosen to have nested paragraphs and sometimes he interrupts himself often in midsentence to provide a character's thoughts, There might be a conversation and one of the characters then has private thoughts, which might also lead to a side conversation between characters not party to the original.
He does this by indenting the paragraphs, so there is at least a visual of when this is happening, When the reader is returned to the original conversation, it might be more than a page later, when I had all but forgotten where the sidetracking began,

Dialogue doesn't have quote marks, In almost any other context I might have been exasperated, but in this, for some reason, the exchanges were clear, Much of this is General Howard talking with his officers, We see him try to administer the campaign,

He gives orders, he sends dispatches to headquarters, and he also writes letters of condolence to the family of the fallen, Vollmann uses either indents or italics so that what is being said and to whom is clear,

While there are women Nez Perce, there are no European women, other than the women the men left behind, Like it or not, men think about women a lot and in a sexual context, We are privy to their thoughts, though there isn't any graphic sex, Very rarely do they speak to each other on the subject,

Can I buy a squaw
What for
What else


he wrote in first person ominiscient, At first, I wondered if this was Joseph talking, but then he would refer to Joseph in the third person, I finally came to realize this was simply the way Vollmann wanted to represent the Nez Perce, Maybe he does the same in the other novels in the series, His prose in these sections was different, in that the cadence was more appropriate for a Native speaker, which still has the trace of an accent despite being English speakers for several generations, and isn't as fluid as Europeans who have been here for many generations.


Sometimes the Indian names slowed me down, Each time I encountered Toohhoolhoolsote, Peopeo Tholekt, or Heinmot Tooyalakekt, I stumbled, But there were other beautiful Indian names as well such as Sound Of Running Feet or Springtime, When writing from the Indian point of view, he changed some of the white names, General Howard was Cut Arm, But more challenging were Chapman and James Reuben, who became Tsepmin and Tsams Lupin, I didn't understand at first, of course, There are extensive glossaries, one of which is personal names, I didn't refer to them immediately, thinking there might be clarification, I didn't find it necessary to look up everything,

Did I say this is long There were times when I simply wished they'd get to the end of it, But the Indians kept ahead of the Army and the Army kept chasing them, When the end happened, it wasn't the real end, Not all of the Indians were killed and, of course, something had to be done with them,

And so I have reiterated everything that could possibly be wrong for a reader, And yet I was fascinated, Another reviewer has said, though he knew how it turns out, Vollmann has written a thriller, For me, "thriller" isn't in the ballpark for this, I simply found it sad not tears running down my face sad, just that the clash of the cultures is sad, I'm glad I didn't know all of the negatives, I'm probably not interested in most of the others of this series, but I have added his sitelinkThe Rifles to my over burdened wish list,

And so I come to the final decision, How do I rate this A couple of days ago, when I despaired they wouldn't put an end to chasing the Indians to the ends of the earth, I would have said no more thanstars.
But this is an experience I won't long forget, .