The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge

Very well written and great subject matter. While the movie is more entertaining and exciting, they're two different animals altogether -- Punke's novel is not only down-to-earth, it's rooted in actual history and breathes life into a bit of a lost era. Informative, yet also compelling. Punke creates a whole mess of interesting characters, and the time spent with each of them is much appreciated. He's drawing from real frontiersmen -- their adventures, yes, but also their flaws and virtues.The long and short of it is, I hard a very hard time putting this one down. Because comparisons are inevitable -- yes, at the end of the day, I probably liked the movie better. Look, Iñárritu is a great mind, I'm sure he could make a movie to outshine Romeo and Juliet if he set his mind to it. So, if you saw the movie and you're thinking "Wow, I bet they cut out a lot of action from the book -- I bet it's way grittier and bloodier!" You're not strictly speaking WRONG, but you might be disappointed, and that's not fair to Punke's excellent novel. If you thought "Wow, that was an interesting story, I'd love to hear it again -- maybe more like what actually happened, you know, the real story," then this is for you, and it's GRAND.

I'm probably one of the many people who read this after seeing the movie and I loved the movie. I do think the movie was better than the book. What I like about this book (or the movie adaptation) is that the movie and the book aren't exactly the same so seeing the movie wouldn't ruin the book and reading the book wouldn't ruin the movie, or so I think. I like how the book goes more into the background of Hugh Glass and John Fitzgerald. The movie and Tom Hardy did a great job of making John Fitzgerald an unlikable villain, but the actual back story that's included in the book really shows how much of a scum bag and vile person he was, which I liked.The thing that kind of threw me (and maybe this is more my fault for setting wrong expectations) but I was thinking the book was more a historical account of the events, but the book is more historical fiction leaning towards the historical. The author acknowledges this too at least later on. When I say historical fiction too, I mean the author (I think) took all the facts he could find and then filled in the blank spaces with his creative (i.e. the point of view of a guy right before he gets killed and etc., which obviously can't be real).It's a very interesting story and worth a read. My final rating would be more in the 3.5-4/5 range.

Not a bad book by any means. But after the bear mauling and the "revenge" portion of the book starts, it honestly begins to drag. I got to the point where I was just reading to finish it.What the book does really well, though, is portray the struggles of the American frontiersmen in the 1820's fur trade era. I had no idea there was such chaos in the mid-west during this time of American history. Punke does a great job describing how brutal and hostile many of the Native American tribes were to white men at the time and how unforgiving the environment is. I have much more respect for these men after reading this book.

I haven't seen the film version of "The Revenant" but I can see why it was made into a movie. Despite all the challenges of adapting the book to film--like the length of time that passes and the amount of time the character spends in solitude--the book is very cinematic. The plot, based largely on fact, is simple and straightforward. Hugh Glass, while scouting for a fur trading company, is attacked and savagely mauled by a grizzly bear, then left with two of the trappers to recover or (more likely) die of his wounds. After a couple days, Glass's caretakers, one of whom is a young Jim Bridger, take the wounded man's possessions and leave him to die. Miraculously, Glass survives, driven by a quest for revenge. So many awful things happen to Glass during his recovery that they'd almost be comical if not based in truth. He can't walk at first and is forced to crawl. He almost dies of starvation. He's sprayed in the eyes by a skunk, captured by Indians, captured by pirates, shot with an arrow, his wounds fill with maggots--and this all happens after the bear attack and subsequent robbery. I had to keep reminding myself that life in the west in the 1820s was hard (total understatement). Many other characters meet with worse fates than Glass. The hostile Indian tribes are a constant threat, but so are the elements. Perhaps what I liked most about "The Revenant" was that it was a tried and true Western but unlike any other Western I've encountered. This wasn't the old west of six-shooters and moseying into saloons. If anything, this was the old-old west. Rifles were muzzle loading, and people had one shot so they needed to make it count. They wore animal skins and furs instead of chaps and cowboy hats. The west of "The Revenant" felt much more uncharted and untamed, which I felt was more realistic than the typical shoot-em-up between a sheriff and a villain. The reader spends a lot of time in Glass's head, so one would think the character would be well fleshed-out, but he remains somewhat elusive. Partly it's because he's so reluctant to talk to any of the other characters. (His windpipe was damaged by the bear and he hates the sound of his own voice.) But Glass, largely on his own in a hostile environment, must focus almost exclusively on survival--how to protect himself, find food, build a fire. There's just not much time to dwell on anything else. The simple revenge plot of "The Revenant"--Glass wants to kill the two men who abandoned him to die--has been done a million times, but mainly because it works. Glass was truly wronged, and I kept turning pages to find out if he'd get his revenge. From "The Revenant" I came away with a greater appreciation for the type of men willing to trap and explore in areas that were still blank spaces on the map. Rivers were the highways for trappers but also for Native Americans, which made for a lot of volatile confrontations. Today it's hard to imagine the risks these men took on a daily basis.

It's quite fascinating to see what life was like for the few whites venturing into the American West. The story is told well, but in a functional way without too many frills. At times it steps from fiction over into a historical account, and then back again. As such, the events gain from the sense that you are reading a historical narrative, but never quite jump off the page as they would from a better novelist. Having reached the end I'm glad I read it, without feeling the story was all it could have been. A decent book, and very interesting with plenty of detail about life being a trapper, fighting off - often very non-politically correct - Indians, surviving against the odds, in a truly wild west.

It just shows that I shouldn't let my prejudices influence me. I'm always a bit jaundiced about books linked to films, so I wasn't expecting too much from this novel. How wrong I was. Of course, this isn't a book written of a film but a book, written years earlier, that was, subsequently, made into a film. That makes a big difference. There's lots of stuff on the media about how true to the book the film is but I'm not bothered about that here; I'll just comment on the book itself.It's brilliant!Many years ago I hear about the story of Hugh Glass and his epic crawl through the wilderness but I only dimly remembered that when I saw this book being hyped. But is was enough to make me buy the Kindle version. I'm no expert on how the mountain men and trappers lived but every line of this work rings with authenticity. And it's truly fascinating stuff. The level of detail, from the kit to the flora and fauna is spectacular and never boring. I don't appreciate the condescension when an author uses a word and then feels obliged to explain what it means, implying that the reader is either too ill-informed to already know it or too dull to find out, and I'm delighted to report that Mr Punke doesn't do that at all. The story is peppered with words, phrases and names, often in a foreign language, that the reader is expected to work out for themselves; so, for example, beaver pelts are referred to as 'plews' because that is exactly what they would have been called at that time. Good for you Mr Punke.The characters that populate this work are so richly drawn that they live and breathe and I really cared about them. Some of their exploits should have been too unbelievable to sit, comfortably, within the plot yet that isn't the case at all; they are just remarkable men (and they are all men). A great deal of this story is historical fact and the skill displayed by the author in using fictional elements to knit it all together is so well delivered that the whole is a seamless flow.I absolutely devoured this book and, when I had to put it down (because real life intruded), I couldn't wait to get back to it. There are all sorts of superlatives that are overused in reviews so I won't type them here; simply imagine that I've poured every complimentary superlative that you've ever heard into this paragraph and you'll get the picture. I feel privileged to have read this or, indeed, it's so good that I feel as though I've lived it. If I have but one complaint, it's that the book ended too soon; I could have, happily, read on for several hundred more pages of this stuff and I felt real disappointment when I had to put it down for the last time.The only book(s) that I've read that sound as though they have a similar resonance, especially abut the various Indian tribes, were the series written by James Fennimore Cooper, know largely as 'The Last of Mohicans'. What's strange about that is that, in fact, Fennymore Cooper was a fraud who never went anywhere near the frontier of which he wrote, and he conjured most of it from his imagination, whereas the historical credentials of Michael Punke are rock solid (JFC's hero was, actually, called 'Natty Bumppo' but I can't see Daniel Day-Lewis being happy with that label!).Sadly, Mr Punke hasn't written anything else that attracts me but, in case I haven't made it clear, I absolutely loved The Revenant!!

1823 the Rocky Mountain Fur Company had been attacked after trading with them by the Arikawa, they now controlled the river between Fort Brazeau and the Mandan villages with 900 warriors, two groups were sent by different routes to try and get through, Captain Henry up the Grand River and Jebediah Smith up the Platte, they were top rendezvous in the summer of 1824, Glass went with Henry, they had already been attacked twice, Fitzgerald complained about dragging the Captains brother until he died, he was put on watch with Jim Bridger, next day Glass went forward to find a campsite, he saw some bear cubs but mother charged him leaving him with horrific injuries, the others did what they could for him but he was expected to dieThe group found they were being tracked by Indians, a bonus was offered to stay with Glass until he died, Fitzgerald and Bridger stayed, Bridger did what he could for Glass, Fitzgerald just wanted to leave him and say he died, Bridger objected but finally left with Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald stole his weapons, despite his injuries Glass crawls towards civilisation hundreds of miles away, Glass had a reason to live he wanted to kill Fitzgerald and Bridger for leaving him, he receives help from friendly Indians, he joins another expedition after his long recovery hoping to find Fitzgerald and Bridger, they have a fierce fight with Indians again with many killed, Glass survives, the journey continues in Glasse's attempt to get revengeMy verdict, liked the book but preferred the film but worth reading

A fabulous book and a really close description of the dangers of early white settlers and travellers in the vast and sparsely populated interior of the USA. Set at about the same time as the Indian Wars starting and with a harrowing opening storyline as our book's hero gets trapped between a female bear and her cubs and is savagely attacked. The rest of the book concentrates on revenge for being deserted and left with no means of defence or survival. The story revolves completely around this need for justice and yet ends on a compromise and is more about the will to survive than the need to drink from a cold cup of revenge. Well worth reading and somehow I doubt the film would add too much

A brilliant story based on real life characters and events. It tells the struggle of Hugh Glass who is deserted by his fellow trappers after a gruesome attack by a bear. With an indomitable will to survive and fueled by his thoughts of vengeance he fights against the elements and indians. The storyline is perhaps less involved than he film version but still has the same impact. It stresses just what human endeavour can achieve. Highly recommended.