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The Deerslayer
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - The Leatherstocking Tales: The Deerslayer
The last book James Fenimore Cooper wrote about Nathaniel 'Natty' Bumppo (Hawkeye) and the Mohican chief Chingachgook is the first from a chronological standpoint. 'The Deerslayer' is a fontier adventure set in New York state in the decades before the Revolutionary War.
Overall it is a good read, though Cooper's dialogue can get very repetitive. I often found this frustrating but, on the other hand, I could certainly believe these young, rustic characters would converse the way Cooper presents.
Cooper is a good enough writer to comfortably show his characters limitations. For example, in one scene Hawkeye worries that an ornate chesspiece is an idol and runs on about the evils of idolatry while a more sophisticated character is amused at his simplicity. Elsewhere, one of the female characters lectures Chingachgook about his wife in a way that is pretty condescending. Such well-intended misfires were probably common on the frontier, and I found them to be good characterization even though these scenes weren't really relevant to the plot.
Charm or no charm, it's impossible to read Cooper without noting that his plots are often glacial in their pacing. Frankly, this will be a deal-killer for many modern readers. However, I prefer to accept the slower pacing in this book. This was frontier America in the 1700s, not downtown New York City in 2008. Things and people would have moved at a slower pace. For me, the pacing is an element of the setting and characters. It's certainly true that when the action does kick in Cooper's writing becomes surprisingly tight. Inconsistent pacing or integrity of vision? You be the judge.
Cooper's main flaw that cannot be debated about or excused is his habit of painting 'tableaux' scenes that make you want to toss your lunch. He has a dreadful tendency to insert sour notes of Victorian sentamentality, which are as dissonant in his rustic tale as as a loud fart during a violin solo.
Bottom line, I enjoyed 'The Deerslayer' although, admittedly, I adapted myself to Cooper's pacing and intentions. I also believe that, if you read the novels in their actual written order, 'The Deerslayer' will be a very touching coda because it provides some interesting back story: the origin of Killdeer, Uncas' mother, and there's even a tantalizing hint about how Natty came to be among the Delawares. Cooper does a fantastic job of 'ending with the beginning.'
At the end of the day, the Leatherstocking Tales stand alone in their depiction of frontier life. Though Cooper wrote decades after the foundation of America, he gives me the feel of the colonial frontier and our American heritage like no other author I can think of. For this reason, his works are an American treasure.
Rating:  - A wonderful saga
Kent Rasmussen's editorial review is best left to the literists who cannot publish or write themselves. This was a wonderful tale full of adventure and is highly recommended to be read with the complete 5-book set of the Leatherstocking Tales. Enjoy.
Rating: - Coming of Age in the Garden of Eden
James Fenimore Cooper wrote his Leatherstocking tales out of chronological order. The Deerslayer or The First Warpath was the last of the Natty Bumppo novels and because Cooper had matured both in age and artistic ability it is perhaps the best.
From the beginning we know this is a darker novel than the preceding tales. In the first few pages Deerslayer's companion, Hurry Harry, asks the young man, "...Did you ever hit any thing human, or intelligible: did you ever pull trigger on an inimy that was capable of pulling one upon you?"
Bumppo's answer is, of course, no. He is at the beginning of his career. He is known as Deerslayer by the Delawares because that's what he does. He has yet to take a human life. As soon as we read this we know this novel, above all else, is a coming-of-age story and someone's life is ticking away....
In the interim Deerslayer meets Tom Hutter and his two daughters, the dark-haired Judith and the feeble-minded Hetty. The family lives on a castle-on-piers in the middle of Lake Glimmerglass, a secluded spot akin to the Garden of Eden -- the perfect setting for a coming-of-age story. Except things are not what they seem. This area is actually more of a haunt of savagery, with not a little of it supplied by both Hurry Harry and Tom Hutter against the local Native American tribe, the Hurons.
Judith Hutter, however, is the engine that drives this story. She's a woman with questionable morals, and though she's somewhat older than Deerslayer she falls in love with his open honesty and his natural way of looking at the world. In a telling exchange she asks him if he has a sweetheart. He answers:
"She's in the forest, Judith--hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain--in the dew on the open grass--the clouds that float about in the blue heavens--the birds that sing in the woods--the sweet springs where I slake my thirst...."
Judith perseveres. Has he never heard the laugh of a girl he loves? Deerslayer remains true to form:
"...To me there's no music so sweet as the sighing of the wind in the treetops, and the rippling of a stream from a full, sparkling, natyve fountain of fresh water, unless...it be the open mouth of a sartain hound, when I'm on the track of a fat buck."
In the pages that follow Deerslayer kills a man, a Native American attempting to take his life by deceit. He earns the reputation as "Hawkeye" for his deft shooting and helps Chingachgook secure the safety of his future wife, Hist. (She will be mother to the Last of the Mohicans, Uncas.) Further violence and treachery abound as Deerslayer is captured by the Hurons and tortured. Tom Hutter dies in an extremely gruesome manner and there's the mystery of Judith's past --even down to her parentage-- to be solved. But her love for Deerslayer is true and in the end she gives him her father's gun, a weapon of exquisite manufacture and excellent bore, which he will make famous--the long rifle, Killdeer.
In the end Deerslayer leaves Judith after yet more tragedy ensues. The novel ends fifteen years later with Hawkeye returning with Chingachgook and a stripling Uncas to Lake Glimmerglass. Everything has changed. The castle is abandoned and in disrepair, and the graves can no longer be found. Hawkeye tries to find out what happened to Judith, and we are awarded a glimpse of her fate, but no more.
As I said earlier this is a fairly dark book in the Leatherstocking Tales, but well-written. It's a good story and the characters really do come to life. There are the usual elements of humor and long-winded conversations but they don't detract too much from the overall enjoyment of this tale. Cooper also doesn't hold back in showing that violence, both necessary and ignoble, can come from anyone for any reason...at anytime.
This is one great book and I highly recommend it.
Rating: - Cooper Knew America
Race relations, environmental concerns, independent womanhood, the importance of personal character, survivalism, heroism, religion, cultural relativism, nature v. nurture, independence v. inter-dependency--sound like the latest hot topics in American TV, movies, and magazines? Actually, these constitute the bevy of themes that James Fenimore Cooper explored as foundational to the American experience when he wrote *Deerslayer* in 1841, setting it even farther back at the time of the French and Indian War, 1754-63. Some readers, not surprisingly, are put off by the ornate writing style of the early nineteenth century, but it doesn't hurt us post-moderns to turn off the TV and take a slower pace, interacting slowly with the writer and his thoughts. In Natty Bumppo, we find the first--and definitive--delineation of the American hero: selfless, dependable, restrained, tolerant, cagey, and moral. A generation raised on anti-heroes sometimes has a bit of a problem with the morality of Bumppo, but since 9/11, we have seen a revival of the American ideal that Cooper first defined in his Leatherstocking Tales. Don't give up on this one because of the language. Sit a bit and mull it over. You'll find Cooper will deliver remarkably well.
Rating: - Holds Your Interest!
"The Deerslayer" is the sequentially first in the Leatherstocking series of America's first, great, professional novelist, James Fenimore Cooper. I read it in preparation for a trip to Cooperstown, New York and I am glad that I did. Set in upstate New York in the 1740s, it provides the reader with an idolized introduction to the society of white and red of this colonial frontier.
The criticisms that the dialogue and actions are totally unbelievable, while justified, do not detract from the story. While the simple, faith-filled actions of the "Feeble Minded Hetty" and the dialogue between Deerslayer and Chingachgook seem highly improbable, the do hold the readers' interest. While I am generally not one to pick up readily on character development, this novel is an exception. The contrast between Deerslayer and Chingachgook, the romance between Chingachgook and Wah-ta-Wah, the romantic web among Judith, Hurry Harry and Deerslayer, and the varying responses to changes in circumstance coming from sisters Judith and Hetty all contribute to the persistent popularity of this work.
Despite all the criticisms directed against Cooper as to form, the one thing that cannot be denied is that this book is very difficult to put down. I found myself always wondering what would come next and what would happen to the characters whom I had come to know. Whether you are looking for an insight into early American literature or just a good story, your search should lead to "The Deerslayer".
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