Product Description

The story of Jack Crabbe, raised by both a white man and a Cheyenne chief. As a Cheyenne, Jack ate dog, had four wives and saw his people butchered by General Custer's soldiers. As a white man, he participated in the slaughter of the buffalo and tangled with Wyatt Earp.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237621 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 440 pages

Customer Reviews

One of my personal bibles!
I got this book as an Easter present from my parents when I was ten years old, back in the late 1970's, so the book was at least 15 years old then. I think I had not long before seen the film with Dustin Hoffman. I'd always had a fascination with American Indians as they were known then and at that time was just about beginning to read/ see more than what I had been exposed to through John Wayne style westerns - about the same time one of my uncles bought me 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'.

The book is - as usual- far more broader in its scope than the film, although the film is excellent too. It begins with an amateur researcher tracking down a survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The 111 year old survivor begins the story in 1852 when as a ten year old boy he (Jack Crabb)and his elder sister end up living with a small group of Cheyenne who have killed his father and the other men on their wagon train during a drunken mistake. The elder sister runs away the first night leaving the young Jack with in his own words "newly joined a pack of barbarians".

The book takes the reader through Jacks life up to the age of 34 in 1876 when indeed he survives the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Custers Last Stand) - saved by a complex relationship to a Cheyenne playmate from his youth. Throughout the intervening years between 1852 and 1876 Jack oscillates between living with the Cheyenne and frontier society. Often feeling fundamentally 'white' when among the Cheyenne, and feeling fundamentally 'Cheyenne' when among the whites.

The book is laced with great humour, great characterisations (Caroline Crabb, Old Lodge Skins, Little Horse, Younger Bear, Lavender, Reverend Pendrake, Sunshine, Allardyce. T. Meriweather and Botts for example) and moments of pure reflections upon the great and most mundane things all of us encounter within our lives. I especially liked the fact that the whole book is written in the vernacular of the American frontier. That and the historical accuracy of the book are testament to the research Thomas Berger put into the work.

Read it and hopefully you'll love it as much as I did.

Fantastic tale of life in the Wild West
A superb historical novel which weaves the fictional character of Jack Crabb into key moments in the history of the Wild West. As a child, Crabb is captured by Indians and brought up as Little Big Man. Later, returning to life as a white man, Crabb is involved in gold rushes, buffalo hunting, gambling with Bill Hicock, fighting with Wyatt Earp and fatefully became the only white man to survive the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Brilliantly told - buy it now.

Best tale of the Wild West ever written
This is a classic fictional account of a 111 year old man recounting his adventures in the Wild West. Later made into a great movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Little Big Man tangles with all the heroes and villains of the West. The novel encompasses more of the great American Novel than any other book I have read.