Little Big Man Book

"Jack Crabb was either the most neglected hero in the history of this country or a liar of insane proportions. In either case, may the Everywhere Spirit have mercy on his soul, and yours, and mine."
- Thomas Berger, Little Big Man

"The truth seems hateful to most everybody."
- Thomas Berger, Little Big Man



I thought I was clever when I told my wife Jack Crabb, aka Little Big Man, was the Zelig of the American West. There is nothing new under the sun I guess. Larry McMurtry said it. Others said it before him. The universe is full of clever little readers.

I grew up reading American Indian captivity narratives. I loved Harold Keith's Komantcia and as soon as I was an adult with money, found and bought every copy I could find. I also adored Speare's The Sign of the Beaver. I moved on reading Thomasa's Soun Tetoken and Naya Nuki. So, I'm not sure why as an adult it took me so long to read Berger's masterpiece Little Big Man. It was funny, irreverant, and spanned the West; incorporating Mormons, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, the Cheyenne and lastly Custer and Little Big Horn.

This book is full of racial chauvinism, but the story is being told by a 111 year-old unreliable narrator, in 1952, relating an unbelieveable story that weaves him into most of the BIG storys of the West between the Civil War and Little Big Horn. Jack In summary, doesn't give a sick pig's piss what you think. Besides, he is cynical about just about every group, tribe, religion, etc. He just habitually hangs with the Cheyenne.

Anyway, not that it matters, but greater writers than me loved this book: see Vine DeLoria, Jr., Sherman Alexie, Larry McMurtry, John Cheever, Ralph Ellison. Anyway, it is low brow, beautiful, sad, and asks a lot of big questions and often leaves the big ones unanswered. It belongs on the shelf next to other "great American novels".