About book The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge (2015)
revenant[rev-uh-nuhnt] ˈrɛvənənt/ -noun1. a person who returns.2. a person who returns as a spirit after death; ghost.In Revenant, Hugh Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear, then robbed and left to die by his fellow frontiersmen. He's beaten, broken, and emaciated. He can't walk and he can barely eat. Even so, he vows revenge on the men who deserted him. How great does this book sound?Early on, Glass is mauled by the bear. Want to know how bad? Here's a description of his scalp post-bear attack:The skin was so loose that it was almost like replacing a fallen hat on a bald man. Harris pulled the scalp across Glass's skull, pressing the loose skin against his forehead and tucking it behind his ear. (p. 27)After that, in true Western spirit, things go from bad to worse for Glass. If being left for dead and robbed of anything that would help him survive wasn't enough, he also has a hallucination about being bit by a rattlesnake, gets sprayed by a skunk, and has to fight wolves. All this and he still hasn't regained the ability to walk (OK, so fighting the wolves was a voluntary decision, but that's just goes to show it's no coincidence that Hugh Glass rhymes with bad ass).But regain the ability to walk he will and it is then that the proverbial shit gets real.Punke does the reader a great service in this book – he paces it perfectly and he focuses on the character that needs focus at each particular point in the story. For example, Glass is attacked and abandoned very early in the story, but instead of following the two men that abandoned him, or even updating the reader on them, the story stays with Glass. This is just what it should do. The attack, abandonment, and recovery are so intense, that I couldn't care less about what was going on with the other characters. Fortunately, the focus of the story didn't let me down.If you like Western movies, you'll really enjoy The Revenant. If the story gets too wrapped up in the physical nature of Glass's quest, his confrontation with the weaker of his abandoners offers a satisfying psychological aspect of Glass's desire for revenge (a brief foreshadowing of this psychological aspect is what piqued my desire for it). As a bonus, the book leaves sixty pages to catch the more evil of the two men that robbed Glass and left him for dead.As a second bonus, The Revenant is based on a true story. Nails.This review first appeared on ...And Read All Over
I don't think "Revenge" is considered a book genre, but it should be. Apparently I really love books on revenge.1820's Middle America. A trapper is mauled (nearly to death) by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. Only he doesn't die. Now, half-dead and unable to stand, he sets out to crawl his way across hostile and untamed land to seek revenge on those who abandoned him.Soon to be a major motion picture starring Leonard DiCaprio. This is a man's book. In fact, with the exception of an ancient Native American woman, there are no female characters in this book. The Revenant reminded me a lot of movies such as There Will Be Blood and True Grit. Or, to a lesser extent, the book The Stars My Destination (although in a much different time period).The Revenant is based on the true story of Hugh Glass, an American fur trader. It's hard to believe that anyone could have lived this story. I'm certainly glad that I live in the 21st Century with electricity and cell phones, and Penicillin. Granted, I'll never be as "weather-hardened" as any one of the characters in this story, but my life expectancy should be at least twice as long. Still, with epic lines such as "Happy New Year, you dirty sons of bitches", this book will make you long for a life lived on the edge of the known world, where you're free to decide, and implement, your own brand of justice.
Do You like book The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge (2015)?
enjoyable read. I liked the way the author described the men and the open wildness of the open frontier. Fighting for food. Fighting the Indians. Burying your buddies along the way. What was entertainment back then? Pure unbridled entertainment came in the telling of a story. An adventure in the unknown and unsettled lands. Just like we humans now read books and stare at screens full of color and sounds, in those days, it was listening to a man that was there! Sharing his experience, and probably ad libbing just a little bit. I enjoyed every word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter of this novel. I think you will too. Hugh Glass is my new American hero....
—Dennyhil
I found this book to be a bit boring. If the upcoming movie is as boring as this book, it will die a swift death in the theaters. I figure that whoever is doing the film will rewrite things to put a little excitement in it.At times, it seems that every other page was of our hero crawling around or running from Indians. The entire thing is about him looking for revenge against two men who had wronged him. And then all of a sudden, there is the end of the book. O_oIt would not have been so bad if it had not been so unbelievable. The guy was mauled by a bear. One leg and one arm are almost useless for a long time. BUT, he still manages to roll really heavy rocks a long way to make a trap to catch dinner. THEN, he crawls around in a huge circle closing it as he goes around to make the animals run to the trap. Really? It was just "OK". I will read anything, and I read "The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge" simply because I have it. If you do not have anything else to read, go for it.
—Hort
This was an engrossing novel. The plot moved along at a fairly brisk pace and at a length of only 255 pages, it was a quick read. I love reading about the early days of the American frontier, and I also love survival stories; this book combines the two. Based on true events, it tells the story of Hugh Glass, a trapper who survives a brutal grizzly attack and sets out to track down the two men who left him for dead so that he can exact his revenge. The story was so compelling that I plan to read
—Pam
