Savage Lands

This is another tour de force from Clare Clark, and not to be missed. As with The Great Stink and The Nature of Monsters, Clark creates an intense and atmospheric world which instantly draws one in and is utterly absorbing until the very last page. The backdrop - the struggles of early 18th-century settlers in colonial French Louisiana - has clearly been impeccably researched and Clark realizes the desperate conditions and appalling hardships this small band of humanity must have suffered with astonishing detail. Against this scene Clark's main protagonists, Elizabeth and Auguste, immediately capture our attention and the unfolding drama of their intertwined lives is gripping. The result is a beautifully written story, uncompromising in its exploration of human endurance and suffering. This is a book to read slowly whilst savouring every page.

"Savage Lands" is an exquisitely-written saga of the early days of white occupation in the Louisiana Bayou. In luminous prose, the author, Clare Clark, brings us into the orbit of the intrepid first settlers of a region that is still wild in many parts today. The courage of such immigrants can't be measured; mosquitoes, heat, alligators, sickness and death that arise from the soggy earth, all assembles itself before the reader in the foreboding unknown of this New World. The central characters are Elisabeth Savaret, the one well-educated girl amongst twenty-two who are recruited in Paris to be wives of the men who have gone to Louisiana; her future husband, Jean-Claude; and a boy, Auguste, who has escaped a futureless life in France by joining a ship's company for the trip to Louisiana. It is 1704; the French and English vie with one another for white mastery of the region, trying to get the various powerful Native American tribes on their side, and resorting to sabotage and bribery to accomplish their ends. No one has told the women they are importing of the true nature of the settlement; of course, the lies abound - that gold and jewels are there for the taking, and that all settlers are rich. Elisabeth is not fooled; her parents have rid themselves of a liability by including her in the shipment of females, and she has no illusions about her fate. She is overwhelmed, then, by discovering that the man who chooses her - Jean-Claude, an ambitious, avaricious soldier intent only on climbing up the ladder - is someone whom she falls in love with immediately, and remains devoted to. Auguste, some years younger than Elisabeth, is rescued from the Indian village where the local commandant has left him to gather information about the Indians, by Jean-Claude, who brings the boy back and more or less incorporates him into his own household. Auguste develops a passionate love for Elisabeth, which complicates things; part love triangle, part adventure-history, this book takes the reader through the bayous so that you feel the suck of swamp mud on your feet, feel the fetid swamp air on your face, and hear the whine of the mosquitoes around your head. Ms Clark weaves such poetry through her writing that the imagery is personal, tactile, and wonderful. She can make you see a Vermeer painting in the simple act of someone milking a cow, or dozing in the afternoon heat, sitting on a stool; her way with words is like literal dessert. A glance, a sigh, a sound from the woods, all springs into mind clearly through her work. And yet I did not tear through this book; passages I liked I savoured, to read over a few times and enjoy the image that came to mind. I have never really considered the beginning of that part of America, other than it was eventually purchased by America and made famous by many different people and events - the Creoles, Acadians, and the War of 1812. This earlier settlement was new to me. It shows how hardy our ancestors had to be - it was r

Savage Lands is a uniquely atmospheric account of life for the early settlers of French Louisiana. As part of the story of the birth of the American nation, it is a much under represented period in the world of historical novels. The characters that make their way into this exceptionally fine work, are complex and believable. Their motives and the world they occupy comes to life in a very well measured plot. This moves the pace along well, and absorbs the reader completely. The heroine Elizabeth is well drawn, and the twists and turns that take her through her obsentional love for her arranged marriage husband, through to the reality of his true unpleasant character, is the spine on which this story unfolds. The nature of the real lives for these early settlers and the facets of their world such as the relationships with the Native Americans, make a highly compelling story. Clark's research is worn lightly, and you come away having absorbs much through the narrative structure. She writes with the reader and story in mind. The facts and pictures of life in these times form a real, very evocative backcloth to the compelling people she paints portraits of. If you enjoy strong characters, engaging atmosphere and powerful plot I cannot recommend this enough.

In 1703, twenty-three girls of marriageable age embark on a perilous voyage from Paris to the French colony of Louisiana. Called "casket girls", these young women are destined for marriage to the colonists. While France seethes with the greed of speculation and the Mississippi Company forms to accommodate trading on a grand scale, the reality proves far different for those who arrive in the swampy bayou dotted with wooden shacks. The colonists and soldiers, slim in ranks, live meagerly, desperate to sustain a ragged existence, making treaties with local native tribes to counteract the English, who are also determined to conquer this land. Just as she did in The Nature of Monsters, Clark creates an utterly believable and daunting landscape, where Indian raids threaten and disease is rife, where settlers toil against incredible odds waiting for reinforcements from France. The landscape is bleak, the problems formidable, but in Clark's impressive rendering of history at a turning point, the characters are richly drawn, alive on the pages with all the passion, danger, greed and fear that plagues these first Louisiana settlers. Most touching and memorable is Elisabeth Savaret. Disdaining the chatter and foolishness of the other women, Elisabeth claims the role of outsider. And unlike the others, her marriage to a French Canadian ensign in the army is filled with a wild passion that surprises her and threatens to overtake her life. Jean-Claude Babelon, Elisabeth's husband, makes springtime forays to the Indian camps, trading for goods and food, keeping his ear to the ground for the progress of the English, ambition and greed burning in his heart. In time, Jean-Claude makes the acquaintance of a former cabin boy left to mingle with the Indians and learn their languages, August Guichard, reporting to the governor what he is able to learn. August thrives in this environment, making a fast friendship with Jean-Claude, eventually becoming part of the couple's charmed circle. But the serpent of betrayal brings about a wrenching event, part of the great drama unfolding in the fledgling colony. Clark captures the magnitude of the efforts at settlement, the extreme hardships, the passions that threaten to undo Elisabeth's and August's evolving participation in the hierarchy of the colony. The canvas is vast, tragic and magnificent, the characters caught in the vortex of history as distant from Paris as the moon. Clark proves, once again, her mastery of history and her deep understanding of human nature, colonial French Louisiana pulsing with the ambition and desperation of the settlers. Luan Gaines/2009.

The French colonists in Louisiana were desperate for wives so they asked the king to send them marriageable girls of good character. The first shipment of 22 girls arrived at Fort Louis, LA in 1704 and all but one were married within a month. This is a story of one of the "casket or cassette girls" so called because they were allowed one trunk or cassette for their belongings. LA in the 1700's was a horrible place to live. There was flooding, starvation and skirmishes with the English and the Native American tribes. Illness and death was all too common. The Mississippi company, conceived by John Law, spread propaganda in France extolling the richness and ease of life in LA. Many colonists were convinced to invest and move to LA. They had a rude awakening when they arrived. The main character Elizabeth Savaret, is based on two real-life casket girls but the story is imagined. Her books and down quilt were the two most precious belongings packed in her casket. The quilt becomes her husband's favorite and symbolizes his attention/indifference to her. The books become her refuge and open her eyes to the illusion of her marriage. She comes to know herself and her own strength but it is a long journey told in the pages of this book. "To know ourselves. Entirely and truthfully, without evasion." This novel is literary fiction based on history. Clark has created a story with such well developed characters and depth that the history becomes a fascinating catalyst. If you don't care for historical fiction, it won't matter because the story is so well written it stands on its own. Update: On 3/17/10 Savage Lands was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.