The Heartsong of Charging Elk

Having read all of Welch's novels, I found this to be the most impressive. It really describes well an incident in the history of Anglo/Native relationships not having to rely on violence, romance, or hidden agendas... highly recommended.

Through the eyes of a Lakota man marooned in Marseille we experience both the declining culture of late 19th century native America and the excitement of a vibrant of port city in France. These seem unlikely settings but Welch's descriptions and characterizations make both come to life. We can feel the fear and uncertainty that Charging Elk feels as he finds his way to accepting the strange new world and his longing for the place and the people he has left behind. And we can feel the foreboding or distain but more often the curiosity and the compassion of the French people he encounters. It's a bumpy ride for Charging Elk and sometimes a bit plodding for the reader but the story works and was hard to put down once I got into it.

I was lying on my bed, snuggled into my down comforter and tons of pillows. I was completely immersed in this fantastic novel by the utterly fascinating James Welch. It was a particularly breathtaking scene, one where your eyes move as fast as they can, you can't breathe, you can't think of anything other than the story, you can't hear, see, smell, taste anything else. Suddenly something crashed in the next room of my house. And my eyes moved up through the text, looking for the source of the noise! I was so into the story, that I thought the sound was part of the story. It took me a few minutes to realize that my cats had knocked something over in the bathroom of my very own house!The Heartsong of Charging Elk is, yes, that amazing. Charging Elk, on Oglala Sioux from the Black Hills of South Dakota, has joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, leaving behind his family, friends, and Indian lifestyle for money, fun, and not a little fame. Eventually the show crosses the Atlantic to Europe. During a show in France, ill with the flu, Charging Elk (then still a teenager) falls and breaks a couple of ribs. Left behind in the French hospital, Charging Elk is understandably frightened. He speaks very little English and even less French. He escapes and decides he's going home. Along the way he finds new friends, independance, and love. But does he find his way back to America and his Indian way of life? This absorbing work of historical fiction is one hell of a breathtaking ride. I followed Charging Elk through the many difficulties of his life in France, laughing, crying and loving him all the way. You will come to care for, worry about, and definitely miss Charging Elk by the time you finish reading this novel. He is one character I will never forget and The Heartsong of Charging Elk is one book I will definitely read again and again.

Think of those old photos of Sioux Indians sitting stone-faced in Venetian gondolas or posing with Queen Victoria. What were those men thinking, warriors who until only very few years before had been riding full-tilt across the plains? In "the Heartsong of Charging Elk," James Welch imagines what it must have been like for a Sioux to travel across Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.Traveling with the show was pretty fun. Charging Elk and the other young men get to show off their riding skills, chase buffalo again, and shoot up a mock homestead. When they show was over, they went home to the tipis they traveled with - just like they'd done on the plains - joked, gambled, ate, and had a good time. The strange world around them was not much of a marvel or a curiosity, and very few whites made an impression (Queen Victoria was the exception. The Indians all liked her and called her Grandmother England.) Very few spoke any English, let alone French or Italian.In Marseilles, Charging Elk becomes ill and was taken to the hospital. Wit no idea that arrangements had been made for him to rejoin the show in Rome, he leaves the hospital and disappears into the city. He might as well be on Mars. He has no idea what people around him are doing. He cannot speak to anyone. The French are as bewildered by him as he is by them. But he knows that what he wants is to go home. Throughout the novel, Welch weaves Charging Elk's Sioux dream life through his days in working-class Marseilles. Will he fall in love? Make friends? Make a home in France, or find his way back to Red Cloud Agency? Welch avoids the obvious ploy of making Charging Elk more noble than the so-called civilized French. He is no paragon, nor are the French universally beastly. How they get along is a paen to the adaptability of the human race.