The Dying Grass

A Novel of the Nez Perce War

By: William T. Vollmann

Narrated by: Henry Strozier

The National Book Award winner takes listeners inside the epic fighting retreat of the Nez Perce Indians.

In this new installment in his acclaimed series of novels examining the collisions between Native Americans and European colonizers, William T. Vollmann tells the story of the Nez Perce War, with flashbacks to the Civil War. Defrauded and intimidated at every turn, the Nez Perces finally went on the warpath in 1877, subjecting the US Army to its greatest defeat since Little Big Horn as they fled from Northeast Oregon across Montana to the Canadian border. Vollmann's main character is not the legendary Chief Joseph but his pursuer, General Oliver Otis Howard, the brave, shy, tormented, devoutly Christian Civil War veteran. In this novel we see him as commander, father, son, husband, friend, and killer. Teeming with many vivid characters on both sides of the conflict and written in an original style, The Dying Grass is another mesmerizing achievement from one of the most ambitious writers of our time.

©2015 William T. Vollmann (P)2015 Recorded Books

The end of living, the beginning of survival

The Nez Perce War put into the context of the late American 19th century. The natives must be forced from their land and culture for the Bostons to manifest their destiny. Sad! Thanks to the author and the narrator for this excellent work. Joseph is referenced as the red Napoleon and this book has the stature of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Not a casual read but would highly recommend to those willing to take the time.

It is all the same. Let us kill, die or ride away

"The destiny of the white race in America is to eat up the red men, and in this rising tide of population that rolls toward the setting sun there is no one who is backward in taking his bite -- no one except the government that temporizes and buys peace, to avoid doing the duty that the individual is doing from choice or from necessity."
-- Phillippe Régis Denis de Keredern de Trobriand (1867)

Pynchon Vollmann Analogy

Gravity's Rainbow:Europe Central::Mason&Dixon:The Dying Grass

This might not be my favorite novel of the last several years, but it is one of the best. And I can't easily grasp a novel that I liked more. I just don't know. My brain is fried. My emotions are fried. My ability to look objectively at this book, and history, and the United States is fried.

One of the best compliments I can give to the best historical fiction is that it doesn't break history, but fills in the gaps and bends it. Hillary Mantel does this very well. So too does Robert Graves, John Williams, and Patrick O'Brian. These other authors seem content to carve prose castles to tell their stories of leaders, kings, and periods. Vollmann just drops a volcano on the reader. There is just so much.

I was trying to describe the feeling of reading Vollmann (I've only read three Vollmann, the other two were Europe Central and Whores for Gloria) to my wife. To me it is equivalent of reading a strange cut-up method combination of Mantel, Pynchon, and Burroughs WHILE tripping on mushrooms. But that still doesn't do it justice. There is no easy metaphor for Vollmann. There is no way to explain Vollmann without using Vollmann. What is the only way to understand Vollmann? You have to grab the biggest Vollmann you can find and jump in without fear and without looking back. He is big, vicious, kind, detailed, warm, clinical. He just doesn't stop. He is exhausting and frustrating. He is the literary equivalent of Hieronymus Bosch. He is the hardest working hypergraphic around.

I can't imagine Vollmann is very profitable to Viking. There are just NOT that many people jostling in the age of Twitter (where the demands of reading and writing are limited to 140 characters) to read 1376 pages of digressive, experimental, inner/outer stream of consciousness narrative fiction. However, I know why they keep him on their Viking reservation: the guy WILL win the Nobel prize someday. Guaranteed. This dude has a long, harsh tail.

"It is all the same. Let us kill, die or ride away."

Great listening experience!

It took a couple of hours to get accustomed to the writing style but Henry Strozier's performance soon brought it all together. the research and subtexts were very well done and their incorporation into the novel was seamless.

Dense, dreadful, and delightful.

Vollmann is a master of magnifying the details of the past in compelling narratives. An unparalleled talent.

I Give Up

I have listened to over two hours of this story and it makes no sense, considering what the novel is supposed to be about. I hope that this is one of those books that does not translate to the spoken word, as opposed to the written word. All I have heard is a never-ending series of vignettes that son't appear to relate to the topic and that are not placed in context. Two hours is too long for a preface. Maybe the bokk is an artistic masterpiece but you will have to wade through a lot of chaff to get to the wheat.

bookgirl

boring. asking for a refund. i normally enjoy this type of historical information. i cannot understand how it received such high ratings.

Borrrrrrrring & hard to follow

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This was painful

What could William T. Vollmann have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Better transitions

How could the performance have been better?

Made me want to sleep

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Dying Grass?

About 40 hours

Any additional comments?

Wish I would have looked into this more first

Difficult writing style

The writing style was too much like a news broadcast. This may work well for others,but I don't care for that style and would not want to listen to it for almost 55 hours.