Far Bright Star: Summary and book reviews of Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead, plus links to an excerpt from Far Bright Star and a biography of Robert Olmstead.
Far Bright Star
by Robert Olmstead
Hardcover: May 2009,
207 pages.
Paperback: May 2010,
240 pages.
Set in 1916, Far Bright Star follows Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, as he leads an expedition of inexperienced soldiers into the mountains of Mexico to hunt down Pancho Villa and bring him to justice. Though he is seasoned at such missions, things go terribly wrong and the patrol is brutally attacked. After witnessing the demise of his troops, Napoleon is left by his captors to die in the desert.
Through him we enter the conflicted mind of a warrior as he tries to survive against all odds, as he seeks to make sense of a lifetime of senseless wars and to reckon with the reasons a man would choose a life on the battlefield. Olmstead, an award-winning writer, uses his precise, descriptive prose to explore the endurance and fate of the last horse soldiers. The result is a tightly wound novel that is as moving as it is terrifying.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
Although Far Bright Star has become one of my favorite books, it will not appeal to all readers. First, the author's writing style may annoy as many as it attracts, as it's so atypical of most current prose; some may consider it genius while others will think it overly affected. More importantly, the book contains scenes of intense brutality. I rarely have any difficulty reading about people inflicting harm on others; in Far Bright Star, though, some fairly horrific events are depicted so graphically that I found them truly disturbing, with long-lasting afterimages. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs). Full Review (1185 words).
Media Reviews
Library Journal
... a sparse, poetic style that is appropriate for the book's bleak setting and subject matter.
Booklist
This relatively short novel packs a potent emotional wallop.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Olmstead's brilliantly expressive, condensed tale of resilience and dusty determination flows with the kind of literary cadence few writers have mastered.
Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. The spectacle Olmstead presents is not a pretty one ... But the beauty and power of his prose will keep most readers from looking away. Brutal, tender and magnificent.
Washington Post
In this, his seventh book, Olmstead writes with a gritty style as sparse as the landscape itself...Olmstead's knife-edge paring of words...makes "Far Bright Star" such a fine work of fiction.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
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(1185 words).
Library Journal
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