If you liked Little Big Man, you'll like this book. More of the same, but mostly with Buffalo Bill Cody this go round. Lots of fun to read. ( )

Well it was advertised as a sequel, and it is one. we find out how everyone is doing in 1885, mostly in New York city. The survivors of "Little Big Man" are visited. But the lightning strike of the original hasn't even left an odour of ozone on the charred ground. Aside from a few bright "Guess What?" moments, I found it hard to finish this book. It's best ignored. ( )

Tried to read this for a book club at the office, but couldn't finish it. The movie based on the first book was fun, the second book was just too much of the same, again, and again...The writing style was irritating. ( )

Finally got around to finishing this, having had a copy since it's original publication, and being a huge Berger fan. It's much as you would hope to expect from the title - the incredibly aged Jack Crabb outwitting his previous biographer (the late Ralph Fielding Snell) by faking his demise, and setting down more of his story on his own terms.

What made it difficult for me to read this straight through (I stopped at the near-halfway point several times) was the book's general lack of a strong central plot, being a kind of fictional autobiography. As in Little Big Man, Jack Crabb wanders here and there, always tending to stumble upon famous characters and events, which gets a little too predictable, perhaps, although the author never fails to bring interest and humor to these episodes.

I was pleasantly surprised once I finally pushed beyond my previous stopping points, as the story does obtain greater focus once Jack latches onto Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. This had never been an historical episode of particular interest to me, but I found this part of the story much more involving than I would have thought. It also seems a natural progression of the over-arching theme of the two books, being the place of the Indian in the face of advancing (and now conquering) white men.

The character of Sitting Bull was also a revelation, reminding the reader (and Jack) of Old Lodge Skins, though not as central as that character. The account of his murder is horrifying, and quite moving.

Probably the most enjoyable parts of the book, I would say, deal with how the Indian just thinks differently than the white man - his idea of a joke, or why talking about when something happened in the past might be considered impolite. As in the first book, Berger manages to present the Indian as human, neither exalted nor demeaned.

Crabb promises yet more "true" stories to tell by the end, and of course we believe him, and hope it won't be too long a wait. ( )