Monday, February 21

 

Something went wrong and I repeated a comment I had used previously.  I've deleted that and here is what I should have said.

 

I thought I would re-read Centennial which made such an impression on me when I first read it.  It was published in 1974 and I remember reading it one week when I was working at Chakola.  We moved to Hobart in January, 1975 so that pins it down fairly accurately.

 

It’s a huge book outlining the history of the settlement of Colorado, covering the life and demise of the Native Americans, the trappers for beaver and the searchers for gold, the settlers who arrived in their covered wagons, and the cattle barons who exploited the land.

 

I think I was impressed on my first read with the breadth of the story and the authoritative way in which it was written.  Details have stuck with me: the discovery of dinosaurs in the area, and a comment that Lapsang Souchong is the tea that whisky-drinkers prefer.

 

I had forgotten, though, the callous way in which the Native Americans were treated: deliberately poisoned and infected with smallpox to hasten their dying-out.  I had pushed to the back of my mind the reverential way in which the settlers thought of their guns, and that feeling still permeates US society today.  The accepted brutality and the cheapness of life were also features of that era.

 

James Michener was highly thought of for his historical novels and he was known for the meticulousness of his research.  You can’t read this book without its leaving a nasty taste in your mouth.  I like a book where the baddies get their just desserts; it’s often the other way round in this book.  I’m glad I re-read it anyway.