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Eaglechild
Rupert Carlos is the only son of an English Earl and a Spanish Countess.
The Earl tries to persuade Rupert that the “Red Indians” of North America are the losers in the battle for survival because their cultures are weak and inferior. He thinks of himself and his ancestors as swashbuckling Protestant capitalists. He is proud of his family’s involvement in the Hudson’s Bay Company which colonised vast areas of Canada on behalf of the British Empire.
However, the Countess feels guilty because her aristocratic ancestors exploited los Indios since the times of Columbus. She is a Catholic, but open to an unorthodox belief in “natural priesthood” and other “ways of knowing” such as shamanism. As such, she wants to use her immense wealth, her Spanish titles and her son’s future role in the British House of Lords, to make restitution to the Indians of all the Americas from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
In his attempt to cope, the intelligent and sensitive young Rupert creates his own secret world in the woodlands of his father’s estate in Oxfordshire, complete with a tipi and an imaginary Indian blood brother.
In 1982, while an undergraduate at Oxford, Rupert encounters Clearvoice, an 82-year-old Cree Indian “troublemaker” who has come to England to meet the “White Queen”. He confronts the British Parliament and demands that it honour the treaty Queen Victoria made with his grandfather on the Canadian prairies in 1876. His visit is also the fulfilment of a Vision Quest dream he experienced when he was sixteen years of age.
As Rupert emerges into manhood, his search for an authentic role in the midst of these conflicting cosmologies is complicated by a corrupt official at the Canadian embassy in London whose scheming triggers a chain of shocking events that forces Rupert to re-evaluate all his beliefs and loyalties.
The story of the novel also features a Blackfoot-Cree Holy Woman from Alberta and a Jesuit with Christian-Marxist tendencies from Seville. All these complex characters are swept up in mystery and suspense by a plot that twists and turns until the last page. Although it is a modern story, the first four chapters include references to more than a hundred years of relations between Britain and the Indian nations told from both points of view.
Set mainly in 1982-85 in England, Canada and Spain, it is fiction inspired by fact in a rich mixture of politics, religion, family and tribe. It demonstrates how the search for personal identity and integrity can play a vital role in nation-building.
The novel is unusually long because it is two books in one. Book 1 consists of four chapters in which the main characters transport the reader into their four quite different cosmologies. Book 2 deals with the conflict between these four worlds between 1982 and 1985.
The Earl tries to persuade Rupert that the “Red Indians” of North America are the losers in the battle for survival because their cultures are weak and inferior. He thinks of himself and his ancestors as swashbuckling Protestant capitalists. He is proud of his family’s involvement in the Hudson’s Bay Company which colonised vast areas of Canada on behalf of the British Empire.
However, the Countess feels guilty because her aristocratic ancestors exploited los Indios since the times of Columbus. She is a Catholic, but open to an unorthodox belief in “natural priesthood” and other “ways of knowing” such as shamanism. As such, she wants to use her immense wealth, her Spanish titles and her son’s future role in the British House of Lords, to make restitution to the Indians of all the Americas from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
In his attempt to cope, the intelligent and sensitive young Rupert creates his own secret world in the woodlands of his father’s estate in Oxfordshire, complete with a tipi and an imaginary Indian blood brother.
In 1982, while an undergraduate at Oxford, Rupert encounters Clearvoice, an 82-year-old Cree Indian “troublemaker” who has come to England to meet the “White Queen”. He confronts the British Parliament and demands that it honour the treaty Queen Victoria made with his grandfather on the Canadian prairies in 1876. His visit is also the fulfilment of a Vision Quest dream he experienced when he was sixteen years of age.
As Rupert emerges into manhood, his search for an authentic role in the midst of these conflicting cosmologies is complicated by a corrupt official at the Canadian embassy in London whose scheming triggers a chain of shocking events that forces Rupert to re-evaluate all his beliefs and loyalties.
The story of the novel also features a Blackfoot-Cree Holy Woman from Alberta and a Jesuit with Christian-Marxist tendencies from Seville. All these complex characters are swept up in mystery and suspense by a plot that twists and turns until the last page. Although it is a modern story, the first four chapters include references to more than a hundred years of relations between Britain and the Indian nations told from both points of view.
Set mainly in 1982-85 in England, Canada and Spain, it is fiction inspired by fact in a rich mixture of politics, religion, family and tribe. It demonstrates how the search for personal identity and integrity can play a vital role in nation-building.
The novel is unusually long because it is two books in one. Book 1 consists of four chapters in which the main characters transport the reader into their four quite different cosmologies. Book 2 deals with the conflict between these four worlds between 1982 and 1985.
722 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 21, 2015
A Story of Redemption - from my Amazon review 15th September, 2015
"Eaglechild" is a novel about a boy of conflicting parentage who struggles to find his true heritage, and in the course of a journey that extends from childhood to young adulthood discovers an unsettling truth about both his mother, a fabulously rich Spanish Countess, and his father, a member of the British peerage who faces financial ruin and the loss of his ancestral home.
In a story that spans three generations and is set in Canada, Great Britain, and Spain, the author captivates his reader with an inter-generational, cross-cultural, and class-crossing drama of epoch proportions. In crisp prose, Victor O'Connell portrays a set of characters whose lives intersect in ways none of them could have imagined, and with consequences rife with disappointment, melancholy and despair. But also with hope, as the novel's central question, How might the native peoples of Canada recover and sustain their old ways? approaches resolution in the coming-of-age of its main character, Rupert Carlos.
In the course of his journey of self-discovery, Rupert, raised to be a proper English gentleman who one day will inherit the vast estate of his father, Charles Griffith, the 12th Earl of Ardun, as well as the unimaginable fortune of his mother, Dona Maria Concepcion, is thrust into a maelstrom that includes deception, chicanery, political intrigue and even criminal conspiracy. A richly imagined story of how two conquering empires, one Spanish and the other British, changed forever the lives of untold numbers of people, European as well as indigenous, "Eaglechild" reveals how the lives of two families were bound in a marriage of convenience that is played out against a background of the destruction of native culture, forced assimilation, residential schooling, and the long struggle to reassert native rights in the country to which Rupert has an indelible connection.
A beautifully written book, "Eaglechild" is a deeply historical story set in a world that is yet current, a world of false promises and broken treaties, of the confrontation of aristocrats and commoners, of the search for meaning and identity, and of the tension between family honour and political expediency. Deftly placed in the experience of particular individuals and their families, it is also a timeless story that leaves the reader pondering his or her own destiny.
"Eaglechild" is a novel about a boy of conflicting parentage who struggles to find his true heritage, and in the course of a journey that extends from childhood to young adulthood discovers an unsettling truth about both his mother, a fabulously rich Spanish Countess, and his father, a member of the British peerage who faces financial ruin and the loss of his ancestral home.
In a story that spans three generations and is set in Canada, Great Britain, and Spain, the author captivates his reader with an inter-generational, cross-cultural, and class-crossing drama of epoch proportions. In crisp prose, Victor O'Connell portrays a set of characters whose lives intersect in ways none of them could have imagined, and with consequences rife with disappointment, melancholy and despair. But also with hope, as the novel's central question, How might the native peoples of Canada recover and sustain their old ways? approaches resolution in the coming-of-age of its main character, Rupert Carlos.
In the course of his journey of self-discovery, Rupert, raised to be a proper English gentleman who one day will inherit the vast estate of his father, Charles Griffith, the 12th Earl of Ardun, as well as the unimaginable fortune of his mother, Dona Maria Concepcion, is thrust into a maelstrom that includes deception, chicanery, political intrigue and even criminal conspiracy. A richly imagined story of how two conquering empires, one Spanish and the other British, changed forever the lives of untold numbers of people, European as well as indigenous, "Eaglechild" reveals how the lives of two families were bound in a marriage of convenience that is played out against a background of the destruction of native culture, forced assimilation, residential schooling, and the long struggle to reassert native rights in the country to which Rupert has an indelible connection.
A beautifully written book, "Eaglechild" is a deeply historical story set in a world that is yet current, a world of false promises and broken treaties, of the confrontation of aristocrats and commoners, of the search for meaning and identity, and of the tension between family honour and political expediency. Deftly placed in the experience of particular individuals and their families, it is also a timeless story that leaves the reader pondering his or her own destiny.
December 20, 2015
A novel that captured my mind and stole my heart
The central story is original, imaginative and unique. It arrives at its satisfying climax in the very last line of this 722 page novel. I was left with a sense of loss when there was no more to read. I had gotten to know in depth five or six main characters whose personal stories would make novels in themselves. I don't think I will forget any of them. First is Clearvoice, a Cree “Red Indian” from the prairies of Canada. He is introduced as a young boy and through his eyes we get to understand the crushing weight of the Whiteman's political and educational structure. Eventually, when he is 82 years of age, we follow him to England where he goes to confront the Queen and Parliament to remind them of the treaties they made with his grandfather. My favourite character is a Spanish Countess who is beautiful, rich and shrewd with a profound interest in spirituality of all kinds - Catholicism and shamanism - and a mission to make restitution to the native peoples of the Americas for the harm done to them by her family for hudnred of years. She is advised by a young, intellectual Jesuit priest. She interacts with an English Earl who has fallen on difficult times. His family had a lot to do with the founding of Canada. His thirst for money competes with his thirst for whiskey. Then there is a bureaucrat, a Scottish immigrant to Canada, who rises through cunning to a position of power over the Indians. He is manipulative and dishonest and creates the main crisis in the book (no spoiler here) which creates suspense and drives the tension of the plot. The hero of the novel is Rupert Carlos the son of the Countess and the Earl. He has an innocent yet informed love of Indians and has his own tipi on his father's estate in Oxfordshire. The climax of the novel takes place in 1982-85 when Rupert is at Oxford University. In addition to the human drama and the strong emotions, the novel gives a well-researched insight into the birth and development of Canada and the issue of the rights of indigenous peoples everywhere in the world. The writing is sharp. The descriptions of Canada, Britain and Spain are evocative. The dialogue is authentic. This is a beautifully written and well presented novel of enormous scope which I highly recommend.
The central story is original, imaginative and unique. It arrives at its satisfying climax in the very last line of this 722 page novel. I was left with a sense of loss when there was no more to read. I had gotten to know in depth five or six main characters whose personal stories would make novels in themselves. I don't think I will forget any of them. First is Clearvoice, a Cree “Red Indian” from the prairies of Canada. He is introduced as a young boy and through his eyes we get to understand the crushing weight of the Whiteman's political and educational structure. Eventually, when he is 82 years of age, we follow him to England where he goes to confront the Queen and Parliament to remind them of the treaties they made with his grandfather. My favourite character is a Spanish Countess who is beautiful, rich and shrewd with a profound interest in spirituality of all kinds - Catholicism and shamanism - and a mission to make restitution to the native peoples of the Americas for the harm done to them by her family for hudnred of years. She is advised by a young, intellectual Jesuit priest. She interacts with an English Earl who has fallen on difficult times. His family had a lot to do with the founding of Canada. His thirst for money competes with his thirst for whiskey. Then there is a bureaucrat, a Scottish immigrant to Canada, who rises through cunning to a position of power over the Indians. He is manipulative and dishonest and creates the main crisis in the book (no spoiler here) which creates suspense and drives the tension of the plot. The hero of the novel is Rupert Carlos the son of the Countess and the Earl. He has an innocent yet informed love of Indians and has his own tipi on his father's estate in Oxfordshire. The climax of the novel takes place in 1982-85 when Rupert is at Oxford University. In addition to the human drama and the strong emotions, the novel gives a well-researched insight into the birth and development of Canada and the issue of the rights of indigenous peoples everywhere in the world. The writing is sharp. The descriptions of Canada, Britain and Spain are evocative. The dialogue is authentic. This is a beautifully written and well presented novel of enormous scope which I highly recommend.
November 9, 2015
Eaglechild is a beautifully written novel vast in historical scope. The type of saga that fully engages the mind and the spirit with overwhelming emotion. It is different in content from any historical book that I've ever read before. This is Victor O'Connell's fascinating first novel.
Rupert Carlos Griffin was the son of the 12th Earl of Ardun, Charles Griffin, of England and the Countess Dona Maria Concepción from Spain. Their marriage was a matter of business. The Earl was desperate for money and needed to marry an heiress. The Countess wanted a child to inherit her estate and carry on her charitable works and beliefs.
Spain was where Rupert Carlos spent most of his adolescence. He was a young nobleman, son of the wealthy Countess. His mother taught him to have an affinity and respect for the native peoples of the Americas and also for all types of spiritual beliefs. She had a unique relationship with the Mohawk and Cree Nations of Canada where she began and funded programs for women and children. Sadly, the Countess died when Rupert was twelve.
Rupert went to England to live with his father, the Earl, on the Estate of Ardun. He loved Ardun and its rustic wooded setting, where he built a tipi, and played with his imaginary Indian brother, Eaglechild. He studied at Eton and then went on to Oxford.
The government agencies in Canada that ran the programs for Indians were corrupt. If you knew how to play the game, and Ray Mackie did, one could make some money on the side. Then their were what he saw as his fringe benefits; the many down-and-out Indian women who were desperate to make money.
The Native American Clearvoice, was a Cree leader, who had grown up on an Indian Reserve. He'd been forced to go to the Jesuit white school where the teachers were expected to assimilate the Indians to white ways. Clearvoice's father, Swift Hunter, encouraged him to learn and read English. The Cree people needed one of their own who could translate Treaty No. 6 of 1876. They had signed this treaty with the White Mother, Queen Victoria. She promised the treaty would last forever "as long as the sun rises, the river flows and the grass grows". This is why the Cree knew they were a sovereign nation. Only a sovereign people can make an agreement with another sovereign country. Now that Canada was about to gain her independence from England, what would happen to the Cree Nation's supposed sovereignty?
The coming together of these characters: Rupert, the Earl Charles, Ray Mackie, and the native leader Clearvoice, in London, in 1981, brings the mysteries in this novel to a clashing climax. A grand sweeping together of four different cosmologies. What happens when this occurs will shock you, and forever touch your heart, as it has mine.
This literary historical novel is an absolute must read for all fans of history or anything having to do with Native Americans. I will definitely read it again because it is that powerful. I am so very grateful to Victor O'Connell for asking me to read and review this book, his exceptionally well written masterpiece, Eaglechild.
Rupert Carlos Griffin was the son of the 12th Earl of Ardun, Charles Griffin, of England and the Countess Dona Maria Concepción from Spain. Their marriage was a matter of business. The Earl was desperate for money and needed to marry an heiress. The Countess wanted a child to inherit her estate and carry on her charitable works and beliefs.
Spain was where Rupert Carlos spent most of his adolescence. He was a young nobleman, son of the wealthy Countess. His mother taught him to have an affinity and respect for the native peoples of the Americas and also for all types of spiritual beliefs. She had a unique relationship with the Mohawk and Cree Nations of Canada where she began and funded programs for women and children. Sadly, the Countess died when Rupert was twelve.
Rupert went to England to live with his father, the Earl, on the Estate of Ardun. He loved Ardun and its rustic wooded setting, where he built a tipi, and played with his imaginary Indian brother, Eaglechild. He studied at Eton and then went on to Oxford.
The government agencies in Canada that ran the programs for Indians were corrupt. If you knew how to play the game, and Ray Mackie did, one could make some money on the side. Then their were what he saw as his fringe benefits; the many down-and-out Indian women who were desperate to make money.
The Native American Clearvoice, was a Cree leader, who had grown up on an Indian Reserve. He'd been forced to go to the Jesuit white school where the teachers were expected to assimilate the Indians to white ways. Clearvoice's father, Swift Hunter, encouraged him to learn and read English. The Cree people needed one of their own who could translate Treaty No. 6 of 1876. They had signed this treaty with the White Mother, Queen Victoria. She promised the treaty would last forever "as long as the sun rises, the river flows and the grass grows". This is why the Cree knew they were a sovereign nation. Only a sovereign people can make an agreement with another sovereign country. Now that Canada was about to gain her independence from England, what would happen to the Cree Nation's supposed sovereignty?
The coming together of these characters: Rupert, the Earl Charles, Ray Mackie, and the native leader Clearvoice, in London, in 1981, brings the mysteries in this novel to a clashing climax. A grand sweeping together of four different cosmologies. What happens when this occurs will shock you, and forever touch your heart, as it has mine.
This literary historical novel is an absolute must read for all fans of history or anything having to do with Native Americans. I will definitely read it again because it is that powerful. I am so very grateful to Victor O'Connell for asking me to read and review this book, his exceptionally well written masterpiece, Eaglechild.
December 20, 2015
A very satisfying and enlightening read
Victor O'Connell has succeeded in telling a gripping modern story that deals with complex and sensitive issue of personal, racial, tribal and national identity while at the same time educating the reader about the relations between the native peoples of the Americas and the European colonizers. Much of the novel is about the First Nations of Canada and the British aristocrats who founded the Hudson's Bay Company. It spans life in the tipis on the prairies, the palace of an aristocrat in Seville, Spain , the life of a working-class chancer in Glasgow and political intrigue in the House of Lords in London. It ranges from fox-hunting in the English countryside to debates at the Oxford Union. This complex story is told through the eyes of several different characters especially of Rupert, the son of a Spanish Countess and English Earl. It is certainly historical but it is also personal in a way that brings tears to the eyes. Some of the issues are very modern, like the sexual exploitation of young Indian women and the abuse of children at residential schools. It raises the issue of the assimilation of minorities into the majority culture – is it good when it is forced? There is suspense and mystery and plenty of conflict which resolve in 1982. The writing is clear and easy to follow. A very satisfying and enlightening read.
Victor O'Connell has succeeded in telling a gripping modern story that deals with complex and sensitive issue of personal, racial, tribal and national identity while at the same time educating the reader about the relations between the native peoples of the Americas and the European colonizers. Much of the novel is about the First Nations of Canada and the British aristocrats who founded the Hudson's Bay Company. It spans life in the tipis on the prairies, the palace of an aristocrat in Seville, Spain , the life of a working-class chancer in Glasgow and political intrigue in the House of Lords in London. It ranges from fox-hunting in the English countryside to debates at the Oxford Union. This complex story is told through the eyes of several different characters especially of Rupert, the son of a Spanish Countess and English Earl. It is certainly historical but it is also personal in a way that brings tears to the eyes. Some of the issues are very modern, like the sexual exploitation of young Indian women and the abuse of children at residential schools. It raises the issue of the assimilation of minorities into the majority culture – is it good when it is forced? There is suspense and mystery and plenty of conflict which resolve in 1982. The writing is clear and easy to follow. A very satisfying and enlightening read.
January 29, 2016
“Eaglechild” is an uncommonly multifaceted and utterly educative novel. Being entrapped by the twists and turns of its plot, I read it in one breath. It was only when I had turned the last page that I realized how much I had learned about the world I live in. For me, as a Russian, various aspects of Western culture were especially interesting.
From this novel I learned:
THE WORLD HISTORY
- About creation of the state of Canada, about exploration of its lands by adventurous British capitalists, about the history of relationships between Great Britain and Spain and the New World, about the struggle for survival the Canadian Indians carried on in the past and keep carrying on in the present;
SOCIOLOGY & CULTURE
- About views and cultural traditions of the Canadian Indians, the British and Spanish aristocracy, the Canadian and British politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. About Britain’s and Canada’s attitude towards the idea of a multinational state, which tends to preserve the cultures of its nations rather then put them into a “melting pot” called “assimilation”;
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
- About beliefs and rituals of the plains Indians in Canada, about the difference between the Catholic and the Anglican Churches, about Christianity – through the eyes of a pagan and about paganism – through the eyes of a Christian, about first Indian Christian Saint, about activities of the Jesuit Order in the past and in the present, about unorthodox beliefs like the “natural priesthood” and ancient sacred places like Rollright Stones;
POLITICS
- About traditions and approaches used by Great Britain and Canada in domestic and foreign policy, about large political campaign, deployed by the Canadian Indians in London in 1982 when the Canadian constitution was being discussed in the British Parliament;
PSYCHOLOGY
- About a young Englishman and his Indian contemporary searching for their vocations and trying to orient themselves in life, about forming the national self-consciousness of those young men, about the transfer of experience from the old generation to the young, about the idea of honor and duty of the different nations and of course about romantic relationship between the characters of the novel.
One of the most exciting features of the book is that it contains a comparative analysis of all the above mentioned aspects from the points of view of all the parties involved. Several distinctive characters – a young English aristocrat, his parents – the English Earl and the Spanish Countess, a wise Indian elder, a charming and intelligent Indian girl, an Indian Medicine woman, an inquisitive Spanish Jesuit and an “old Indian hand” Canadian bureaucrat – each with his or her own philosophy and experience – clash on the battlefield called LIFE.
In spite of the fact that behind every scene of the novel one can feel the author’s great erudition and experience, the novel is not at all an academic treatise, but a thrilling narration. It is full of human emotions and it won’t leave the reader indifferent. The author holds the audience to the last page.
I am a bit envious of you, the future reader. A great pleasure and wonderful experience that you will get from reading the book will stay with your for life.
From this novel I learned:
THE WORLD HISTORY
- About creation of the state of Canada, about exploration of its lands by adventurous British capitalists, about the history of relationships between Great Britain and Spain and the New World, about the struggle for survival the Canadian Indians carried on in the past and keep carrying on in the present;
SOCIOLOGY & CULTURE
- About views and cultural traditions of the Canadian Indians, the British and Spanish aristocracy, the Canadian and British politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen. About Britain’s and Canada’s attitude towards the idea of a multinational state, which tends to preserve the cultures of its nations rather then put them into a “melting pot” called “assimilation”;
RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY
- About beliefs and rituals of the plains Indians in Canada, about the difference between the Catholic and the Anglican Churches, about Christianity – through the eyes of a pagan and about paganism – through the eyes of a Christian, about first Indian Christian Saint, about activities of the Jesuit Order in the past and in the present, about unorthodox beliefs like the “natural priesthood” and ancient sacred places like Rollright Stones;
POLITICS
- About traditions and approaches used by Great Britain and Canada in domestic and foreign policy, about large political campaign, deployed by the Canadian Indians in London in 1982 when the Canadian constitution was being discussed in the British Parliament;
PSYCHOLOGY
- About a young Englishman and his Indian contemporary searching for their vocations and trying to orient themselves in life, about forming the national self-consciousness of those young men, about the transfer of experience from the old generation to the young, about the idea of honor and duty of the different nations and of course about romantic relationship between the characters of the novel.
One of the most exciting features of the book is that it contains a comparative analysis of all the above mentioned aspects from the points of view of all the parties involved. Several distinctive characters – a young English aristocrat, his parents – the English Earl and the Spanish Countess, a wise Indian elder, a charming and intelligent Indian girl, an Indian Medicine woman, an inquisitive Spanish Jesuit and an “old Indian hand” Canadian bureaucrat – each with his or her own philosophy and experience – clash on the battlefield called LIFE.
In spite of the fact that behind every scene of the novel one can feel the author’s great erudition and experience, the novel is not at all an academic treatise, but a thrilling narration. It is full of human emotions and it won’t leave the reader indifferent. The author holds the audience to the last page.
I am a bit envious of you, the future reader. A great pleasure and wonderful experience that you will get from reading the book will stay with your for life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews