What do you think?
Rate this book
Lejana estrella brillante
El oficial Napoleón Childs parte al desierto de Sierra Madre con una patrulla a caballo en busca de los guerrilleros rebeldes. Anteriormente han perdido su rastro innumerables veces: por un día, por una hora, en el siguiente valle, en el siguiente pico de montaña, en cuevas que no existen. Poco a poco, bajo el sol abrasador, los soldados norteamericanos empiezan a comprender que deberán enfrentarse no sólo a un enemigo casi invisible, sino también a una tierra violenta, despiadada, y, lo peor de todo, a sí mismos.
Ambientada en 1916, durante los días de la expedición de castigo del general Pershing, que pretendía capturar a Pancho Villa en su propio terreno, Far bright star relata los estertores de un mundo en pleno cambio: el de los últimos soldados de caballería, en vísperas de que la guerra se volviera mecánica y tecnológica y, naturalmente, aún más mortífera. Con un estilo convulso, lleno de cruda poesía, Robert Olmstead dibuja una serie de personajes atrapados por su propio destino de violencia y destrucción durante los años más agitados de la Revolución mexicana. Una novela que Booklist ha incluido entre los diez mejores westerns de la década.
Ambientada en 1916, durante los días de la expedición de castigo del general Pershing, que pretendía capturar a Pancho Villa en su propio terreno, Far bright star relata los estertores de un mundo en pleno cambio: el de los últimos soldados de caballería, en vísperas de que la guerra se volviera mecánica y tecnológica y, naturalmente, aún más mortífera. Con un estilo convulso, lleno de cruda poesía, Robert Olmstead dibuja una serie de personajes atrapados por su propio destino de violencia y destrucción durante los años más agitados de la Revolución mexicana. Una novela que Booklist ha incluido entre los diez mejores westerns de la década.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
58 people are currently reading
852 people want to read
About the author
Robert Olmstead
24 books150 followersRobert Olmstead (born January 3, 1954) is an award-winning American novelist and educator.
Olmstead was born in 1954 in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. He grew up on a farm. After high school, he enrolled at Davidson College with a football scholarship, but left school after three semesters in which he compiled a poor academic record. He later attended Syracuse University, where he studied with Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff and received both bachelor's and master's degrees, in 1977 and 1983, respectively.
He is currently the Director of Creative Writing at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has also served as the Senior Writer in Residence at Dickinson College and as the director of creative writing at Boise State University. Olmstead teaches in the Low-Residency MFA program in creative writing at Converse College .
Olmstead is the author of the novels America by Land, A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go and Soft Water. He is also the author of a memoir Stay Here With Me, as well as River Dogs, a collection of short stories, and the textbook Elements of the Writing Craft.[2] He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 and an NEA Literature Fellowship in 1993.
His novel Coal Black Horse (2007) has received national acclaim, including the 2007 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction[7] and the 2008 Ohioana Book Award for Fiction; it was also selected for the "On the Same Page Cincinnati" reading program and the Choose to Read Ohio’s 2011 booklist.
Booklist has named his latest novel Far Bright Star (2009) (the second book in the Coal Black Horse trilogy) as one of the Top Ten Westerns of the Decade; the book also received the 2010 Western Writers of America Spur Award. One reviewer praised Olmstead's ability to "translate nature's revelatory beauty into words", commenting that Coal Black Horse evokes what Henry David Thoreau described in Walden as "the indescribable innocence and beneficence of Nature"; by contrast, the Mexican desert of Far Bright Star is "the place of the sun shriveled and the dried up". The Chicago Tribune review praised the authenticity of the imagery and experiences in Olmstead's writing, while also comparing his writing to that of Ernest Hemingway. It noted the influence of contemporary events, such as the guerrila warfare during the U.S. occupation of Fallujah during the Iraq War.
Olmstead was born in 1954 in Westmoreland, New Hampshire. He grew up on a farm. After high school, he enrolled at Davidson College with a football scholarship, but left school after three semesters in which he compiled a poor academic record. He later attended Syracuse University, where he studied with Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff and received both bachelor's and master's degrees, in 1977 and 1983, respectively.
He is currently the Director of Creative Writing at Ohio Wesleyan University. He has also served as the Senior Writer in Residence at Dickinson College and as the director of creative writing at Boise State University. Olmstead teaches in the Low-Residency MFA program in creative writing at Converse College .
Olmstead is the author of the novels America by Land, A Trail of Heart's Blood Wherever We Go and Soft Water. He is also the author of a memoir Stay Here With Me, as well as River Dogs, a collection of short stories, and the textbook Elements of the Writing Craft.[2] He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 and an NEA Literature Fellowship in 1993.
His novel Coal Black Horse (2007) has received national acclaim, including the 2007 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction[7] and the 2008 Ohioana Book Award for Fiction; it was also selected for the "On the Same Page Cincinnati" reading program and the Choose to Read Ohio’s 2011 booklist.
Booklist has named his latest novel Far Bright Star (2009) (the second book in the Coal Black Horse trilogy) as one of the Top Ten Westerns of the Decade; the book also received the 2010 Western Writers of America Spur Award. One reviewer praised Olmstead's ability to "translate nature's revelatory beauty into words", commenting that Coal Black Horse evokes what Henry David Thoreau described in Walden as "the indescribable innocence and beneficence of Nature"; by contrast, the Mexican desert of Far Bright Star is "the place of the sun shriveled and the dried up". The Chicago Tribune review praised the authenticity of the imagery and experiences in Olmstead's writing, while also comparing his writing to that of Ernest Hemingway. It noted the influence of contemporary events, such as the guerrila warfare during the U.S. occupation of Fallujah during the Iraq War.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews
Read
November 21, 2020Far Bright Star grabs you by the scruff of the neck and doesn't let go until the journeys' end. It reminds me of those classic western movies like "The Magnificent Seven", Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns or “The Unforgiven”. The writing is stark and realistic. You can almost feel the hot sun bearing down and desert grit in your mouth.
It is 1916 and a veteran of battles, Napoleon must lead a rag tag band of soldiers. “They are a sorry lot -- "freebooters, felons, Christians, drifters, patriots . . . surgeons, mechanics, assassins,” on a search for Pancho Villa. This odd cadre is ambushed by unknown guerillas on the border and there begins the battle that will leave the physically and emotionally battered warrior Napoleon wishing at times he were dead.
What else can I say? Author Robert Olmstead has spun a really good story. -Amy O.
It is 1916 and a veteran of battles, Napoleon must lead a rag tag band of soldiers. “They are a sorry lot -- "freebooters, felons, Christians, drifters, patriots . . . surgeons, mechanics, assassins,” on a search for Pancho Villa. This odd cadre is ambushed by unknown guerillas on the border and there begins the battle that will leave the physically and emotionally battered warrior Napoleon wishing at times he were dead.
What else can I say? Author Robert Olmstead has spun a really good story. -Amy O.
April 12, 2020
3.5 stars
In the author’s afterword to Far Bright Star, Robert Olmstead observes: “It seems we have never not been at war—our world, our country, our people—and there are those among us when the solemn call is made who are willing to answer. It seems to constitute the blood that flows through us. It is our inheritance.” Such is the primary subject of Far Bright Star, told through the exploits of an expedition of American horse soldiers hunting Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916. And such is the reason why Olmstead names the pair of brothers at the center of his narrative Napoleon and Xenophon, a rather bold move (and, excuse me, one of overkill) to drive his point home.
Napoleon takes center stage, once he sets out leading a patrol seeking signs of Villa. It’s a fateful, disastrous journey, not because the patrol comes across its prey but because it becomes the prey of an armed militia, seemingly straight out of hell—or at least, straight out of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian¬—the militia being part of a larger rag-tag itinerant community led by a mysterious woman on a magnificent white horse. There’s a ferocious battle and a ferocious aftermath involving captivity and ordeal. As with McCarthy, the violence is graphic and extreme.
For me, much of the novel’s interest (besides it being a Western, a genre I’m much interested in and enjoy) centers on how Napoleon changes because of his experiences in battle and captivity. I’m not sure he experiences a full-blown case of what we now call PTSD, but he certainly comes to realize that that no one remains the same after a terrifying ordeal (I can attest to this—I once had a gun leveled at me for 15 minutes during a home invasion, and my experience is nothing compared with what Napoleon endures). And yet, as Olmstead underscores, Napoleon may have changed but the world hasn’t, and so in a sense he is right back where he started from. At one point Napoleon reflects on the death of his old self and the world he now faces: “He knew he died out there and when he died the old world died with him, but it made no difference because the new world would likewise be a world of killing and in most ways indistinguishable from the old world.” Or as elsewhere observes: “After the war was before the war.”
While not possessing the richness and complexity of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (the influence is extensive, far beyond my comments earlier), nor the stark beauty of McCarthy’s prose (but whose does?), Far Bright Star is a solid, well-paced novel vividly describing the terror and cruelty of war and the means that soldiers survive—or don’t.
In the author’s afterword to Far Bright Star, Robert Olmstead observes: “It seems we have never not been at war—our world, our country, our people—and there are those among us when the solemn call is made who are willing to answer. It seems to constitute the blood that flows through us. It is our inheritance.” Such is the primary subject of Far Bright Star, told through the exploits of an expedition of American horse soldiers hunting Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916. And such is the reason why Olmstead names the pair of brothers at the center of his narrative Napoleon and Xenophon, a rather bold move (and, excuse me, one of overkill) to drive his point home.
Napoleon takes center stage, once he sets out leading a patrol seeking signs of Villa. It’s a fateful, disastrous journey, not because the patrol comes across its prey but because it becomes the prey of an armed militia, seemingly straight out of hell—or at least, straight out of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian¬—the militia being part of a larger rag-tag itinerant community led by a mysterious woman on a magnificent white horse. There’s a ferocious battle and a ferocious aftermath involving captivity and ordeal. As with McCarthy, the violence is graphic and extreme.
For me, much of the novel’s interest (besides it being a Western, a genre I’m much interested in and enjoy) centers on how Napoleon changes because of his experiences in battle and captivity. I’m not sure he experiences a full-blown case of what we now call PTSD, but he certainly comes to realize that that no one remains the same after a terrifying ordeal (I can attest to this—I once had a gun leveled at me for 15 minutes during a home invasion, and my experience is nothing compared with what Napoleon endures). And yet, as Olmstead underscores, Napoleon may have changed but the world hasn’t, and so in a sense he is right back where he started from. At one point Napoleon reflects on the death of his old self and the world he now faces: “He knew he died out there and when he died the old world died with him, but it made no difference because the new world would likewise be a world of killing and in most ways indistinguishable from the old world.” Or as elsewhere observes: “After the war was before the war.”
While not possessing the richness and complexity of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (the influence is extensive, far beyond my comments earlier), nor the stark beauty of McCarthy’s prose (but whose does?), Far Bright Star is a solid, well-paced novel vividly describing the terror and cruelty of war and the means that soldiers survive—or don’t.
August 24, 2009
If, years from now, there were a recognized school of Cormac McCarthy influenced writers, there is little doubt – to my mind at least --that Robert Olmstead would be pointed out as the leading practitioner. Olmstead knows the drill – guns, extreme violence, campfire philosophy, gorgeous (and stark) landscapes, realistic dialogue, all of which are captured in a dark poetry of language that seems to jump the whole deal into a kind of an American myth. A perfect example is Olmstead’s earlier Civil War novel, Coal Black Horse, which I’m starting to believe will be viewed on a level with McCarthy’s great novels.
Far Bright Star, while good, is something less. Normally I favor brevity over length when it comes to novels, but in this case, I think Far Bright Star could of benefitted from an extra 50 to 100 pages. The novel opens in a wobbly way, as the reader is dropped into the middle of a patrol (largely comprised of fools) pursuing Pancho Villa, led by an aging horse soldier, Napoleon Childs. Relationships and back stories are hinted at, which is fine, since such things can come out later. The problem is, in a 200 page novel, you’re kind of cramped for space. Anyway, Childs leads this patrol into a trap that he senses early on, but can’t quite put his finger on. This is one of the best parts of the novel, as the patrol knows they’re being followed, but evidence is scarce. When they are seen, in a beautifully executed passage, Napoleon knows it’s already too late.
That bit got my attention. What follows is a battle – a rather fantastic battle in a storm that seems more like Gettysburg than a fight between a few dozen men, and after that an ordeal to survive that involves beatings and torture and a long brutal walk in the sun. The meaning of life – and death, crosses Napoleon’s mind more than once, and the reader is treated to numerous musings which can be both profound and corny in the space of a single paragraph. That’s hardly a crime, and probably in keeping with most philosophical systems, but in a short novel it does tend to lard things up a bit. (Tolstoy sensed this, which is why he packaged his baloney in a thousand page book.) As the novel inched toward its closing, I was actually getting irritated with this stuff, but the closing, which was beautiful and profound, to some extent won me over. But I’m not sure the novel as a whole earned that moment. Lots of 5 star writing, but overall a book where the parts are greater than the whole.
Far Bright Star, while good, is something less. Normally I favor brevity over length when it comes to novels, but in this case, I think Far Bright Star could of benefitted from an extra 50 to 100 pages. The novel opens in a wobbly way, as the reader is dropped into the middle of a patrol (largely comprised of fools) pursuing Pancho Villa, led by an aging horse soldier, Napoleon Childs. Relationships and back stories are hinted at, which is fine, since such things can come out later. The problem is, in a 200 page novel, you’re kind of cramped for space. Anyway, Childs leads this patrol into a trap that he senses early on, but can’t quite put his finger on. This is one of the best parts of the novel, as the patrol knows they’re being followed, but evidence is scarce. When they are seen, in a beautifully executed passage, Napoleon knows it’s already too late.
He lifted the field glasses, and scanned the vast emptiness of the broken country. But he didn’t need to. The Rattler horse was vibrating with the news of their surroundings and who occupied them. Then he saw them. The distant riders had multiplied and placed themselves between him and the direction he intended. He caught sight of them as if miniature points on a compass of their world. They knotted the landscape in twos and threes. They were to the north and to the east and to the west and to the south a speck of a man holding a rifle stood over a thin trail they’d just descended and then a second man stepped from the rocks and stood beside him. They appeared and disappeared in the shimmering glaze of heat, as if ink drawn and washed away and drawn again. (p. 46-47)
That bit got my attention. What follows is a battle – a rather fantastic battle in a storm that seems more like Gettysburg than a fight between a few dozen men, and after that an ordeal to survive that involves beatings and torture and a long brutal walk in the sun. The meaning of life – and death, crosses Napoleon’s mind more than once, and the reader is treated to numerous musings which can be both profound and corny in the space of a single paragraph. That’s hardly a crime, and probably in keeping with most philosophical systems, but in a short novel it does tend to lard things up a bit. (Tolstoy sensed this, which is why he packaged his baloney in a thousand page book.) As the novel inched toward its closing, I was actually getting irritated with this stuff, but the closing, which was beautiful and profound, to some extent won me over. But I’m not sure the novel as a whole earned that moment. Lots of 5 star writing, but overall a book where the parts are greater than the whole.
June 29, 2014
This western is porn for readers who are into extreme violence; I assume the only people who give the book five stars are those who sit through endless Tarrantino movies and felt positively chipper after reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Really. The first part of the book describes, in hyper-realized detail, the gory deaths of all the men in the troop except the leader and the smart ass that fires the first shot. You can bet Olmstead has got something really special planned for them. Then, there's the long torture sequences of the two men leading up to the Napoleon Childs's excruciating, hellish drag across the Mexican desert. Just to top it off, you have descriptions of Childs's long convelescence after his body is just basically one big blister. Some of the language is beautiful, but it seems put to poor service writing about such a ghastly adventure. The comparisons to McCarthy and Hemingway are sure to follow. My question is: How many books can a guy write like this? I wasn't sorry I read Coal Black Horse. I was glad this gorefest was only 200-odd pages long.
September 7, 2012
Far Bright Star was a beautiful story hindered by Olmstead's steadily infuriating prose. I've never read anything that made me want to throw it against the wall with such force. Olmstead's writing is terse, taut and Cormac McCarthyesque yet simultaneously superfluous and overly affected. Throughout the novel Olmstead made myriad awkward and unsuitable word choices as if he were a college student writing an essay while mining a thesaurus. Wait, why are the stars of a bright Milky Way pallid? You just spent three paragraphs telling me about the brightness of the night sky, the shining of the stars and now they're all of a sudden pallid? No.
Or "Other men were now emboldened: the envious and resentful, the invidious". Fucking shoot me in the face..
Though all in all, despite being filled with writing I flat out hated, Olmstead will occasionally hit his mark- and with what visceral force and beauty! I felt the elegy of the horse soldiers. This book was worth it for that.
Or "Other men were now emboldened: the envious and resentful, the invidious". Fucking shoot me in the face..
Though all in all, despite being filled with writing I flat out hated, Olmstead will occasionally hit his mark- and with what visceral force and beauty! I felt the elegy of the horse soldiers. This book was worth it for that.
July 5, 2018
Cowboys,horses,shoot em up,what's not to like?Olmstead is a very good writer.the history,is very interesting,there are even airplanes.Fans of Cormac McCarthy and William Carlos Blake should find this right up their alley.
July 28, 2022
Otro western duro y sin concesiones que se desarrolla en el México revolucionario. Interesante y entretenido.
May 13, 2022
Professor Olmstead ends the novel with a Readers Guide containing 12 suggested questions for discussion. It seems a little pompous to write your own scholarly edition.
Napoleon (that's the main character's name) and Preston are on the same side against the Mexicans. But the real conflict is between the two of them. Napoleon is a grizzled, battle-scared cavalry officer. In contrast, Preston is a rich, young adventurer. Olmstead romanticizes the aging horse-soldiers of the early days of the 20th century. But I think he's got his sentiments crossed. Napoleon is modern and Preston is a throwback. Napoleon seems like one of those "what are we fighting for" Vietnam vets.
The desert seems to bring out the hotair in artsy penpushers:
Napoleon (that's the main character's name) and Preston are on the same side against the Mexicans. But the real conflict is between the two of them. Napoleon is a grizzled, battle-scared cavalry officer. In contrast, Preston is a rich, young adventurer. Olmstead romanticizes the aging horse-soldiers of the early days of the 20th century. But I think he's got his sentiments crossed. Napoleon is modern and Preston is a throwback. Napoleon seems like one of those "what are we fighting for" Vietnam vets.
"In how many battles had he fought on the side of murderers? How many times in his life would he have willingly changed sides?"In contrast, Preston wants to kill the Mexicans because they are the enemy and killing the enemy is glorious. Olmstead gives Preston a cowardly spirit and an ugly end. Post-Nam professors despise knightly warriors.
The desert seems to bring out the hotair in artsy penpushers:
"A whirlwind ginned and skittered across the desert grassland. A jag of wolf lightning descended from the clear blue sky."Olmstead's brevity makes up for a his literary loftiness. He had the good sense not to turn this into a 400 page opus.
February 10, 2017
Robert Olmstead's book uses language to weave a spell which made me feel the heat of the Mexican desert. Napoleon Childs, a grizzled career soldier, is part of the U.S. force that chased Pancho Villa through the countryside in 1916 after his raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Although the unit never catches anything beyond rumors of Villa, they do find savagery and brutality. This includes in themselves. Honor was supposedly at stake, that of the U.S. and the force, but Napoleon finds only the death and destruction that he has grown tired of. Rather than depressing, the book's hypnotic prose creates great suspense. This was my first exposure to the work of Robert Olmstead; now I want to read more of his books.
June 23, 2011
This is great guy reading: the Mexican desert, rugged individuals, horses, soldiers and mercenaries and ultra-violence. Olmstead's terse but romantic writing style sets a perfect tone for the story. His description of the desert heat was amazing. If I described them to you, the characters would sound like caricatures, but they feel rich and alive when you're reading the book. Excellent!
QOTD
"His was a dirty death, but in the end if was his own death and no one else's and it'd been waiting here for him all these years and now he'd walked into its chain and it'd taken him in it's embrace."
- Robert Olmstead, "Far Bright Star"
QOTD
"His was a dirty death, but in the end if was his own death and no one else's and it'd been waiting here for him all these years and now he'd walked into its chain and it'd taken him in it's embrace."
- Robert Olmstead, "Far Bright Star"
July 6, 2009
I started this book thinking I would be reading about a group of men trying to bring in Pancho Villas, a little western action etc...
This is a gritty, sparse novel which revolves around one event really. Napolean is an aging veteran who guides a misfit crew of men out into the Mexican landscape to find Pancho Villas. What happens to Napolean and his men is horrific and violent. Olmstead does a great job describing human nature and the need to survive. He reminds me a bit of McCarthy - terse yet beautifully written prose. The way he wrote about the open sky at night was breathtaking.
This is a gritty, sparse novel which revolves around one event really. Napolean is an aging veteran who guides a misfit crew of men out into the Mexican landscape to find Pancho Villas. What happens to Napolean and his men is horrific and violent. Olmstead does a great job describing human nature and the need to survive. He reminds me a bit of McCarthy - terse yet beautifully written prose. The way he wrote about the open sky at night was breathtaking.
May 29, 2009
This is not a book I would typically read; initially I thought I had erroneously picked a western (oh horrors!), but I really enjoyed this book! I found myself wanting to write down passage after passage. It is a skilled author that makes me slow down and think. Robert Olmstead has down this.
July 6, 2009
This was the most interesting literary novel I have read since "No Country for Old Men." Olmstead knows how to write fascinating characters, while his prose is simultaneously muscular and lyrical. All of this coupled with a good plot makes 'Far, Bright Star" impossible to put down.
November 8, 2020
Are you a fan of symbolism and metaphor? I remember writing a paper in high school on symbolism in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I feel like I don't see a lot of it in modern writing. I'm sure I miss it at times. Maybe I'm reading the wrong kinds of books. Whenever I do recognize it, I feel that it enhances the work. The "Far Bright Star" in Robert Olmstead's book of that title seems to be a metaphor for home. I give the book Five Bright Stars.
Napoleon Childs is an officer in the U. S. Army of 1916, but he is not in France. He is in Mexico, on a patrol searching for Pancho Villa, who's men have killed American civilians in a border town raid. Most of their days are spent wandering in a furnace-like wilderness, with little to show for their efforts. At one point, back in the supply camp, even his General admits the folly of the exercise:
"This god damn goose chase is a discredit to war."
But suddenly, Napoleon's six-man unit is trapped in a side canyon by enemies, and boredom turns to a life and death battle. A major theme is the interplay between a leader and his men. Apparently, many enlisted men involved in the Army's "lesser" actions were from the dregs of society. Olmstead explores ideas of leadership, honor, valor and love. Napoleon addresses his men as they have mere minutes to prepare for the greatest danger they've ever faced:
"'We have some work to do today,' he told them... 'It will require some courage.'
He felt the heat flow emanating from his belly and a blood thrill traveling his arteries and returning veins. He called down his darker nature and was contemptuous of the awes and terrors of his history.
Then he told them, 'I wouldn't have no other company for it, not for all the tea in China,' and their spirits soared and they smiled and laughed for how businesslike he'd suddenly become and how much in that moment they loved him..."
Far Bright Star looks at the feelings we have about those who've died in battle. Olmstead doesn't glorify war. He details the brutality graphically. Except those who believe that war is never the lesser of evils, we feel tenderness for people who must die in war.
The novel is a survival epic, in the vein of Jack London's To Build a Fire. As others have commented, there is a similarity to the writing of Cormac McCarthy, poetic and lyrical:
"The Apache used no map, no compass, no star to guide them. He could not figure it out for the longest time until he began to understand they were never lost because they never came from anywhere in the first place and were never going anywhere in the end. They were the place they were in. ... If you were in a place where you did not belong, then you died, and after thousands of years the only ones who were left alive were the ones who were always where they belonged. He'd asked the Apache before and every time he did they only laughed. So complete were they in their being they did not even understand the questions... In their language, they possessed no equivalent for the word lost."
"He suddenly felt the presence of a stranger beside him and avoided his gaze, turning his head, not looking into his eyes. The stranger was beside him, or behind him and only his shadow was cast to prove his presence. But to turn to him, to look at him would mean death. It would mean to be taken in his embrace and gentled from this place, this earth and into another. He did not know how he knew this. He just did.
'I'd rather not go just yet,' he said to the stranger."
I'm going to defend Olmstead's writing choices against some criticism leveled at him for Far Bright Star. Someone questioned the topic - why write at all about such a horrific battle? Unfortunately, the horrors of war are part of life. There are no parts of life not worth examining in the arts. Those uncomfortable and sad and heinous things include the brutality of men to other men. Olmstead's writing style has been dismissed as affected. We all have preferences for certain styles, that's great. But keep in mind that as a group, readers benefit from diversity of style.
Napoleon Childs is an officer in the U. S. Army of 1916, but he is not in France. He is in Mexico, on a patrol searching for Pancho Villa, who's men have killed American civilians in a border town raid. Most of their days are spent wandering in a furnace-like wilderness, with little to show for their efforts. At one point, back in the supply camp, even his General admits the folly of the exercise:
"This god damn goose chase is a discredit to war."
But suddenly, Napoleon's six-man unit is trapped in a side canyon by enemies, and boredom turns to a life and death battle. A major theme is the interplay between a leader and his men. Apparently, many enlisted men involved in the Army's "lesser" actions were from the dregs of society. Olmstead explores ideas of leadership, honor, valor and love. Napoleon addresses his men as they have mere minutes to prepare for the greatest danger they've ever faced:
"'We have some work to do today,' he told them... 'It will require some courage.'
He felt the heat flow emanating from his belly and a blood thrill traveling his arteries and returning veins. He called down his darker nature and was contemptuous of the awes and terrors of his history.
Then he told them, 'I wouldn't have no other company for it, not for all the tea in China,' and their spirits soared and they smiled and laughed for how businesslike he'd suddenly become and how much in that moment they loved him..."
Far Bright Star looks at the feelings we have about those who've died in battle. Olmstead doesn't glorify war. He details the brutality graphically. Except those who believe that war is never the lesser of evils, we feel tenderness for people who must die in war.
The novel is a survival epic, in the vein of Jack London's To Build a Fire. As others have commented, there is a similarity to the writing of Cormac McCarthy, poetic and lyrical:
"The Apache used no map, no compass, no star to guide them. He could not figure it out for the longest time until he began to understand they were never lost because they never came from anywhere in the first place and were never going anywhere in the end. They were the place they were in. ... If you were in a place where you did not belong, then you died, and after thousands of years the only ones who were left alive were the ones who were always where they belonged. He'd asked the Apache before and every time he did they only laughed. So complete were they in their being they did not even understand the questions... In their language, they possessed no equivalent for the word lost."
"He suddenly felt the presence of a stranger beside him and avoided his gaze, turning his head, not looking into his eyes. The stranger was beside him, or behind him and only his shadow was cast to prove his presence. But to turn to him, to look at him would mean death. It would mean to be taken in his embrace and gentled from this place, this earth and into another. He did not know how he knew this. He just did.
'I'd rather not go just yet,' he said to the stranger."
I'm going to defend Olmstead's writing choices against some criticism leveled at him for Far Bright Star. Someone questioned the topic - why write at all about such a horrific battle? Unfortunately, the horrors of war are part of life. There are no parts of life not worth examining in the arts. Those uncomfortable and sad and heinous things include the brutality of men to other men. Olmstead's writing style has been dismissed as affected. We all have preferences for certain styles, that's great. But keep in mind that as a group, readers benefit from diversity of style.
July 1, 2020
I liked it.
The story goes through stages. I became impatient during the middle. Moving through this period it became evident that PTSD was being discribed, at least I believe so. Having never been in the military or been exposed to serious trauma I have no first hand knowledge. It seemed sincere to me.
I believe this book could have stood another 100 pages or so. The gradual psychological recovery could have a little more added. Also the end, I would have liked Napoleon's father to have been involved in his recovery. That's what father's are for.
The book begins and ends w war per Olmstead's observation of the human condition.
A graphic story but gentler than McCarthy's novels. I don't particularly care for Cormac McCarthy's harshness. Personally I think he is mentally disturbed.
Worth the time spent. Engaging descriptions of the SW desert. The storm was wonderful. The desert is a harsh and unforgiving environment that kills quickly. There is nothing like the vistas and beauty across and into the horizon.
The story goes through stages. I became impatient during the middle. Moving through this period it became evident that PTSD was being discribed, at least I believe so. Having never been in the military or been exposed to serious trauma I have no first hand knowledge. It seemed sincere to me.
I believe this book could have stood another 100 pages or so. The gradual psychological recovery could have a little more added. Also the end, I would have liked Napoleon's father to have been involved in his recovery. That's what father's are for.
The book begins and ends w war per Olmstead's observation of the human condition.
A graphic story but gentler than McCarthy's novels. I don't particularly care for Cormac McCarthy's harshness. Personally I think he is mentally disturbed.
Worth the time spent. Engaging descriptions of the SW desert. The storm was wonderful. The desert is a harsh and unforgiving environment that kills quickly. There is nothing like the vistas and beauty across and into the horizon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2019
This was an excellent novel! I really like the books that Mr. Olmstead has written. They are powerful, gutwrenching, and superbly crafted. This focuses on the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico during the first part of the 20th Century in the midst of the Mexican revolution. This is the story of a small group of U.S. Army troopers who have entered into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa. In some respects, Mr. Olmstead outdoes Cormac McCarthy in visceral storytelling.
July 18, 2023
This was my first book by Robert Olmstead and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The focus on life and death in war was as good as I have ever read, and I think it captured the loneliness of a soldier's life in the turn of the century US Army.
Read
March 18, 2017No rating. This is far too dark, brutal and cruel for me. It might be, or might have been "true life", but I won't subject myself to it willingly.
December 7, 2008
Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead
$24.95, May 2009, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Olmstead has the ability to imagine a world, a rich fully realized world, and to put it into words so that the reader walks in the very same landscape that the characters do, thinking their thoughts and suffering their pain. And Olmstead’s Far Bright Star is indeed filled with pain, inflicted trauma, violence and two very strong brothers linked by a lifetime of service in pointless wars and desolate lands. And throughout their travels and travails there are horses, strong, winded, “blown”, skeletal, strong horses.
Coal Black Horse caught me from the very first page and had a more hard-driving motion and of course Robey was a great open-eyed hero. Far Bright Star took a little more patience to hook me only because it wasn't immediately clear who would be the focus of the story (so many men introduced in the first chapter), but the writing style is again excellent, pure Olmstead, and the story surely and forcefully drives home its theme (The end of war is the beginning of war).
$24.95, May 2009, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Olmstead has the ability to imagine a world, a rich fully realized world, and to put it into words so that the reader walks in the very same landscape that the characters do, thinking their thoughts and suffering their pain. And Olmstead’s Far Bright Star is indeed filled with pain, inflicted trauma, violence and two very strong brothers linked by a lifetime of service in pointless wars and desolate lands. And throughout their travels and travails there are horses, strong, winded, “blown”, skeletal, strong horses.
Coal Black Horse caught me from the very first page and had a more hard-driving motion and of course Robey was a great open-eyed hero. Far Bright Star took a little more patience to hook me only because it wasn't immediately clear who would be the focus of the story (so many men introduced in the first chapter), but the writing style is again excellent, pure Olmstead, and the story surely and forcefully drives home its theme (The end of war is the beginning of war).
November 25, 2018
Full disclosure: Robert Olmstead was my professor and mentor in college. This is my favorite of his books. It is the second book in a trilogy (the other two are Coal Black Horse and The Coldest Night). The aspect of this book I enjoyed most was the raw, spare prose. Olmstead can break open powerful emotions with a few words. His narrative depicts brutality and death without flinching but also without being exploitative. It's interesting how he does it. If this were made into a movie, I would be worried the filmmakers would equate gore with bravery or something. Olmstead gets it right in his prose though. He shows the truth of how we suffer and how human beings treat each other, and yet at the end of all of it, there is still the sense that life has meaning and the characters' lives mattered.
July 11, 2009
This is one of my favorite quotations from the book:
"He knew there would be more war because he knew by law of nature men would to war. All the young men were on fire to cross the ocean and fight. Like little boys, they would have it and the old men would let them have it and it would turn out widows and orphans and heartbroken mothers. They would weep and moan for their husbands, fathers and lovers. After the war was before the war."
"He knew there would be more war because he knew by law of nature men would to war. All the young men were on fire to cross the ocean and fight. Like little boys, they would have it and the old men would let them have it and it would turn out widows and orphans and heartbroken mothers. They would weep and moan for their husbands, fathers and lovers. After the war was before the war."
August 5, 2009
The year is 1916 and US Army is in Mexico, in pursuit of Pancho Villa and his bandits. Napoleon Childs is a veteran cavalryman who has always lived his life in the present. One day, he leads a small band out on routine patrol, but they ride into a murderous trap. With haunting and lyrical prose (I know it’s cliché, but it’s true), Olmstead takes us into the mind of Napoleon as he searches for the significance of life and death, men and horses, war and nature.
July 8, 2010
After reading through an author's catalog, you sometimes feel disheartened, that you will struggle to find another writer with the same feel and flavor. I felt that way with Cormac McCarthy. Thank God I discovered Robert Olmstead. It isn't imitation, it stands on it's own. Olmstead is the real deal.
If you loved Blood Meridian...you WILL love this book. I say without reservation that Far Bright Star will definitely go on the short list of books that I will read over and over again.
If you loved Blood Meridian...you WILL love this book. I say without reservation that Far Bright Star will definitely go on the short list of books that I will read over and over again.
July 17, 2020
This is one of the most atmospheric books I've ever read - really skillful use of language to make us experience what this world - the southwestern desert in the days of Pancho Villa - was like to the horse-soldiers who went out on patrol to track down the famed outlaw. It's also a study of the changing times as we ended the horse-soldier era and began WWI, settled farming, etc. The downside is that the book is graphically violent. However, Olmstead is truly gifted as a writer!
September 19, 2019
Masterful, spare novel about a horseman's grueling pursuit of hero/villain Pancho Villa over the dry Mexican countryside. "Less is More" is a one way to describe this writer's style. The reflective nature of the prose will seem outdated to some, and timeless to others. My first time reading Olmstead and very glad I did. Hope the movie in production will be half as good as the book.
June 11, 2009
An old lesson about men and war, renewed with a terrible beauty.
October 7, 2017
A great western thriller, set in the Mexican - American borderlands of the early 20th Century. Poncho Villa. Shootouts. Shadows of WWI and the beginnings of mechanized warfare. Fantastic writing.
March 1, 2018
Extraordinary
Wonderful writing of a time in America, still in its infancy but expanding westward at a lightning pace. Last of the horse soldiers.
Wonderful writing of a time in America, still in its infancy but expanding westward at a lightning pace. Last of the horse soldiers.
March 9, 2020
What a great read! Olmstead kept me mesmerized with beautiful prose and detailed description.
November 6, 2022
Lejana estrella brillante es una novela pero a la vez un poema épico sobre la caída de los últimos héroes del siglo XIX y la llegada del siglo XX, probablemente un siglo sin grandeza ni ideales. Escoge como alegoría de esa decadencia la Expedición Punitiva que llevó a cabo el ejército estadounidense en México, cuando salió a buscar a Pancho Villa y su banda terrorista (hoy la llamaríamos así) allá por 1916 para castigarlos por su incursión y expolio de la ciudad de Columbus en Nuevo México. Esta expedición fallida, pues a pesar de emplear a diez mil hombres, nunca consiguió su objetivo, consistía en varios regimientos equipados a la antigua usanza, con rifles, caballos y bayonetas… A los que se añadía a modo de experimento algunos inventos recientes como las metralletas, un automóvil y seis aeroplanos de reconocimiento. En este territorio localiza Olmstead la conjunción entre el pasado y el futuro: los regimientos de caballerías haciendo sonar sus trompetas, con el pañuelo anudado en el cuello, atacando al galope y la tecnología que ya hacía su apoteósica aparición en Europa, con la Primera Guerra Mundial. En este territorio queda como único testimonio de aquellos años épicos el rodeo, que hoy se practica como deporte.
Lejana estrella brillante es también una alegoría de la decadencia de la masculinidad caracterizada por la heroicidad: hombres duros que viven prácticamente a caballo y que se enrolan en bandas o ejércitos como forma de vida, Sin familia, solos frente a la adversidad, con las únicas armas de sus propias fuerzas, su valor y su habilidad con la pistola. Es esta masculinidad la que declina a medida que el protagonista avanza hacia la noche y la lejana estrella brillante que guía su ocaso.
Y a la vez ese ocaso representa la vejez, que en el caso de esos hombres tiene el agravante de tener que aceptar la propia vulnerabilidad como una humillación. Hay una escena de la novela en la que el protagonista entra en el bar del pueblo donde el ejército ha establecido su base y ahí están los otros, sus compañeros de fatigas, y lo miran con más burla que respeto. En esa escena un idiota borracho se atreve ahora a hablarle de tú a tú y a llamarle viejo.
El desierto de Chihuahua es el escenario de la novela. Resulta ideal para representar la soledad del hombre en su lucha a brazo partido contra la naturaleza. La derrota es inevitable y aun así el héroe lucha, lo que convierte la historia en una tragedia griega. Este desierto magnífico y aterrador es el que atraviesan hoy en día los emigrantes mexicanos camino del sueño americano o simplemente una vida mejor. Allí quedan, ellos también, abandonados a su suerte.
¿Qué me queda por decir sobre esta excelente novela? Cuando terminé de leer no estaba segura de poder transmitir todo lo que me decía. Eso es bueno. Siempre tenemos algo que añadir al ya extenso comentario del Quijote. La buena literatura tiene ese extraordinario efecto.
A propósito del Quijote, la novela de Olmstead remite de algún modo a las llanuras manchegas, la muerte de una época heroica, la vejez y la lucha lunática, trágica y hermosa, de un viejo por volver a ser joven. Y cómo no, a su modo es un pequeño y digno homenaje a la Odisea. [por Mercedes Martin para arteshoy.com]
Lejana estrella brillante es también una alegoría de la decadencia de la masculinidad caracterizada por la heroicidad: hombres duros que viven prácticamente a caballo y que se enrolan en bandas o ejércitos como forma de vida, Sin familia, solos frente a la adversidad, con las únicas armas de sus propias fuerzas, su valor y su habilidad con la pistola. Es esta masculinidad la que declina a medida que el protagonista avanza hacia la noche y la lejana estrella brillante que guía su ocaso.
Y a la vez ese ocaso representa la vejez, que en el caso de esos hombres tiene el agravante de tener que aceptar la propia vulnerabilidad como una humillación. Hay una escena de la novela en la que el protagonista entra en el bar del pueblo donde el ejército ha establecido su base y ahí están los otros, sus compañeros de fatigas, y lo miran con más burla que respeto. En esa escena un idiota borracho se atreve ahora a hablarle de tú a tú y a llamarle viejo.
El desierto de Chihuahua es el escenario de la novela. Resulta ideal para representar la soledad del hombre en su lucha a brazo partido contra la naturaleza. La derrota es inevitable y aun así el héroe lucha, lo que convierte la historia en una tragedia griega. Este desierto magnífico y aterrador es el que atraviesan hoy en día los emigrantes mexicanos camino del sueño americano o simplemente una vida mejor. Allí quedan, ellos también, abandonados a su suerte.
¿Qué me queda por decir sobre esta excelente novela? Cuando terminé de leer no estaba segura de poder transmitir todo lo que me decía. Eso es bueno. Siempre tenemos algo que añadir al ya extenso comentario del Quijote. La buena literatura tiene ese extraordinario efecto.
A propósito del Quijote, la novela de Olmstead remite de algún modo a las llanuras manchegas, la muerte de una época heroica, la vejez y la lucha lunática, trágica y hermosa, de un viejo por volver a ser joven. Y cómo no, a su modo es un pequeño y digno homenaje a la Odisea. [por Mercedes Martin para arteshoy.com]
Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews