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A review by tim_ohearn
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
5.0
The first Great American Novel by the first Great American Novelist.
Coming up on two hundred years old, The Last of the Mohicans is a clinical exhibition of what the word "timeless" means as it pertains to American literature. When I picked the book up, I was not aware of the fact that it is also a historical novel, in fact my only familiarity of the titled subject matter was that I oft gamble at a casino called the Mohegan Sun and that Kendrick Lamar rapped "Look inside the eyes of the last Mohicans survived" on Power Circle the summer after I graduated from high school.
Derided by contemporary critics as wordy, the unnecessary descriptors dotting each passage were received warmly by me. There is a distinctly American facet to them, and I found them--even the antiquities among them--appropriate. Much more so than other classics which I've always considered a slog undertaken mainly to achieve an additional notch in my belt of mental dexterity (or perhaps a feather in such a cap). It was as if the novel was penned by a great-great-grandfather. For this reason, I steadfastly declare it as the bedrock of the literary tradition of the country I call home.
It is a story best enjoyed with some guidance such as a plot summary for each chapter and a preface communicating an understanding of the French and Indian war as well as the singular historical event that is central to the plot. Such guidance cast aside, the story flows remarkably well for its age. However, I'd debate any notion of this being "guy book" because it's as much about adventure as it is about love and as much about love as it is about the regularities of the natural world--specifically the wilderness surrounding Lake George. I loved the book, and it is no wonder that it is credited with establishing the trope of the wise, stoic Indian:
"'Tell me, is Tamenund a father?'
The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand with a benignant smile on his wasted countenance, and then casting his eyes slowly over the whole assemblage, he answered:
'Of a nation.'"
Coming up on two hundred years old, The Last of the Mohicans is a clinical exhibition of what the word "timeless" means as it pertains to American literature. When I picked the book up, I was not aware of the fact that it is also a historical novel, in fact my only familiarity of the titled subject matter was that I oft gamble at a casino called the Mohegan Sun and that Kendrick Lamar rapped "Look inside the eyes of the last Mohicans survived" on Power Circle the summer after I graduated from high school.
Derided by contemporary critics as wordy, the unnecessary descriptors dotting each passage were received warmly by me. There is a distinctly American facet to them, and I found them--even the antiquities among them--appropriate. Much more so than other classics which I've always considered a slog undertaken mainly to achieve an additional notch in my belt of mental dexterity (or perhaps a feather in such a cap). It was as if the novel was penned by a great-great-grandfather. For this reason, I steadfastly declare it as the bedrock of the literary tradition of the country I call home.
It is a story best enjoyed with some guidance such as a plot summary for each chapter and a preface communicating an understanding of the French and Indian war as well as the singular historical event that is central to the plot. Such guidance cast aside, the story flows remarkably well for its age. However, I'd debate any notion of this being "guy book" because it's as much about adventure as it is about love and as much about love as it is about the regularities of the natural world--specifically the wilderness surrounding Lake George. I loved the book, and it is no wonder that it is credited with establishing the trope of the wise, stoic Indian:
"'Tell me, is Tamenund a father?'
The old man looked down upon her from his elevated stand with a benignant smile on his wasted countenance, and then casting his eyes slowly over the whole assemblage, he answered:
'Of a nation.'"