Where It's Pretty Exciting, Actually

The Flamingo Feather by Kirk Munroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This isn't for everybody--but I really liked it. It's a very entertaining adventure novel in the vein of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson or Last of the Mohicans if Alexandre Dumas had written it instead of James Fenimore Cooper. I thought I was gonna hate it when I came across the archaic language in the dialogue; Rene's uncle greets him this way on their first meeting: "In good sooth, Réné, thou'rt a likely lad; and if thy heart be as true and bold as thy face promises, we'll soon make a man of thee such as even thy noble father would approve." It continues that way, but it stops feeling obtrusive, and I just rolled along with the narrative.

This has the flaws so typical of books penned by white writers in the late 19th century (first published in 1887), including some of the prejudices that would have been considered socially acceptable at the time, such as using words like "savages" to describe them, or assuming the reader was a fellow Christian who would smile at the natives' quaint beliefs. This unfortunate tendency is most noticeable when talking about whole groups of natives. However, when dealing with characters one at a time, they come off very differently.

The author treats individual natives as unique, with a variety of temperaments, abilities, goals, and personalities, capable of heroic and noble actions on the one hand as well as cruelty and deceit on the other. Munroe grew up on the frontier in the 1850's (Wisconsin, actually, in a log cabin) where he had some firsthand experience with Native Americans, and it becomes clear in the book that he was a genuine admirer of native people, sympathetic to them, aware of their many accomplishments, and that spirit of common humanity mitigates much of the negatives. (IMO. YMMV.)

The story and the action are excellent, speeding along with very little pause almost from beginning to end. The young man joins his uncle on an expedition to the New World, leaving France in 1564; they meet several native groups; they build a fort; as a group, they face disease and hunger and enemies; Rene and his new friend, Has-se, face personal enemies; there is war, and escape, and rescues, and mutinies, and chases up rivers and through the swamps of Florida. The bad guys are torture-you-to-death bad, the good guys are die-for-you good, and it's all exciting and fun to read. The conclusion I found to be satisfying and fitting for an adventure story like this.

TBH, I thought it was all made up at first--French Huguenot settlers in Florida in the 1500's?--and though the author takes liberties with history, in broad outline, it turns out it's all true; Fort Caroline really existed, and it really got wiped out by the Spanish. And while this fictional account adds a romantic sheen to a brutal time--which I well know--it still makes me want to learn more about what really happened and what life was really like in that region in those days, and it colors in a big dark spot on my knowledge of history.

So, bearing in mind all the usual caveats... good book. Recommended for readers of adventure novels.

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