"The truth is always made up of little particulars which sound
ridiculous when repeated." So says Jack Crabb, the 111-year-old
narrator of Thomas Berger's 1964 masterpiece of American fiction,
Little Big Man. Berger claimed the Western as serious literature with
this savage and epic account of one man's extraordinary double life.
After surviving the massacre of his pioneer family, ten-year-old Jack is
adopted by an Indian chief who nicknames him Little Big Man. As a
Cheyenne, he feasts on dog, loves four wives, and sees his people
butchered by horse soldiers commanded by General George Armstrong
Custer. Later, living as a white man once more, he hunts the buffalo to
near-extinction, tangles with Wyatt Earp, cheats Wild Bill Hickok, and
fights in the Battle of Little Bighorn alongside Custer himself--a man
he'd sworn to kill. Hailed by The Nation as "a seminal event," Little
Big Man is a singular literary achievement that, like its hero, only
gets better with age.
Praise for Little Big Man
"An epic such as Mark Twain might have given us."--Henry Miller
"The very best novel ever about the American West."--The New York
Times Book Review
"Spellbinding . . . [Crabb] surely must be one of the most
delightfully absurd fictional fossils ever unearthed."--Time
"Superb . . . Berger's success in capturing the points of view and
emotional atmosphere of a vanished era is uncanny. His skill in
characterization, his narrative power and his somewhat cynical humor are
all outstanding."--The New York Times
