Overview

And now the show is starting. An Indian enters the arena; it's the victor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He's wearing his finest costume. Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce the great Indian chief... vociferates Frank Richmond from his rostrum. Sitting Bull has probably never been as alone as he is at this moment, in the midst of the American flags and the great entertainment machine... How did Sitting Bull feel as he rode out into the ring of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show? The great warrior, veteran of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee, reduced to re-enacting his defeat night after night, in front of whooping crowds. Buffalo Bill Cody's world-famous spectacular of horse-riding and sharp-shooting toured all over North America and Europe, even performing for royalty such as Queen Victoria. But there is another side to this tale: that of the Native American participants in the show, of their humiliation and of the simplification of their painful and complex stories for popular consumption. Vuillard's short, incisive book is a fiercely intelligent and highly entertaining critique of human cruelty, colonialism and dumbing down.

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9781782272212

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Reviews

This remarkable book comes from an angry man, wielding his pen with great skill... This powerful story, blending the grand sweep of history with everyday detail, images with text, personal reflections with brute facts, and poetry with prose, makes us reconsider our own relationship with history La Croix A short and scintillating book Le Soir One of our finest writers Le Nouvel observateur A great book... Vuillard forges a sensitive and gripping tale from one of American history's most well-known stories: how a nation was built on a lie, transforming a massacre into a battle, inventing show business and substituting carnival for history. It is simple and moving, incisive and poetic -- Francois Busnel Lire An astonishing work... With chapters that are as brief as they are gripping Lire One of the jewels of the literary season Le Figaro Magazine

Author Information

Born in Lyons in 1968, Eric Vuillard is a French author and film director. His books include Conquistadors (winner of the Ignatius J. Reilly prize 2010), and La Bataille de l'occident and Congo, for both of which he was awarded the 2012 Franz-Hessel prize and the 2013 Valery-Larbaud prize. Sorrow of the Earth is the first of his titles to be translated into English.

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