Across the Endless River

by: Thad Carhart

Published by: Doubleday, a division of Random House

Reviewed by Jan Warren

Across the Endless River is a fictionalized account of the life of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Toussaint Charbonneau, a French trapper and Sacagawea, the Shoshone squaw who accompanied Lewis and Clark as their interpreter on their expedition, Corps of Discovery across the Rocky Mountains.

If you enjoy endless commentary of mundane period details and scenery, then you might enjoy this book. It is well written, but more in the literary style of history texts. The three hundred pages consist of ninety percent narrative and about ten percent character dialog, which makes it an excruciatingly slow read.
The author does give the reader glimpses of ideological scenes of the American wilderness, with the bulk of the book covering the fictional lives of the rich and titled in Europe. The story spans from February 1805 through March 1829. The author highlights the half French/half Indian, Jean-Baptiste’s exposure to both American and European politics and prejudice of the time.

This book, however, has none of the character development, plot, emotion, or flow usually expected in the average historical novel. In the middle of long uninterrupted spans of narrative, the point of view suddenly switches to the thoughts of one character or another, which was a bit jarring.

That said, if you are looking for a book with the “flavor” of the times, the author has captured it, for the most part, without resorting to a lot of gore or bad language, even the few bedroom scenes were done tactfully. I give this a PG rating for content and 3 stars.

Armchair Interviews agrees.