My high school's senior history class was American History. As a 17-year-old senior, I had never enjoyed history much, because up until that time I'd only had teachers who thought it was a boring subject, which they had to teach because they were told to do so. But in my senior year I had a new teacher, young and personable (and not a nun) who actually loved history and was able to communicate her enthusiasm. One way she did this was to assign a reading list, from which we each were to choose one historical novel and write a report on it. Knowing I'd been born in Maine, she drew my attention to *Arundel*, by Kenneth Roberts (1885 - 1957). Reading the book was not only fun, but a revelation that changed my thinking on any number of things.
*Arundel* was Roberts' first published novel, and named after his home town of Kennebunk, Maine (no, definitely not Kennebunkport), which was called Arundel at the time of the American Revolution. The novel traces the adventures of Steven Nason, an innkeeper from Arundel, who joins Benedict Arnold during the Revolution, on a march to take Quebec. Many of his neighbors are also along for the march, so that the intimate village feel of the characterizations carries through the book despite being surrounded by the mini-army intent on its deadly winter walk northward. There is, of course, a romantic aspect to Steven's journey, but the story of the march is so gripping that the love story is only frosting, not the cake itself.
Roberts does a great job of fleshing out the character of Benedict Arnold (before he became our famous traitor, of course, and was still a fervent patriot), and creates believable, and very admirable, characters from among the Abenaki Indians. Reading this novel was the awakening of my consciousness of Native Americans as people, just as rational and at least as adult as the white people they helped or fought. But the most remarkable thing about the novel is the way it brings to life the adage that "war is hell", as the fisherman, farmers and small-town businessmen follow the leaders through rivers, swamps, and many bad decisions.
The memory of this novel has stayed with me for a lifetime, and re-reading it now, as a 65-year-old woman, is just as gripping and enlightening as it was when I was 17. I cannot for the life of me figure out why no one has ever made this into a movie. Maybe I ought to send a gift copy to Spielberg ...
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Dixie Dean
Genuine copy in excellent condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 16, 2021D. Roxborough
almost as good as North west Passage
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2021Amazon Customer
Right book delivered on time.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 12, 2021Amazon Customer
Excellent novel illuminating this period of the American struggle for ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2017