"That of all the 'oracies (aristocracy and democracy included) hypocrisy is the most flourishing"

A dry humoured socio-political satire involving a voyage to fantastic places. An american Gullivers Travels.
So much of this still applies to the world today, i don't know whether to be horrified that nothing has changed or comforted that we apparently survived it last time :) .

I do rather enjoy my Gulliver-esque type satires and this was no exception. I was genuinely close to giving it 5-stars despite all the reasons i should have dropped it to 3.

I've only read one other Fenimore book but i don't recall the language being this hard to parse. I think its a combination of Ye Olde english and all of the sarcasm in the story.
Sarcasm can be hard to absorb in the written form even for a modern writer, so 100 year old sarcasm.... thats a hard one. It actually took me a third of the book before i was sure it was a satire.

Also nothing fantastic happens in this first part but we still get some funny satire about how peoples opinions change depending on their social position or financial status.


Finally though the Monikins show up which are talking monkeys. Eventually leading to an exploration of the Leap islands, Leaphigh being a satire of england and Leaplow a satire of america.

Its an incredibly sarcastic book, then there's some really long legal and philosophical jokes, we have the satire and also some just genuine straight-up comedy.
For example there's an onrunning joke about the ships captain kicking the cabin boy in the ass, which Cooper gets surprising mileage out of.

Apart from the obtuseness of the language i also had problems knowing exactly what was being satirized. I could see the satire in the general sense but there were a lot of elements i felt were direct references to things i couldn't understand.
For example in Leaphigh (england) the monarch has no power, this being taken by their first male cousin. The first male cousin must be the primeminister but i don't know why its referred too in this manner.
There was a LOT of times like that, where i felt i was missing some historical context.

Also of note when we do get to Leaplow (america) towards the end, there is a lot of political satire. So if you don't know the american setup with its supreme-court, 3 branches of government, senate and congress etc. Then you may find it extra difficult.

Overall though, despite the obtuseness of the language, the loss of historical context, the elements of sexism and racism (which i'm sure wasn't all sarcastic), nevertheless i REALLY liked this one.
and the ending... oh boy, not the most original but there was a certain odd twistedness to it that added some extra punch :D . ( )