Evan S. Connell (1924–2013)

Too few historians focus on honing the craft of writing. Too often, it is the novelists and journalists who know how to tell the story. Sadly, these good writers often over-estimate their historical research skills. Fortunately, the novelist Evan S. Connell was no slouch when it came to writing history. Son of the Morning Star is a rambling, dry-wit recount of the horrific Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 – "Custer’s last stand".

This fantastic book tells the story through anecdotes, show more half-heard rumours, and malicious lies. It is by no means chronological in the usual sense. In fact, negative reviewers of the book accuse it of being a hodge-podge, all over the place, lacking in clear chronology, etc. It absolutely is those things, but successfully. I knew next to nothing about Custer, the battle, the campaign, or America in the 1870s. Yet I learnt a lot despite the lack of the usual historical guideposts in this book.

The reality that Connell was trying to get across to us is that this battle and everything associated with it had been mythologised out of all perspective in the century preceding this book’s publication. In such an atmosphere, perhaps the best way of approaching the history was to report on the myths, the rumours, the colourful characters, and the ways it has all been retold over time.

By repeating the tall tales, and reporting the rumours, rehashing the lies, and so on (but always with a skeptical eye), Connell brings to us the complexities of the past. A pessimist might say that Son of the Morning Star shows the utter futility of historical research.

You don’t know what the 1870s were like. Nor do I. Nor did Evan S. Connell. And, truthfully, we can’t know. However, I don’t read this as a pessimistic book. The myths, the lies, the self-aggrandisement (not just Custer’s), and the uncertainty are the story. And Connell’s method of relating them to us is precisely what is needed.

Connell’s book is often described as a masterpiece. It means nothing for me to add my voice to the crowds of people acclaiming his work. On a personal level, though, reading this book was mind-expanding. It helped me see what history could be. show less

A joyless life rendered so plaintively and pathetically.

Mr Bridge could've just been another typical angry, miserable story of the mid-century, upper-middle class, white American man genre, as written by some of Connell's well-known contemporaries.

But somehow Connell imbues Mr Bridge with a hyper-realism - for example, instead of a blustery self-righteousness of a cartoon family man of the period, the contradictory self-righteousness that explains and summarises his entire personality, show more humanises him without excusing him - that makes this a frustratingly brilliant read.

Just as Mrs Bridge's pristine suitcase covers encapsulates her whole personality for me, Mr Bridge's showily understated Christmas "present" of stocks to the whole family+Harriet which he then takes back in the name of safekeeping just punched me through the page.

It has been ages since I've read Mrs Bridge, but I find Mr Bridge to be just as good a standalone novel. And seeing as I've forgotten most of the incidents that Mrs covered, I look forward to one day reading them both together as I'm sure there're some two-sided gems to uncover. show less

This is a modern classic and Evan S. Connell's debut novel, a sometimes sympathetic, sometimes uncharitable look at a woman's life. Mrs. Bridge of Kansas City is a woman who has lived within the confines of what is expected of her and she places those same restrictions and expectations on her family. Yet while she is the one who keeps the rules and knows what to do, this doesn't mean she doesn't also chafe sometimes or realize that there is something missing from her life, an entirely show more pleasant, financially comfortable existence that doesn't entirely cover for her lack of connection to her children or her husband's emotional and often physical absence.

Connell does not go lightly on Mrs. Bridge, spotlighting moments where her need to preserve appearances was silly or harmed her relationship with her children. But he's also often kind to her, revealing how little respect or support she receives from her husband. This book is also full of quietly powerful moments or humorous ones and Connell's descriptions of daily life allows plenty of room for the small disappointments and harms to be given their due. This quiet novel is a wonderful glimpse of a world that no longer exists, and of a woman who honestly did her best. show less

My book group is reading Mrs. Bridge which is just an amazing perfect little book. and while I am re-reading it for the group I am also casting eyes on my favorite book of all time, Evan S. Connells Son of the Morning Star.

This is the book that takes the deepest dive imaginable into the Custer Battle, the Battle of Little Big Horn, where 300 plus US Calvary faced off against perhaps 3000 plus hostile Indians.

It's an important moment in American History so for that alone its a lovely little show more book.

But it's also a quiet little meditation on America at the turn of the Century, frontier washerwomen, hard scrabble "journalists", Indians, dogs, horses and just about everything else too.

Connell takes each chapter and seizes on a thread - Custer, or Mrs. Custer, or Reno, or Benteen, or Sitting Bull. and then tells you everything you wanted to know about them and how they relate to the big event. You might think this is uninteresting. Actually its deeply fascinating and engaging.

If you want to know if Sitting Bull ever went to West Point (he didn't) or if Custer took an Indian woman as his "forest wife" (he did) this is the book for you.

"Son of the Morning Star" was the name that the Indians gave to Custer. Curiously it's also one of the names given to Sitting Bull.

Just lovely wonderful elegant writing about people and history and America. How we got from there to here.

My favorite book ever. Not kidding. show less