The Education of Little Tree

I don't think I've cried so hard over the last chapters of a book since I was a little girl and Charlotte said her last goodbye to Wilbur. This is one of those classics that is a classic for a reason. Sad, funny, and beautiful by turns, the story of Little Tree's childhood being raised by his Cherokee grandparents in a fiercely independent mountain community during the Depression is well worth reading. The story, the characters, the prose, the nods to history--all of it is superbly executed.

Edit: I tend to skim over author biographies in older books and wasn't aware that a)this had been marketed as a memoir for years and b)the author is/was DEEPLY problematic. I still loved the book.

Sweet, now Bitter

It's 2024 and I'm here to reduce my rating from 3 stars to 1 star. Why go back to a book I read in the 1990s and change my assessment? Because Forrest Carter was a terrible racist. How racist? He was a member of the KKK and heartily, loudly promoted segregation a mere decade or so before this book was published. And the thought that he wrote as if he was of Cherokee culture, not possessing just some fractional heritage in his DNA, was all too much.

The book was sweet and I enjoyed it when I read it unawares, but now it is bitter and false on every level.

What was this man thinking? Was this book an apology of some sort? As Forrest Carter he denied he was also active segregationist Asa Earl Carter after the deception was show more discovered in the 70s. Had he admitted it then and publicly denounced his former acts then that, my friends, would be an apology.

This book does not deserve its current 4.13 star reader average, not for its false content nor its craft. It was sweet and touching but, good gravy, it was more than a smidge heavy-handed in sappiness.

But it's the entire falsity that has me riled up about a high rating. I apologize for leaving 3 stars even after I learned of the deception, I should have given it some good ol' fashioned backlash and cancel culture on bad humanity right then and there.

Today I take a tiny notch out of that undeserved excellent GR rating.

Prerogatives

Why today?
Because of a different book.

I was about to attempt another stab at reading To the Wedding; GRers that I admire and follow admire it. Deciding maybe some background would help, I read about the author, John Berger. Incidentally, I had read his Ways of Seeing back in the late 70s and continue to be aware of Berger's phrase, "the male gaze," in the Arts. I count it as a gift to generations, dare I say, to posterity.

I still don't know more about To the Wedding, but after learning that Berger's reaction to receiving the Booker prize (for G.) was to donate half those earnings to the British Black Panthers because the Booker family built a large part of their wealth on de facto slavery and exploitation of Caribbean workers, I had to give him more of my admiration -- that's putting his money where his mouth is, for sure. And thus was inspired to more heartily give To The Wedding a more sustained try.

My mind then wandered to a dilemma that I've often tried to resolve to my own satisfaction: does the writer/artist's real life matter or not when assessing their work? In the case of Berger, I apparently thought it did in a good way, urging myself to give To The Wedding more than a 30 page go. In the case of Forrest, his real life also mattered to me because his deceptions made that book go from sweet to shit.

For those others that aren't practicing deception -- let's say, Orson Scott Card -- but simply stating their firm "beliefs" in their public discourse, then I think it's fair, and to be expected, that what they pronounce in their real lives also matters and I can prefer not to suffer ideas that are repugnant to me, and not support those ideas by implication.

So, writers, that's the deal we make: You be you. I'll be me.

I'll suffer the deprivation of your genius (ahem); it's not like the world is short on genius writers who don't dump intolerant garbage onto the public reading table. I'm tolerant of your intolerance, but I won't buy or read your books. Meantime, your deprivation is the dip in revenue and admiration from more than a few readers. And likely from posterity too. show less

After finishing this book and then delving into several book reviews by Christopher Hitchins where Hitchins thoroughly examines the authors in addition to the authors' works, I decided to do a bit of research myself on some of the authors I had recently read. I started with Forrest Carter (aka Asa Earl Carter) from Anniston, Alabama - just up the road from my home in Birmingham. What happened next was eye-opening. This book, which I found full of stereotypes and quite average despite its great reviews, is actually steeped in controversy! I started with the 1991 New York Times' article "The Transformation of a Klansman" by Dan T. Carter. I was fascinated to hear that the New York Times moved The Education of Little Tree, originally show more published in 1976 and then reprinted in 1986, from its Nonfiction Bestseller List to its Fiction Bestseller List after this story broke. Although some of my fellow GoodReads members still have this book categorized as a memoir - be warned - this one is a hoax, a mocu-memoir written by a former segregationist who successfully re-invented himself late in life. I don't really feel all that duped since I was pretty unconvinced of the book's genuineness even before I researched its author, but I may have read the book differently if I'd known all this before I started. Lesson learned. show less

Carter's novel is billed as the recollections of his few years with his Eastern Cherokee Hill country grandparents, who he lived with after being orphaned at age 5.

However, it was later revealed to be fiction, which I learned later; see UPDATE below.

This initial review addresses the book as if it were biographical, but points out what should have been red-flags even before knowing that the author was writing under a fake name and false genealogical pretenses.

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Although I enjoyed the anecdotal stories, and some of the narrator's catch-phrases, I wasn't too impressed with the book overall.

Even given that it is being written by a grown man backfilling his memories with a mature understanding and developed ideology, show more the events he relates are not, in my view (having raised five boys), ones that would have impressed themselves on a 5-7 year old in the manner presented, even if he remembered them at all.

Some of the narration is definitely colored by an adult viewpoint that Little Tree at that age would not have absorbed.

Also, what Little Tree sometimes does is unusual for such a young child, even in the more self-sufficient past years, and would be more characteristic of an older boy. I would believe it of an 8-9 year old, and some of it is more likely for the early teens.

I've noticed this defect in other books by men (and sometimes women) purporting to write about young children; I don't think they have a good grasp of child developmental stages.
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UPDATE:
So, this is fiction, not a genuine memoir, which was finally accepted as "debunked" in 1991, although the author's double-life was actually exposed the year the book was published.

His view of Cherokee & half-breed country life was therefore not the "authentic one" lauded by earlier reviewers (which just goes to show how poorly our literary mavens judge books), but that doesn't mean there were not some people of that milieu who saw things the way Carter presented them.

I just think the book, true or not, wasn't as great as the fashionable-fans thought it was.
It was successful book because it hit all the hot-button faves of the era's literati.

It was a successful hoax, I think, because Carter's behavior as the author of his admittedly-fictional first book, filmed as "The Outlaw Josey Wales," set the stage for the acceptance of an "autobiography" that purported to be the genesis of his persona.

The author's formerly ascendant White Supremacist ideology (see the links) doesn't stand out in the novel, which is outwardly sympathetic to the Native plight. I didn't detect that particular strain in my reading and clearly none of its earlier fans did either. However, the Salon author did point out the connections.

Note: The "new" foreward by Rennard Strickland, in 1985, is a glowing testimonial (and continues to be published). But, despite his recommendations for the Cherokee cultural insights, Wikipedeia notes: "Members of the Cherokee Nation have said that so-called "Cherokee" words and many customs in The Education of Little Tree are inaccurate, and they point out that the novel's characters are stereotyped."

https://web.archive.org/web/20030210060441/http://archive.salon.com/books/featur....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Little_Tree show less

Story of a young boy who is left orphaned and raised by his grandparents in Appalachia. His grandmother is Cherokee and his grandfather half Cherokee. They live in a small house up on a mountainside, with a bunch of hound dogs that protect their corn patch and trail foxes (for amusement). They mostly live off the land, gathering herbs, acorns and wild greens, hunting deer, catching fish etc. But the grandfather also makes whiskey in an attempt to earn some cash, and young Little Tree is learning this skill. Something I never thought I’d read the details of, making moonshine! Most of the story takes place while Little Tree is six years old (he seems older than that though), and there’s other stories told by visitors and friends, or show more shared family history. The kid does his best to learn what his grandparents teach him- not only to live off what the land gives them, but also to read (his grandmother reads Shakespeare from the library, and has him studying the dictionary) and do simple math. He’s pretty well taught for a kid who’s never gone to school, but when out in public with his grandfather- at the store, on the bus, or sitting in church- it’s apparent that the white folks around them look down on his family for being poor in material goods, for going barefoot or wearing deerskin clothing. Although the kid himself never really catches on that he’s being mocked. Different kinds of people come to their little house- those representing authorities that have good interests at heart, are given the runaround (in some very hilarious scenes). Relatives, friends, and one Jewish peddler however, are welcomed into their home, and Little Tree learns compassion, patience, and other bits of wisdom from them.

Things happen, up and down the mountainside, and I was settling into the rhythm of their days, the picture of life in the backwoods this gave me, when suddenly authorities find out this kid is living with his grandparents and not in school. They pull him out of his home and send him to a religious boarding school. Where things are very unpleasant and oppressive, to say the least. I’m glad the kid made it out of there, but the ending had me feeling really sad.

This book brought two others to mind while I was reading it: Where the Red Fern Grows (because of the hound dogs) and Where the Lilies Bloom (the setting and overall style). But once again, it also makes me grit my teeth when I look about online after and learn some facts. When this book was first published the author said it was autobiographical. Nope. He’s not even Native American. Before I was aware, I was enjoying the read and thought it a good story, but now I cringe at the things I didn’t question in the narrative, that are so blatantly wrong or stereotypical. Have to read with doubt in mind now: American Indians in Children’s Literature made me aware of some issues with this one. I feel like I should remove it from my personal collection.

from the Dogear Diary show less

4934. The Education of Little Tree, by Forrest Carter (read 12 Jun 2012) This book was first published in 1977 and touted as "true." It tells of a five-year-old Indian orphan who, in the Depression 1930s, comes to live wih his Cherokee grandparents. The story is told by the boy, with some improbabilities (e.g., the grandmother reads Shakespeare and Gibbon to the illiterate grandfather and the five-year-old grandson). For much of the book I was under-impressed and maybe that is why the closing chapters seemed so stunningly poignant. But I was thoroughly blown away by the story and its super-poignant final chapters. I only give it less than five stars because of the defects of the earlier part of the book. But the book is a stunning show more triumph when viewed by its effect as it ends. show less

I really loved this book.
(After finding out who the author apparently was, I feel that I should love the book far less, yet this book really moved me, so what I am to do: change my rating based on an apparently odious author, despite his ability to write moving and thought-provoking work which I did not take to represent Cherokee (and certainly not true Tsalagi culture, as in pre-contact or authentic Cherokee tradition handed down authentically...) culture?

What stays with me is the quiet sense of just being, with no need to talk or explain (explains that irritating habit of my Grandmother to just sit there and look at you in "stony silence" as Professor Yunus described the members of the Cherokee (I forget if it was Eastern Band or show more CNO) when he introduced MicroCredit [b:Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty|27533|Banker to the Poor Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty|Muhammad Yunus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1284082691s/27533.jpg|1390141] ).

This book, along with the much compared-to Huckleberry Fin/Adventures of Tom Sawyer, is one that perhaps should be taught in classrooms alongside Mark Twain's work around the USA and beyond.

It's been some months since I read it, so my notes are now a bit less clear. One thing that did stay with me as a big question mark was that part about Cherokee kids being taught early on how to go out of their bodies. That seems rather like at-will Dissociation, which is... On the other hand, Lt. Timberlake was amazed at the Cherokee ability to ignore pain, during his stay as a 'guest' after the War with the Brits: [b:The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake: The Story of a Soldier, Adventurer, and Emissary to the Cherokees, 1756-1765|1056170|The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake The Story of a Soldier, Adventurer, and Emissary to the Cherokees, 1756-1765|Duane H. King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348817672s/1056170.jpg|1042725]


P.10 value for an idea that nothing should be allowed to "burden our heads"
p. 11 I love The Way -most sensible!
P. 29 feelings vs good sense...
p. 97 taught to expect nothing from life but "their place" -I'm no longer sure what I mean by this quote.

P. 113 the last sentence, the understanding of love, having his life saved, was the most moving for me

and Wow: Willow John's Death Song...


review updated 3rd of August, 12017 HE
( the Holocene Calendar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_calendar ) show less