Savage Country
by Robert Olmstead
Savage Country show the problems, challenges, and reality for those entrepreneurs that attempt to gain advantage in the hide and fur trade. The ideology of the historical past in perspective is changed by this book. There is a lot more risks, and difficulties than the modern man could imagine. Weather from lightning, to sudden snow storms, floods, and ice just winnow the field of entrepreneurs. The battle of personalities, greed and just diabolical plans could be the nail the the coffin of this enterprise. This is a brutal truthful story about the environment of the fur trade and the path to manifest destiny.

SAVAGE COUNTRY by Robert Olmstead is a historical fiction novel which combines the brutality of a buffalo hunt with the story of Elizabeth Coughlin, recently widowed and bankrupted by her husband's accidental death. It's Kansas in 1873 and Olmstead provides well-researched background as Elizabeth and her brother-in-law set out on that hunt. Filled with images of natural beauty, combined with tales of ruthlessness and greed, SAVAGE COUNTRY was named an Amazon best book for October 2017, and received starred reviews from both Booklist and Kirkus.

Elizabeth, her brother-in-law, Michael, and a band of misfits embark on a buffalo hunt that leads them deep into Indian country. Like Lonesome Dove or All the Pretty Horses, Olmstead created a world in Savage Country that just sucked me in. I devoured it. Excellent writing. Wonderful story.

And so we have people seeking wealth within the savagery and beauty of the wilderness in this terrible beauty of prose we visit the clash between peoples and cattle, for foods, skins, monies, and ways. A solider, Michael, a reverend doctor and a business woman Elizabeth of whom is seeking enterprise in turning buffalo into money, along with a band of hired men, to take that others also want claim over.
Killing again in history upon the land, a cycle that has no ends.
Great prose within these pages and something I wished has more length, more pages.

Another well written book by this author. Deep and moving.

Kansas, 1844, Elizabeth finds herself without monetary means after the death of her husband. she learns that he had hinged everything on a buffalo hunt, a hunt he hoped would provide him with the necessary funds the clear his debts. His estranged brother Michael, makes an appearance and Elizabeth begs him to take on this hunt, and to take her with him.

The last buffalo hunt, two powerful characters, gorgeous writing, outstanding imagery of nature, but a very brutal time. The title is apropos, a time when survival was less than certain. Where many things could kill you, snake bites, the betrayal of other men willing to take what you have, by whatever means necessary, the changing, harsh weather, and Indians. I loved how he portrayed Elizabeth, a deep inner strength, but kind when needed, decisive in her thinking, and willing to inhabit and endure these harsh conditions, alongside her workers.

The buffalo hunt that basically wiped out the herd, is historical fact. Have to admit at cringing at the very graphic descriptions of the slaughter, skinning and cutting of these noble animals. Yet, it was survival, during a time when one had to make their own way, their own money and living by whatever means they could. Thought this novel was very well done, as well as providing an insight of a particular harsh period of time.

ARC from Netgalley.

Bleak, dark, and highly descriptive, this is one for fans of Western literature. I'd not read a novel based around a buffalo hunt before and likely won't again (not my genre) but I am glad to have read this. Elizabeth doesn't know what she is getting into when she agrees to go on the hunt with her brother-in-law Michael. Don't look for romance between these two, or any romance at all. A lot of this is brutal but it's well written and in many ways informative. I actually think this would make an excellent film. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Allowing for disconcerting skips in the book as it downloaded on my Kindle, I see an apt portrayal of the harshness of the west on the hunters and the buffalo as they disappeared through over hunting. The descriptions of time, place, and characters was superb.

Published by Algonquin Books on September 26, 2017

Everything about Savage Country is stark: its landscape, its language, its characters. Biblical imagery abounds, from a plague of locusts to kids named after apostles. The novel has an Old Testament feel with its brutal justice and harsh injustices as characters struggle to overcome sinful thoughts in a moral wilderness. Savage Country is a story of ambition and hubris, and stories with Old Testament themes rarely go well for people whose ambition is the pursuit of worldly goods. But New Testament virtues are also on display in Savage Country as characters strive to find their better selves by caring about the less fortunate.

Michael Coughlin is a British citizen who fought for the South in the Civil War. He travels to Kansas in 1873 to pay his dead brother’s mortgage. The payment saves the land from Whitechurch, who held the mortgage and planned to seize the farm. If not for Michael’s stern resolve, Whitechurch might not have accepted the payment. But Whitechurch does easily let go of his desires, and his need for vengeance is one of the story's themes.

Michael’s brother had intended to mount a hunt for buffalo but died before the hunt could start. His brother’s wife, Elizabeth, intends to follow through on that plan, using the proceeds of the hunt to repay Michael and to meet her living expenses. Michael feels no choice but to accompany her since he cannot dissuade her from entering the savage country where the last buffalo herd roams.

The story details conflicts with man (white men versus Native Americans, white men versus black men, white men versus women of all heritages, bad men versus good men), but the greater part of the plot is driven by conflicts with nature (fire and floods, snow and wind, locusts and drought, buffalo and wolves). While the white men think they are the only ones entitled to make a living and resent the employment of black men (some things, it seems, never change), the greatest conflict is with disease in an era before antibiotics were available to save lives. And while literature professors teach that the three literary conflicts all involve man, Savage Country teaches that nature against nature (wolf versus buffalo, water versus and and stone) is a larger part of our planet’s story.

Michael plays his part in the decimation of the last remaining buffalo herd, and he does so with regret, knowing that he is stealing from nature, taking something precious from the land. It is the same regret he feels when he kills people, always in the belief that he has no realistic alternative. His choices are dictated more by expedience than morality: the death of buffalo allows humans to survive and prosper; a man in the wilderness who contracts rabies needs to be put down so that he does not imperil the lives of the healthy. It falls to Michael to deal out death because he can.

Robert Olmstead’s research resulted in a detailed description of the work that goes into assembling the scallywags, oxen, mules, wagons, provisions, and supplies required to mount an expedition for buffalo. His description of the buffalo hunt and subsequent skinning and butchering, the smells and sounds and sights, has a visceral impact. His description of a desolate, unforgiving, and savage land is vivid.

Savage Country tells an intense, powerful story that lives up to its title. Yet a strong horse and a loyal dog can provide comfort even in a savage land. People can take care of each other by banding together and forgetting their differences. That may not be enough to assure survival, but the Olmstead seems to be telling the reader that it is the only way for decent people to live.

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In 1873, Kansas had many boom towns that were now bust. Bankrupt families sold their possessions for pennies on the dollar and took locomotives out of town with plans for a fresh start. Construction sites were abandoned, streets were littered, residents lived in miserable shacks, tents and dugouts. This is what Michael Coughlin encountered when he came to town.

Michael arrived at Meadowlark, home of brother David, and was greeted by David's widow, Elizabeth. Upon David's death, Mr. Whitechurch of the Land Office badgered her to settle her debt driving off her cattle as partial payment. Full payment was next to impossible in these difficult times. Michael decided to go to Whitechurch and pay off the loan. Not so easy. Whitechurch had jacked up the price of the settlement and posted two gunmen inside his office. Michael informed Whitechurch that as a sharpshooter, he had killed "better men than you". A deal made, Michael left with the signed documents. Whitechurch and his hired goons were not about to let this transaction rest.

Michael Coughlin had circled the globe. His job had been to shoot large mammals, preserving and collecting their skins for private collections. Zoos around the world paid top dollar to add captured wild animals to their menageries. Elizabeth explained David's plan to Michael, a way to cancel his debts. By going south to hunt buffalo, he hoped to make a financial killing. Elizabeth was determined to hunt buffalo in David's stead using his maps and journals for guidance and enlisting Michael at the helm as sharpshooter, scout and adviser. Buffalo hunting required a complement of men. Sharpshooters were needed to kill buffalo, butchers and skinners to prepare meat and carefully remove buffalo hides readying them for sale. Some men employed were vagrants, no better than murderers, drunks or horse thieves. The work force was fluid, men would come and go.

Buffalo hunting was punishing. The land and weather conditions were unforgiving: torrential rain, droughts, prairie fires or heavy snow blanketing the land. Venturing into Comanche territory along with the possibility of Whitechurch following their movements for revenge created the need for posting night watches to secure the stock and camp grounds. Initially, Elizabeth relied heavily upon Michael to run the operation. She slowly came into her own. The men and women employees living back home at Meadowlark depended on her. She was determined that the buffalo hunt be successful while the savage country brutally exacted its cost.

" Savage Country" by Robert Olmstead was a stark historical rendering of one of the last post Civil War buffalo hunts. The untamed wilderness did not provide the journey Elizabeth expected but she was unwavering. She would play the hand she was dealt. Robert Olmstead has written a gritty, totally engrossing tome of the Old West. Unputdownable!

Thank you Algonquin Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Savage Country".

A recently widowed woman along with her brother-in-law plan a last ditch effort to save their family fortune by going on a massive buffalo hunt. They venture from Kansas with a rag tag party and face indians, bad weather, vermin (both animal and man) all just to keep out of the poorhouse. Elizabeth is the perfect role model for the tough pioneer woman- independent, tough as nails, but still graceful under pressure and kind. Everything lives up to the title - savage people, savage animals and an even more savage landscape. Fans of the classic westerns will appreciate the author's use of language. He writes in a style that seems true to how they would have spoken. While the short formal sentences may make for more careful reading, the voice feels authentic. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

The title of this powerful novel which follows a buffalo hunt in post-Civil War Kansas pretty much says it all: the American West was a land of brutal savagery. While the violence of the Indian wars lurks everywhere in the novel, Olmstead's true subject is the savagery of the white settlers to each other and to the environment. While the national myth portrays the progress of civilization from east to west, Olmstead suggests (following Cormac McCarthy, particularly in Blood Meridian) that the idea of progress merely masks humanity's fundamental heart of darkness--a heart of darkness that not only did not go away with the "civilizing" forces of settlement but indeed will never go away, as science, technology, and greed (for power and money) lead to ever more violent and efficient means of destruction.

Caught up in this savagery are the novel's protagonists, Elizabeth Coughlin and her brother-in-law Michael, who lead the expedition to massacre one of the last remaining buffalo herds. Elizabeth needs the money to help rescue herself and her ranch hands from the debt left by her husband, and Michael, who has hunted for profit across the world (including for zoos and the wealthy) goes along to help. Even Michael, who knows what he’s getting into, is eventually worn down and benumbed by the slaughter. But it’s Elizabeth who is most affected by the enterprise, at first developing into a skillful and firm leader (she’s a cross between Scarlett O’Hara and Ron Rash’s Serena), but she too eventually finds that the dark forces at work are too much for her to justify all the money she’s making. What happens next carries the novel toward its staggering conclusion.

As always with Olmstead, this novel is intense and often frightening--a gripping read, in other words. Readers who enjoy literature of the West will discover many nods to and echoes of other writers, most particularly Cormac McCarthy.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC for an unbiased review.