Tom Lambrecht, Nederland. When most people think of “The Revenant” or “The Martian” they think of the movies. Since I’m something of a damp dish towel as far as keeping up with contemporary cinema, my first acquaintance with both of these titles was reading the books. The common thread of both is the timeless story of a voyage and of a resourceful and persevering hero surviving against impossible odds, an archetype the telling of which we never seem to tire.
During decades living in St. Louis, my fascination with some of the names on the street signs fueled an interest in the city’s history as the gateway to the land west of the Mississippi.
Streets with names like “Gratiot” and “Sublette” celebrated trappers whose pursuit of animals for fur fueled their exploration of the American West. I was surprised and delighted to learn that the stodgy historical subject of fur trappers in the West had been made into an award-winning contemporary movie with noteworthy actors such as DiCaprio and Hardy, amongst others. Well, maybe not stodgy, because there is a rich lore surrounding the perils and hardships of fur trappers and mountain men, much of it anecdotal. Many of them lived hard, drank and fought harder, and were fond of embellishing their own exploits, as well as those of their companions. Credible primary sources were few and far between.
In the book The Revenant, author Michael Punke puts flesh on the bones of the apocryphal tale of mountain man Hugh Glass, his mauling by a grizzly bear, his companions who abandoned him, and his quest for not only survival, but revenge. Punke, who has written several books on Western history, concedes the difficulty in sorting out the truth in the historical note at the end of the book. One takes obvious risks when writing a “historical” novel. If not well-crafted, a reader with knowledge of the actual event may experience a fundamental disconnect with the story.
With that in mind, I read the book cautiously and enjoyed it immensely. Punke’s research makes for a believable narrative that gains credibility from the (mostly) real-life characters as well as his careful depictions of everyday activities, persons and settings. If any part was mildly disappointing, it was the long-awaited vengeance that Glass sought against real-life characters Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald. I’ll be anxious to see how that riff fares in the movie.
The Martian has no such historical cross to bear, as it is set in the future. The book tells the tale of a mission to Mars and a protagonist abandoned and left for dead after an accident and… you guessed it, surviving against impossible odds.
The Martian begs comparison with Ray Bradbury’s short story collection, The Martian Chronicles, a science fiction classic that I’ve read over and over. Written in the 1940s when our knowledge of conditions on Mars was almost non-existent, Bradbury envisioned a habitable planet for “Earthlings” to colonize and he could create any fantastic setting he chose.
Armed with current knowledge of harsh conditions on Mars, author Andy Weir had to exercise more restraint, but still created a credible and compelling science fiction story. He juxtaposes astronaut Mark Watney’s diary-style narrative of his struggles to stay alive against the backdrop of his fellow astronauts returning to Earth, and their dialogue with the control station on the ground. The pivotal moment when they all realize Watney is still alive on Mars is a show-stopper.
In my reading of the book, Watney succeeds as a character because of his quirks as well as his determination and resourcefulness. He is irreverent, frequently profane, and has an extremely dark sense of humor, particularly while contemplating his own fate of slow starvation if he fails in his quest. That archetypal quest that humans will continue to celebrate in songs, in films and of course, in literature.
Tom Lambrecht is a Library Assistant at the Nederland Community Library. See the local landscapes of Andre Nobrega on display at the Library.
