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6 obres 23 Membres 8 Ressenyes 1 preferits

Obres de Colin Mustful

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Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
Colin Mustful is a writer and historian who has already written several novels set in the 19th century, exploring the lives, displacement, and genocide of indigenous peoples – particularly in the area of Minnesota and the American Midwest. His website states that they are meant as “compelling stories that also act as educational resources”, and he is the founder of the publisher History Through Fiction.

Reclaiming Mini Sota: An Alternative History of the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862 is his first work of alternative history, and his introduction touches on his motivations and goals. As a lifelong non-Native resident of Minnesota, he acknowledges the benefits he has gained from the history of violent displacement and wishes to approach his years of research in a new way, highlighting history’s conversation with the present

The Dakota War of 1862 was a small conflict with large repercussions – a regional uprising of several Sioux bands that resulted in several hundred recorded deaths, the forcible removal of the many Dakota from Minnesota and the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men, the largest mass execution in United States History. In his novel, Mustful follows much of the documented history, but also speculates on how things may have gone differently if several of the major figures had taken different paths.

Reclaiming Mini Sota does not follow any of those historical figures, but charts how two characters become involved in the conflict – Waabi, a young Ojibwe who loses almost everything in the lead-up to the war, and Samuel, a white Vermont boy who convinces his family to go out West to the promise of free and open land. Most of the first half of the novel charts their path to that moment, bound together only by loss and a love for Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Mustful gives a great deal of context of their ways of life and does an excellent job illustrating the motivations of settlers to move and the displaced to push back. No one is exonerated for their actions, but likewise we have sympathy for why many did as they did.

The narrative does drag in the middle third, and the dialogue occasionally veers into the didactic and instructional rather than organic. The turn from historical to alternative-history does not occur until almost three-quarters of the way through the book, and the final denouement comes on rather suddenly. I wish he spent more time on some of the later plot-threads, particularly the groups whose actions brought about the alternative present, who I feel were underrepresented. I was also initially shocked by the endings for a couple pivotal characters, but sitting in it, I think I better understand the sadness and injustice that Mustful was trying to relate. In all it was enjoyable on its own, but I think it would be well-placed along with reading on the history (of which the author makes many suggestions) or as part of a class. It would certainly be appropriate for young-adult students learning about the United State’s history of forced displacement, and looking forward to how the future could be a better, more just place.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Magus_Manders | Hi ha 7 ressenyes més | Nov 27, 2023 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
This book is well written. If you like reading books about history and about things that could have happened, this book is for you.
 
Marcat
willpugh | Hi ha 7 ressenyes més | Nov 15, 2023 |
Ressenya escrita per a Crítics Matiners de LibraryThing .
As a family historian, I enjoy reading historical fiction of my ancestors’ places and time periods. When an author uses historical events and real people, it makes the book even more engaging for me. Reclaiming Mni Sota was a very absorbing read, even stressful at times. I enjoyed reading about the background of the two main characters, one Native American and one white, as the story drew them and their people closer into conflict with each other.

The alternate fictional result of the conflict was thought-provoking. The author, Colin Mustful, wrote in the book’s introduction that he attempted to “engender empathy rather than just acknowledgment.” He succeeded in creating an absorbing historical piece of fiction and making the reader think, empathize, and “bring out the humanity in all of us.”… (més)
 
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lynna10e | Hi ha 7 ressenyes més | Oct 24, 2023 |
In Reclaiming Mni Sota, author Colin Mustful successfully allows the reader to understand the process of how our midwest was transformed into our current state of Minnesota as well as how it could have been reclaimed by the original inhabitants. By introducing the main characters separately in their original families and surroundings, the reader connects with both sides of the U.S - Dakota War, hoping there will not be tragedy, but peace. As the story unfolds, Mustful has the insight to help the reader decipher the setting of both characters before they meet each other. Each chapter states the month and year of the setting, as well as the original name of the location and the current day name [Chapter 20: Gayaashko-zaagi'igan Manoominike-giizis (Gull Lake, August 1862)]. The reader grows to understand the history and pain of the Native Americans and the Colonists separately, knowing that eventually they will meet in the story, anticipating how the meeting will take place, arriving closer to the overlapping setting, place and time.

Having spent much time in the wilderness and current day cities of the places mentioned in Reclaiming Mni Sota, learning about the events that took place in the midwest is invaluable. Reading about the history of our land in a realistic fiction format, engages and educates the reader, as well as forming compassion for the struggles that came before us. For those of us who are not historians, the books published by History Through Fiction provide a fabulous way to learn about events, language, customs, and culture in a responsible and entertaining way. Well done!
… (més)
 
Marcat
BWCA5K | Hi ha 7 ressenyes més | Oct 12, 2023 |

Estadístiques

Obres
6
Membres
23
Popularitat
#537,598
Valoració
½ 4.7
Ressenyes
8
ISBN
7
Preferit
1