The Buffalo Soldier: A Novel
by Chris Bohjalian
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Book Summary Information
Author: Chris BohjalianEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-25
ISBN: 0375725466
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Buffalo Soldier: A Novel
Book Review: A great read, and an interesting historic highlight!
Summary: 5 Stars
Chris A. Bojalian has scored again! Sentimentality mixed with a reason to give poignancy a chance to shine is apropos for melodrama at its best. The Buffalo Soldier, an unforgettable tale that catches the human element and give reason not to give up on this book. Tragedy finds Laura and Terry Sheldon, losing twin nine year-old daughters due to a flash flood in rural Vermont. The death of the girls only added more angst and ill-will to the couple struggling to keep their marriage afloat. This seemed a hard task to rectify as both dealt and reacted to the tragedy in different ways. To wit: Terry wants to be able to control his life, take charge, make things right. This is a very accurate portrayal for a dedicated law enforcement officer. Laura brings another child in their life, Alfred, an African American boy. Not only is this a challenge because his years in foster care have left him distrustful of most everyone, but they are living in Vermont where there are very few other African Americans. With this analogy in tow, the author is on his way, and does a masterful job of weaving a second element into the storyline, thus evoking a different point of view.Alfred, elicits emotional ties to The Buffalo Soldiers and can easily be synonymous with his status as an orphan. Historically speaking, the Buffalo Soldiers were a compelling factor in the taming of the west, and were ostracized by society and the military. The real gem in this story is the fact that when the need to be accepted without preconceived notions, it does wonders for the psyche and deals prejudice another blow for legitimacy. This, he gets from a concerned neighbor who does his part to add substance to this novel. Adding to that, Alfred solves his problems dealing with foster parentage by learning of the history that caused these men to be honored, as they came for him to be the role models that he emulated. Talking about turning a bad story to a good one, it worked for Alfred...but what about Laura and Terry? Does the aforementioned `good Samaritan' neighbor earn the appreciation of both Laura and Terry? How does Alfred's maturation affect his decision-making ideals and the timeliness of dealing with the world? These are questions that will be answered as one delves into this wrenching story.
The author, from the characterizations offered here gives us a moving and a richly crafted drama that explores such issues as infidelity, bonding agents needed to keep children and families together, and the relative factors that causes a community to become one. The Buffalo Soldier is an awe-inspiring tale, profound and with an ethical aura to it that readers would appreciate. This you would expect from an author that is no stranger to dramatic cause and effect
Summary of The Buffalo Soldier: A Novel
With his trademark emotional heft and storytelling skill, bestselling author Chris Bohjalian presents this resonant novel about the formation of an unconventional family?the ties that bind it, and the strains that pull it apart. Two years after their twin daughters died in a flash flood, Terry and Laura Sheldon, a Vermont state trooper and his wife, take in a foster child. His name is Alfred; he is ten years old and African American. And he has passed through so many indifferent families that he can?t believe that his new one will last.In the ensuing months Terry and Laura will struggle to emerge from their shell of grief only to face an unexpected threat to their marriage; Terry?s involvement with another woman. Meanwhile, Alfred cautiously enters the family circle, and befriends an elderly neighbor who inspires him with the story of the buffalo soldiers, the black cavalrymen of the old West. Out of the entwining and unfolding of their lives, The Buffalo Soldier creates a suspenseful, moving portrait of a family, infused by Bohjalian?s moral complexity and narrative assurance.
There are certain plots that possess inherent drama, and the saving of a lost child is one of them. In The Buffalo Soldier, Chris Bohjalian--who showed such flair for drama in the bestselling Oprah's Book ClubŪ pick Midwives--gives us the story of 10-year-old Alfred, an African American foster child who is taken in by Terry and Laura Sheldon, a white couple whose twin daughters have drowned. Another child is also about to come on the scene: Terry has an affair, and the young woman becomes pregnant. Bohjalian takes his sweet time exploring these relationships, but he also writes scenes with the same tautness that made Midwives a page-turner. The result is a novel that's both readable and exhaustively fleshed out. As Alfred settles into the Sheldons' lives, we actually come to believe in the unlikely little family the three of them forge. Bohjalian narrates his story from the perspective of each of his principal characters, a method that can be tiresome, but here is made fresh by the author's clear vision: these people, you feel, are real to him. --Claire Dederer
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