Michael Punke

from Laura:

It was okay.

I listened to the audiobook on hoopla. I'd never read a western before and this one was decent. The reader did a good job with the different voices, even putting on a passable French accent for a few of the characters. It's the story of Hugh Glass, a fur trapper working for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1823. While hunting for food for the rest of the trapping party, he gets mauled by a grizzly bear within an inch of his life. His compatriots care for him and carry him on a litter for a few days, but soon he becomes too much of a burden. Being so close to death, the captain of their party orders two men to stay behind with Glass until he dies, and then give him a proper burial. Four days go by and Glass hasn't died, though his body rages with fever. The two men charged with caring for him end up abandoning him and taking his knife, rifle, flint and steel with them. You can probably guess the rest: Glass does not die, but slowly and miraculously recovers and makes his way after the men, burning for revenge. I won't spoil the ending, but I hope that the movie ends differently than the book. I did like the loving descriptions of Glass' rifle, and the description of another character's reaction the first time he laid eyes on the Rocky Mountains, which was similar to my own at the age of seventeen.… (more)