The Last Canyon : A Novel

Publishers Weekly

When historical novels are produced by writers whose expertise in the field is matched by vivid storytelling skills, the results as in this novel are generally outstanding. With this 10th book (after A Book of Reasons), veteran novelist Vernon reimagines the first full-length exploration of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River by white Americans in 1869. Maj. John Wesley Powell former Union Army officer, one-armed engineer and scientist led the harrowing expedition to map the territory. With nine men in four boats, Powell began a saga of discovery that took 100 days, covered 1,000 miles and cost the lives of a third of his men. Two converging plot lines provide dramatic tension. One focuses on Powell and his men as they battle deadly rapids, heat, near-starvation, isolation, despair and each other. The other tells of a destitute party of Paiute Indians desperately struggling to survive in the hostile environment of the deserts on the canyon rim. Powell's party is in trouble from the start, with a wrecked boat, lost food and equipment, and the realization that not all the men are competent or emotionally suited for such a rigorous and hazardous journey. Powell's leadership is tested time and again, until mutiny and desertion leave him with just two boats, six men and no food. The Paiutes, too, are in grave trouble and a chance meeting with white men only aggravates their nearly hopeless situation. The story of Powell's remarkable journey evokes a rugged time in our nation's history when men in search of knowledge or glory would willingly subject themselves to grueling hardship and privation. The publisher has a chance here to seize on readers' appetites for outdoors adventure, thoughsome may think the Paiute subplot is a distraction from the central tale. (Oct. 16) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

John Wesley Powell's 1869 voyage of discovery began in Wyoming and culminated in a journey through the Grand Canyon, an area hitherto unexplored and thought uninhabited. Powell was a one-armed Civil War veteran whose voyage took him through the canyons of the Green and Colorado rivers, covering 1000 miles in the period of three months. Vernon is a skillful writer with four historical novels to his credit, including Lindbergh's Son. His latest is told from the divergent perspectives of the ambitious and determined Powell and the Paiute Indians, who had lived on the rim of the Grand Canyon for centuries. Along with triumph there is tragedy three of Powell's men die in the effort and the others bicker constantly. Also at the heart of the book is the confrontation between the white explorers and the indigenous population. Blending fact and fiction, Vernon provides an illuminating perspective on a less familiar moment in American history. Although the research is sound and the story well written, the relative obscurity of the topic may limit readership. For larger collections. [For a nonfiction account of Powell's journey, see Edward Dolnick's Down the Great Unknown, p. 120. Ed.] Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

John Wesley Powell's explorations of the Colorado Territory and Grand Canyon provide the narrative core of Vernon's richly detailed fifth novel, a historical saga closely akin to his earlier La Salle (1986) and Peter Doyle (1991). The story begins and ends with Powell's letters home to his wife Emma, with whom he had previously ventured into the southwest desert, several years after serving in the Union Army, and losing an arm to injuries sustained during the battle of Shiloh. In 1869, he sets out again, leading a party of eight volunteers whose (efficiently distinguished) members include "Wes's" sturdy brother Walter, scholarly cartographer Oramel Howland, and taciturn, quick-tempered Bill Dunn (who'll become Powell's chief antagonist, as hardships and internecine tensions multiply). "If the professor could only study geology, he'd be content to live without food or shelter," Powell's men complain. In fact, he's driven by his scientist's curiosity about the wild, near-pristine country they travel through: specifically, about "the riddle of rivers cutting through mountains" (which he eventually solves). Vernon juxtaposes the story of Powell's embattled voyage against that of a tribe of Paiute Indians on a "dangerous hunt" and subsequent trek undertaken to evade their enemies the Navajo and strengthen their own numbers-a plan that puts them on a collision course with the white explorers. The Paiute passages do somewhat dissipate the force of the novel's primary actions-despite the vivid figures of introspective warrior Toab and his expedient brother Onchok (who sells his children for badly needed rifles), and some beautifully realized scenes in which Paiute religious and culturalpractices are effectively dramatized. No matter: the lengthy account of the Powell party's arduous passage through "the great unknown" (i.e., Grand Canyon) refocuses the reader's attention, stunningly. A worthy addition to the fiction of western exploration pioneered (so to speak) by Vardis Fisher and Frederic Manfred. And Vernon's best yet.