Dances with Wolves: A Novel

The printing quality is poor.Hardly legible at times.i find it hard to keep reading the book and quit it just because of the awful printing."Buyers beware".if you want to spend money on a book and later regret it,then go for this

After watching the film many times I felt I must read the book, this is the tale of Lt Dunbar, wounded in the civil war he is assigned to a post out west, when he gets there no one is there but he stays anyway, Timmins his driver is killed by the Pawnee on the return journey, he made friends with a wolf and called it two socks and often rode his horse Cisco out on the praire, Dunbar had been seen by the Comanche, Kicking Bird tried to steal Cisco without much luck, Dunbar admired the warrior, Ten Bears the chief wanted to think on this white man, Wind in his Hair wanted to kill him,three Comanche children tried to steal Cisco again they could not with one boy breaking his armTen Bears decides Kicking Bird and Wind in his Hair must go and talk to the white man, Dunbar welcomes this and feels at home with the Indians, one day feeling lonely Dunbar heads to the Indian village, he finds a wounded women on the way and takes her to her village, the Indians are hostile towards him, the woman was white taken as a child but her Indian husband had just died on a raid, what follows that with his new Indian name Dances with Wolves, given because he is seen playing with two socks, Dunbar slowly embraces the Indian way of life, he hunts with them, the wounded woman Stands With a Fist teaches him Comanche, Dunbar falls in love with the woman, Kicking Bird leads a war party against the Pawnee, the village is attacked in their absence but you must read on to see how Dunbar becomes a full Comanche and the incidents that follow in his lifeMy verdict, very slightly different from the film but a very good book, I am reading part two now The Holy Road

Dances with Wolves the book follows quite closely the film starring Kevin Costner as a member of the US Army who wants to see the last frontier. He is placed in an outpost far into native territory and finds himself all alone. After establishing himself at the fort, Dunbar spends a lonely while there before he visited by the native Americans. They attempt to steal his horse, Cisco. However, they are thwarted by the horse on all occasions. After deciding to make himself better known to them, he encounters a woman sick in the prairie. He takes the woman back to the camp and, before long, the elders of the camp decide to 'talk' with him. Thus, does a load of adventures begin. Dunbar slowly becomes a member of the tribe, having witnessed buffalo stampeding and notifies his neighbours. He realises, that the longer he spends with the native people, the less he is part of the US army and almost abandons his fort.Dances with Wolves does differ slightly from the book in that, it goes into more detail than the film can ever do so. It shows Dunbar's state of mind and his enthusiasm as well as his desire to make friends.

'Dances With Wolves' is an excellent novel.Michael Blake's English is very simple and straight-forward, as others have remarked. It tells a story of a man at odds with his own culture who rediscovers himself in another. Culture and characters dance around John Dunbar and provide colour to his emerging personality. The descriptions are very effective because of their simplicity and clearly the author has great sympathy with the COMANCHES.Note the capital letters because, like others I cannot understand why Kevin Costner made the 'locals' into Sioux or Lakota. As in the book, John Dunbar starts out from Fort Hayes, deep in Comanche territory, but he meets up with the Lakota, in reality far away. The book is set in the middle of the Civil War: Costner places it firmly in 1865 - just at the time when relations between whites & Sioux were rapidly slipping into what is styled Red-Cloud's war. As others have asked: Why?I've enjoyed Costner's film but it drags at times as he plays out key scenes such as the buffalo hunt and the fight with the Pawnee (blending in a memory, in the book, of Stands With A Fist). Some subtleties Costner evades, such as Captain Cargill evacuating Fort Sedgewick immediately before Dunbar's arrival(book) rather than it being deserted a long time (film),the major at Fort Hayes being removed as insane (book) rather than shooting himself(film), the buffalo-skinners being caught & killed (book) rather than just disappearing (film.The book doesn't use 'foreign' words because it doesn't need to. It doesn't use vocabulary of a level the film employs because it doesn't need to. It doesn't show Dunbar and wife disappearing into the wilderness hunted by the cavalry, because it doesn't need to.In sum, the film does it's job with great music, fantastic photography and first-rate direction and acting. The book is just as effective in a simpler, more direct fashion.Once again this shows how the written-word is so muxh more effectivee in exploiting the IMAGINATION of its 'audience'. That is the power of books.

Wow, wow and wow again. I've seen the film, of course, and was blown away by the story and scenery, but to read the book is something else. I don't know if John Dunbar existed but there must have been men like him who embraced the culture and lifestyle of the American Indians in the years before the great rush of people from the East completely overran the vast plains where the natives lived. I read this book in one sitting, one of the best, truly unputdownable books I've read and thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. Fantastic book. Highly recommended.

Saw the film at the cinema and bought the DVD but it wasn't until I watched the film again on TV that I noticed that the story was taken from a book by Michael Blake. I decided to try reading this as a change from my usual crime thrillers and I'm overjoyed that I did. It doesn't differ too greatly from the film but had far greater depth and insight. It was so page-turning that I had difficulty putting it down. It's thought provoking, happy in places but deeply sad when you recall what we (the 'white' man) did to the native people (not just in America). You don't need to have seen the film to enjoy this book and, enjoyable as the film was, the book has so much more to offer including the ending. Definitely one of the greatest reads I've had for some time.