The Son by Philipp Meyer was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, nevertheless, it is only 10337th on The Greatest Books of All Time site

 

The Son by Philipp Meyer was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, nevertheless, it is only 10337th on The Greatest Books of All Time site  

 

 

<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjGhpSMGyGNt20vTTnHuTBz_Ac2jtMBujn8RkrpVLGnoOXFNabm_NfPoNcICeYm0Jhm2K0NNOK5KEi3xsjn3ICKSTl90_kdPiEu1CSbXYAEM63Lrd4VeaysVQUwDRmLlOLpTl6SZuUFVG4Kbin38aI6zbbxYN3XpDnTSEmr3s-O-UoK4aBySsogy1qbGeUs" />

 

9 out of 10

The Son has reminded me of Little Big Man https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/little-big-man-by-thomas-berger.html by Thomas Berger, and not only because in both oeuvres medicine is a key word, they both describe the life of the Native Americans, in particular the Comanches, in the case of The Son by Philipp Meyer

 

Actually, the part of the novel that is about Eli or Tiehteti, which is the name given by the Kotsoteka, was the one that I found exhilarating, if it were only for that, then I would give the book a perfect ten, even if this character becomes quite vile, once the benign influence is fading, or he loses his ‘medicine’, to use a word that I like

Poisonwood Bible https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-poisonwood-bible-by-barbara.html also came to mind, because even if we have Congo at the center here, we still see what the white man did, brought ‘civilization’, no matter how many millions died in the process, Native Americans have been almost exterminated

 

Notwithstanding this outrage, The Son does not present a one-sided picture, with ‘woke’ stories, in fact, Eli has to go through a hellish experience: his mother and sister are raped and killed by the Comanches, he is kidnapped with his brother, the latter is also murdered, and then Eli acts bravely, with dignity and he is allowed to live

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/02/stumbling-on-happiness-by-david-gilbert.html Stumbling on Happiness by Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert explains how the myths of happiness work, and the phenomenon called Hedonic Adaptation, Eli adapts to the life within the tribe, even if he is treated like a slave, at the beginning

 

he is courageous, and thus one of the chiefs, Toshaway, adopts him, he is given the name Tiehteti, and allowed to climb the social ladder, in the community, children are very astute, skilled, brave, they start shooting with the bow, hunting, when very young, and Tiehteti shows talent, determination, character strengths

The white man even gets his first scalp, quite soon after been captured, and then allowed to be part of the raiding group, when they attack a Mexican camp, he shows his stamina, incredible courage, and he is celebrated as a future chief, however, the fate of the Native Americans is sealed, as we know, there is no need for a spoiler alert

 

The invaders have brought diseases with them, and they have those terrible weapons, at some stage, the machine gun will be in use, the lands where the Comanches, Apache and the other tribes used to hunt are taken away, the few remaining survivors are sent to reservations, which is not to say that the Native Americans are depicts as angels

They kill their enemies without ‘mercy’, scalp their victims, indeed, scalps are a sign of strength, power, skill, but their destruction is nothing less than a genocide, though for the MAGA, my favorite target for Contempt https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/contempt-by-alberto-moravia.html this page in history has a different, opposing significance

 

Here is the link to my blog:

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html

 

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