Far Beyond Driven
An Honest Review of The Revenant, by Michael Punke
When the need arose, a man extended a helping hand to his friends, to his partners, to strangers. In so doing, each knew that his own survival might one day depend upon the reaching grasp of another.
-Michael Punke, The Revenant
Growing up in the west-central mountains of Idaho, my early history classes were filled with stories of Mountain Men, the early traders, trappers, and explorers who made both peace and war with the local natives, making life for large numbers of European settlers possible. I, being a child at the time, couldn’t fathom what it meant to be so far away from safety and civilization. Nor did I try particularly hard, because I was certain I was a city boy at heart, and cared way more about cartoons and video games than being out in the woods.
Fast forward twenty-five years or so. I’m seated on a picnic table in a mostly empty campground, engrossed in a tale of survival that sounds too implausible for fiction and wishing I’d paid more attention in school. Incredible true stories like those of Hugh Glass, the central character of The Revenant, occurred everywhere near my place of birth. With a little research and effort, I could have easily retraced their steps, standing where they stood and feeling their plight for myself. It’s an opportunity I missed and will hopefully be able to one day rectify. In the meantime, I’ll have to rely on the works of authors like Michael Punke to bring them vividly to life.
Grit And Determination
For those who’ve neither read the book nor seen the movie, The Revenant is based on the true story of fur trapper Hugh Glass. A veteran frontiersman, Glass and his brigade of fellow trappers are traversing the plains of the American Midwest when he is mauled by a grizzly bear. Glass survives the attack, but he is incapacitated and beset by fever. It becomes increasingly clear that death will catch up to him soon. The captain appoints two men, John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger, to stay with Glass until he dies and to give him a proper burial. But Fitzgerald has other plans. He convinces Bridger that they’re under imminent threat from the Arikara, a hostile tribe of natives who have already killed several of their number. Fitzgerald takes all of Glass’s gear, and the two leave him for dead.
But Hugh Glass will not go quietly into that dark night. Driven by his rage at being betrayed by his fellow trappers, Glass drags himself up from the dirt and goes in search of vengeance. A ghost of the man he once was, the revenant scours hundreds of miles of open terrain, facing down challenges from man, beast, and the elements alike.
The book itself was a labor of love on the part of the author, Michael Punke. According to interviews, he would write in the early morning hours before putting in a full day at the law firm where he worked. He also did extensive research for the book, and even tested various historical methods of animal trapping which made it into the final work. The Revenant took nearly four years to complete and sold moderately well in its first run. Years later, when the movie was being released and the book was seeing newfound popularity, Punke was forced to watch it all from the sidelines. His position at the time in the US State Dept. prevented him from playing any part in the book’s promotion. He wasn’t even allowed to sign copies. Clearly, the author took to heart the story of fortitude in the face of great strife.
Crafted With Care
In terms of story, it’s a tale well told. Punke makes a real effort to stick to the historical events, with some creative interpolation. This leads to a plot that is laid out in a linear fashion, moving steadily from point A to B to C, making the story easy to follow. The occasional flashback gives us insight into the lives of our three main characters, but they are relatively brief and don’t detract from the overall flow. The story is tightly edited as well, with very little in the way of side adventures, unnecessary information, or superfluous characters. If you’re a writer, take note: you want your plots to be this solid.
Character development is also handled quite well. This isn’t the typical Hero’s Journey, which is a real breath of fresh air. Hugh Glass does not change much over the course of the novel, nor does he need to. He’s a man well past his formative years when the story starts. It would be unrealistic for him to change significantly at this point in his life. Instead, this is a test of the skills and character he’s already developed. His life experiences have left him with a powerful sense of right and wrong, a morality that has been violated by his betrayal by Bridger and Fitzgerald. Glass seeks vengeance not necessarily for the damage done to him personally, but the affront to his moral code.
Just as Glass is not a typical “hero”, Fitzgerald serves less as an antagonist and more of a dark mirror. He has similar survival instincts and skills to Glass, but the two differ significantly when it comes to who they are inside. At one point, Glass finds an old Arikara woman abandoned in a burned out village. Though he is starving and wounded, he takes the time to comfort and feed her, and when she dies, he gives her a proper send off. This gesture is noticed by a band of Pawnee braves, who take Glass back to their own village to be healed and fed. Fitzgerald, on the other hand, repeatedly turns his back on those he is beholden to, lying, cheating, and stealing for his own benefit. It’s a violation of the unspoken code of the wild, and makes of him a lone wolf.
The Revenant weaves together its themes through the actions of its characters, exploring questions of morality, justice, and vengeance without shoving them down your throat. It’s an excellent example of “show, don’t tell”, in that it never feels as though Punke is trying to teach a lesson. The lesson is simply there for those who are paying attention.
Picking Nits
My one major criticism is that the writing is very prosaic. There are very few metaphors or similes to be found in The Revenant, nor is there much in the way of poetry or challenging vocabulary. I got the sense that Punke is very much a reader and writer of non-fiction. His dry, straightforward style helps make the story very easy to follow, but it doesn’t make for the most evocative experience, which is a real shame. There’s a scene where Glass, with one leg incapacitated, scares a pack of hungry wolves from a dead buffalo carcass with nothing but burning sagebrush. Meanwhile, thunder and lightning rip through the clouds overhead. And oh yeah, it starts to rain, threatening to leave him defenseless. This scene should be EPIC. Instead, it’s at best a little tense. I can’t help but wonder what a writer with a poet’s heart could do with a scene like that.
Another minor criticism deals with the middle section of the book. About halfway through, we’re introduced to a bunch of redshirts who serve two main purposes. The first is to quickly get Glass closer to his goal. The second is to die tragically and make Glass’s escape more dramatic. Unfortunately, it falls a bit flat, since we don’t spend much time with these characters and aren’t able to develop a real bond with them. This is the only part of the book wholly invented by Punke, suggesting that his narrative skill relies heavily on the historical events of Glass’s trial. It’s a bit of a weakness, but not a particularly damaging one.
Overall, though, I was pleased with The Revenant. It doesn’t try to be more than it is, a straightforward, slightly fictionalized retelling of an incredible true story. It’s a testament to simplicity, one that many writers (myself included) could learn a lot from.
Final Score: 8/10
