The Great Karoo by Fred Stenson tells the story of Frank Adams, a Canadian cowboy, who enlists in the army and is sent off to South Africa to fight in the second Boer War (1899 – 1902). Dispensing a lot of information along with a pretty good story, I learned a lot about the Boer War from this book, and in particular, the part that Canadian soldiers played.

I did find this to be a rather slow read, mostly as there is a lot of story to tell and the author layers this with factual information about the war. As Frank becomes one of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, there is a lot of information about the treatment and condition of their horses, which at times I often found quite heartbreaking. I was surprised at the patriotism that these Alberta cowboys felt for the British Empire, but this patriotism was again shown in the numbers of Canadians that enlisted to fight in the first World War some dozen years later.

Although I was never totally drawn into this story, the author certainly painted a vivid picture of the wartime conditions and experiences of these young men. The Great Karoo was a good historical read with, for me, an interesting slant. ( )

Overall, this book was o.k. It chronicles the story of Jeff Davis and Frank Adams, two "half-breed" Canadians who fought in the Boer War.

The beginning was gripping! The efforts made to get the Canadian soldiers, and their horses, from Alberta to South Africa, and then to the front were extraordinary. Then, the book seemed to drag for a long time. There was a lot about the fighting and the conditions the soldiers lived in, but little actual character development of eith Jeff or Frank. Until about 70 percent through the story, where they seem to develop more complicated personalities and motivations. Then, I started to care about them and the story picked up. But the stretch in betyween was oh, so long! ( )

"I was pleasantly surprised. This is a very good book. Although it is a work of historical fiction (starting in 1899, following a Canadian soldier sent to Africa to support Britain in the Boer War), this is a character study of Frank Adams, a naive young cowboy who makes and breaks connections to people during his time in Africa, for good or for bad. But, as with most stories about war, it is a commentary on our fascination with war, with the dangers of thinking too highly of being a soldier, and how painfully gruesome and wearing war really is. I think the moral of the story is, 'Don't go to war. And if you have to, keep your head down and stay out of war's way as best you can.'"

Read my full review through Matthew 2.0.

Not much happened for long stretches in this book and while I'm sure that was true in the real war, it didn't make for riveting reading. Historians will likely find much to enjoy but it wasn't the book for me. ( )

This is a novel about Canadian soldiers in the Boer War. It centres on Frank Adams, and his experiences. In the very last segment of the novel, it is forty years after the war and Frank, at his family's instigation, has written memoirs of his experience in the Boer War. He says he has read all he could find about the Boer War and found that "they don't contain the feeling of being there." Unfortunately, Frank finds his own memoirs to suffer from the same condition. He acknowledges having left out all the interesting parts and explains why he did so.

This novel is Stenson's attempt at giving the account with the interesting parts, of conveying the feeling of being there. For the most part, Stenson is successful. He goes beyond the places and dates (which appear to be accurately based on historical research, though I could not say for sure) and conveys the feeling of being there. He does this first through on-going description of scenery, of the rhythm and routine of the war -- for example, mentioning on many occasions the lice that were an on-going part of the experience for the soldiers, the food or lack thereof, the thirst and the disease that came with the water on so many occasions, the seasons and what they represented in terms of fighting, with the Boers essentially hibernating in the winter months (i.e. what would be the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere), the uniforms, the ranks, the battles, the trains, the equipment, the need for boots and what would happen to feet without them, etc.

Stenson also conveys the feeling of the war in exploring relationships, not only between the soldiers but also, for example, between the men and their horses, one of the more enticing and touching aspects of this novel for me.

I did come to grow attached to Frank Adams, but it took me nearly three-quarters of the novel before I did. At just under 500-pages, this novel is perhaps a little lengthier than average but does not appear unduly long. This is misleading. For me, each page was lengthy and required constant focus. Part of it is that I just do not enjoy action-packed military novels. Any description of any battle is likely to require more mental energy than I'd like to commit as a reader. But part of it was also with the writing style, which I found not straight-forward enough for the subject matter. For example, referring to characters by both either their first or last names (instead of always the same way), sometimes even in the same sentence, made it difficult to keep track of who was who. (Lionel and Brookes are the same fellow, for example.) Major events, like the death of many soldiers, might take place in one sentence amidst a paragraph that would appear to be simply descriptive of scenery. I found myself re-reading almost everything twice.

Given all this, I spent perhaps more time reading this book than I have ever spent on any one book.

I definitely would not have even started this book (much less finished it), had I not been given a copy to review here. I found it long and sluggish and yet, I can't say it was not well-written. It was just written in a style that did not work well for me, as a reader.

One thing I can say very positively about this book is that, unlike many books written from a male perspective or involving the "masculine sphere" of military or political activity, it did not leave me perplexed by men's actions or motivations or with a distaste for the men presented as characters. Frank Adams and most of the other soldiers seemed believable, understandable. It made the men seem human and earthly (and not from Mars, as many men in novels appear to me).

All told, I think I am enriched for having read this book and I think the author does achieve what he has set out to do -- describe the feeling of the war. I would have appreciated it if he would have done it in half the words, though. ( )