Black Elk in Paris by Kate Horsley

Black Elk in Paris Reviews

• 
  Book Concierge

  2.5**
  
  The Basic Facts: In 1887 William (Buffalo Bill) Cody’s Wild West Show went to Europe to perform for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Celebration. A young Lakota man, listed as “Choice” on the group roster but later known as Black Elk, was among the performers. But when the ship left England to return to America, Black Elk and another Lakota man were mistakenly left behind. With no money, Black Elk joined another show run by Mexican Joe, hoping to earn enough to get back to America. In later interviews he described his severe homesickness, which led him to take refuge with a woman friend in Paris and her family.
  
  Horsley takes this snippet of history and imagines a psychological, spiritual and philosophical journey for her three lead characters. The novel is narrated by Philippe Normand, a physician who is employed by several wealthy patients, including the Balise family. The youngest Balise daughter, Madeleine (known as Madou), is a free spirit and Philippe is especially drawn to her. It is Madou who befriends Choice. I was intrigued by the basic premise of the story, and Horsley does a fine job of putting us into the late 19th century Parisian culture – including the excitement of the World Exposition and the building of the Eiffel Tower.
  
  I typically like books with a philosophical or spiritual bent, and Horsley had her characters indulge in several interesting discussions on such topics. There were passages that were beautifully written and some thought-provoking ideas put forth. I especially liked the way in which Choice/Black Elk explained his spiritual journeys. I wish Black Elk had been the narrator.
  
  I never warmed to Philippe and I saw him as the weakest character. Other novelists have used a weak character as narrator to great effect (Nick in The Great Gatsby comes to mind), but I just didn’t buy it here. The central relationships just didn’t work for me. The three friends form an odd sort of ménage à trois – their interactions fascinated and puzzled me, but ultimately left me cold. I definitely felt like the third wheel (or is it fourth) in the “relationship,” and this resulted in my feeling talked AT rather than drawn into the discussion.
  
  I’d be willing to try another book by Horsley because I did like elements of her writing, though I didn’t particularly like this novel.
  
• 
  Jennifer Mugrage

  I give this five stars for its amazing historical research, French-doctor voice, and dynamic characters.
  
  A few years ago, I stumbled across a children’s book about Lakota medicine man Black Elk. My response to him was pretty much the same as that of this book’s fictional heroine, Madeline: I was fascinated. At the age of nine, Black Elk had a troubling vision that encouraged his tribe to choose life rather than bitterness. (They were going to need this later.) At age 15, he was present at the battle of Little Bighorn. Later, he went to England with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show.
  
  None of that is in this book.
  
  Apparently, Buffalo Bill accidentally stranded Black Elk and one other Lakota guy in England. They took up with a character called Mexican Joe, who was running a knockoff Wild West show, and toured Europe with him. Black Elk ended up in Paris, where he stayed with a Parisian woman and her family until eventually he was able to get back to his homeland.
  
  This book imagines the effect that Black Elk had on the Parisian woman, her family, and her doctor friend, Philippe Normand. It so happens that the period the Lakota warrior was in Paris coincided with the building of the Eiffel Tower in preparation for the Universal Exhibition (the Paris world’s fair). The tower is mentioned frequently in the book as the characters watch it grow menacingly over their usual haunts. They never call it the Eiffel Tower. It’s usually “the metal tower, looking like a dead tree” or something like that. An ongoing theme in the book is the tension between the apparent triumph of colonialism, including modern science and medicine, with the appeal of Black Elk’s way of life.
  
  My hope had been that we would get to see Paris from Black Elk’s point of view, but alas, he is not the point-of-view character in this story. Perhaps it was wise of the author to create a little distance from Black Elk, not to presume to speak in his voice, which has been well documented. Instead, she writes in the voice of Normand. The 19th-century French tone is spot on, right down to the navel-gazing, romanticism, and cynical asides about human nature. The writing honestly comes off as if it were translated from French, and in fact, each chapter opens with its first sentence in French, then in English.
  
  Normand is on the cutting edge of medical developments. He is friends with many famous historical doctors and goes to their weekly meetings where they argue theory, banter, tease each other, and engage in petty backbiting and politics. Normand honestly wants to relieve human suffering with medicine, but is frustrated by the limitations on what he can accomplish. And over the few years that the book covers, he begins to see some problems with the arrogant and intellectualized attitude taken by French doctors and psychologists of the day. At one point, he complains that he has witnessed doctors not trust the patient to report on his or her own symptoms!
  
  Consequently, though Black Elk does change Normand and Madeline, this book is more about Paris of that time than about the Lakota. My first impression, as a reader who was eager to get to the part with Black Elk, was what awful people these 19th-century Parisians are. (They are snobs! They do recreational drugs! They sleep around! They say the most horrible things to their friends and family!) I definitely did not like Normand at first. I think I was going through culture shock. Normand changes, however, and as he grew and I got used to him, he became as much a hero of this story as Black Elk.
  
  Horsley has, in this book, pulled off the accomplishment that I aim for in my books. She has examined a cross-cultural relationship sensitively, without romanticizing or demonizing either culture. She has also written in an authentic voice from one culture, but told the story in such a way that we can gather some of Black Elk’s perspective as well. The story does not tie things up in a neat little bows, but it is more about connections (however tenuous) that the characters make, rather than about an inability to connect. Also, kudos to her for noticing these two very different worlds touching each other at an actual point in history and making us notice it. To the extent that the book ultimately comes down on the universal human condition rather than on cynicism, it validates both Black Elk’s spiritual values and Normand’s ideals. Not every book set in Paris does this. Nor does every book about colonialism.
  
  Read this if you are interested in the French or, to a lesser extent, the Lakota.
• 
  Michael

  This was a fun read. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars if it was an option. My Horsley really gives a good feel of living in Paris in the late 19th century. Black Elk was indeed left behind accidently by Buffalo Bill's circus. He had boarded the ship over to Europe under the name Choice, most likely an Anglecized version of his native name. Commonly now known as Black Elk who did spend some time living with a French family for a time trying to raise funds to get home. The story is told mostly from the point of view of a physician Phillipe Normand and the family is the Balise family with 3 daughters. Madou is the third important character, a free-spirit, who is not interested in fashion, or most men for that matter and wants to be an artist. Her parents tolerate her for a time, but eventually put in an asylum. The Asylums were filled with mostly women of like mind- non-conformists, feminists, lesbians. The 3 get up to several adventures including a weekend in the mountains. At one point Choice asks Phillipe a question: "What god do you believe in?" With an expression of shock and surprise, he responds, well, I believe in a god....I suppose...
  Choice's response is "Listen, I'll tell you what I've figured out. Now I know why the Spirit of Everything had me stay here so long, until I thought I was going to die. I figured out that this spirit keeps sending messengers, and people keep not hearing what they're saying. Magical beings have been sent to tell the truth, but when people start yelling and waving their hands around, explaining what the messenger said and fighting about it, calling other messengers with the exact message demons and enemies. It could be funny if it didn't cause so much suffering."
• 
  Gretta

  What a strange and fascinating little book! Black Elk in Paris is the story of a young woman in Paris who takes as her companion a Native American man on tour with a Wild West show. The story is told through the eyes of the family physician who is slowly becoming disillusioned with Western Medicine. The young woman is also seeking meaning in the world. The tone of the book is dream-like and reflective. It’s filled with interesting insights and characterizations. “Have you noticed that there is a tacit assumption that a woman’s freedom is defined by her promiscuity? To be free as a man is to say and to do and create as one wants. To be free as a woman is to be available to a man when he wants her.” This is a quick and beautiful read. I will admit that there is not a ton of action, and many incidents are described by characters after the fact. This gives the book room to meander and ponder.
• 
  Jenine Young

  It wasn't so bad that I stopped reading it, but it was not great.
  If the author emphasized "it was Paris" one more time I was going to scream.
  The language used was pretty stilted.
• 
  Mary Warren

  Interesting and different! A great read.
• 
  Amy

  I had to savor this book because it felt like the book I've been looking for a large portion of my life. The characters are very well-developed. The story takes place, as the title suggests, in Paris in 1888. The narrator of the book is Phillipe ("Tic-Toc"), a single doctor that endures the disfunctional family antics of his patients for the occasional free home-cooked meal. He doesn't seem to be like other doctors in town that feel that the best remedies must be the most painful. Phillipe is the casual friend of a free-spirited young girl named Madou. She can be found riding her bicycle around town in scandalous bloomers or attached at the hip to Choice, a native American Indian she's become enamoured with that is visiting Paris as a part of a Wild West show. Madou's father is constantly threatening to send her or her sisters to the Salpêtrière insane asylum for "hysteria" just because they don't really fit into polite French society. So the book centers around 3 people that are out of place: the doctor that doesn't agree with the extreme remedies of the day and feels no need for love, a French girl who was born a hundred years too early to be as free-spirited as she is, and a native American Indian that is incredibly depressed with homesickness in a city whose parks are nothing like the wilderness he knows and loves.
  
  I love this conversation between Madou and Phillipe:

  "What if I don't belong anywhere, Phillipe? What happens to people who don't belong to any group or family or political movement?
  
  I was glad that perhaps she had an insight about herself when she couldn't keep up with her man of the Wild West. ...
  
  "Well," I said, "I suppose one could be given a place on the outskirts of the community and status as a wizard or hermit."
  
  "You've created your own place, Tic-Toc, your own little 'outskirts' with your profession, and your books, and your music. I don't want to be alone like you."
  
  "Loneliness is not the worst thing in the world, is it? What about being imprisoned with someone who doesn't admire who you are - in a society or a marriage with people who increasingly despise you?"
  
  ... "Will you marry him," I asked.
  
  "She looked away again and said, "I don't know. I just know that I don't belong in Paris."

  
  
  Some people spend their entire lives looking for a place to belong. Unfortunately, many people do look in the wrong places and find themselves ultimately miserable. I'm glad that I did move to Oklahoma and did find people more like me eventually. I was the person that went on a journey and the stranger that came to town. I might have changed over the years, but I still keep searching for people more like me ... and finding them.
• 
  Theredcentipede

  I think it is pretty safe to officially say, I love Kate Horsley. I wish I knew what exactly it is that draws me to her books, but I do not know. I always, never-fail, zip through her books and find myself feeling somehow fulfilled by the worlds she creates.
  
  In this book, a family physician is following the Balise family and their three daughters. Of particular interest is Madou who struggles with the understanding that she simply does not "belong"--to her family, to her city, to her culture. She becomes fascinated? infatuated? interested? in Choice, an American Indian accidentally stranded in Europe. Like her, he does not "fit" in this society, but unlike her, he knows where he supposed to be. The doctor's medical viewpoints added an interesting an unexpected layer to the story. It makes you wonder--who is "normal", what is "normal" and how can we ever understand normalcy across gender and cultural lines. (The more I write in this review, the more I realize how much I liked this book).
  
  Most importantly, I believe in her narrators. It feels as if someone is sitting in front of me, telling me a story of their life. There are no obvious literary tricks, like big cliff hangers at the end of chapters or leading the reader down obviously false paths. There is simply a story being told. It taps into my desire to understand people rather than be "entertained" by a book (although I suppose I am entertained).
  
  I also thoroughly appreciate her treatment of women in society in this book. There are cringe-worthy stereotypes that are just simply shown without fanfare or long diatribes. She trusts that her readers understand the complexities of the situation and she will not defend the disheartening attitudes against women, but she will not turn the book into a lecture either. The story speaks for itself. And the characters will play out how those views of women affect society as a whole. This was one of the most fascinating aspects of this book. (For example, a woman in an asylum is told to pretend to be happy and thankful for the asylum or the doctors will remove her ovaries.)
  
  I feel that her books are always kind of melancholy. I'm not sure what that says about me, but I love them. I also recognize that this probably isn't a book for everyone. It is quiet and pensive and grey, like my favorite winter days.
• 
  Laura

  This book provides a hedonistic portrait of Paris in the late 1890s, everyone drinking absinthe, and out whoring it up in the bars and cafes of the city. Men were given opium for their ailments and women were considered to be suffering from "hysteria" if they were the least bit non-conformist. Enter into the story an exotic Oglala Sioux named Black Elk, accidently left behind in Paris while touring with a "Wild West" show. It's an interesting clash of cultures, and shows the different perspectives of two very different men of medicine.
  
  As I finished this book I realized that I have another very similar story on my shelf called "The Heartsong of Charging Elk" which tells of another Sioux, Charging Elk, also left behind in France, this time in Marseilles. Should be interesting to compare these two historical novels.
• 
  Suzanne

  In 1887, the great Lakota medicine man Black Elk traveled to Europe as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He was inadvertently left behind, became homesick, and stayed, for a time, with a woman friend and her family in Paris. Kate Horsley has taken this intriguing bit of history and fashioned it into a delightful and charming novel about the frienship between Black Elk, a somewhat fusty French doctor who is fond of puddings, and a free-spirited young woman called Madou. I loved this book.
• 
  Megan

  Horsley tells the brief tale of an unlikely group of friends in 19th century Paris. This is one of those books where what's NOT said is more intriguing that what is. A good read for anyone (like me) interested in the Victorian Era.
• 
  Sarah

  I really enjoyed this book. It was a great representation of the different cultures that were colliding during this time, and individuals within each one realizing that each has value and worth.
  
  I especially loved Madou. She was a wonderful character.
• 
  Nicole Beck

  simply loved the narrator, setting, style, and ultimate themes of this story. if i could live in a book, this is one of the top contenders
• 
  Cathie

  I really enjoyed this book, especially the attention given by the author to psychological ground and the characters' psyches.
• 
  Shannon

  This was a good book. Though I do feel that it was not what I expected when reading it. Maybe I figured it would be more historical than it was.