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Book Summary and Reviews of To Save the Man by John Sayles

To Save the Man by John Sayles

To Save the Man

by John Sayles

  • Publishes:
  • Jan 21, 2025, 336 pages
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Book Summary

In the vein of Never Let Me Go and Killers of the Flower Moon, one of America's greatest storytellers sheds light on an American tragedy: the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the 'cultural genocide' experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School ...

In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, "To save the man, we must kill the Indian," is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.

As the young students navigate surviving the school, they begin to hear rumors of a "ghost dance" amongst the tribes of the west—a ceremonial dance aimed at restoring the Native People to power, and running the invaders off their land. As the hope and promise of the ghost dance sweeps across the Great Plains, cynical newspapers seize upon the story to whip up panic among local whites. The US government responds by deploying troops onto lands that had been granted to the Indians. It is an act that seems certain to end in slaughter.

As news of these developments reaches Carlisle, each student, no matter what their tribe, must make a choice: to follow the white man's path, or be true to their own way of life ...

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This information about To Save the Man was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

John Sayles Author Biography

Sayles' career as a storyteller began with writing fiction. His first novel was Pride of the Bimbos (1975), followed by Union Dues (1978, nominated for National Book Award and National Critics' Circle Award)). Los Gusanos (1990) came next and then short story collections The Anarchists' Convention (1979) and Dillinger in Hollywood (2004). The epic historical novel A Moment in the Sun is his most recent novel, published in 2011.

He has directed seventeen feature films, including Matewan, Lone Star, and Eight Men Out, and received a John Steinbeck Award, a John Cassavetes Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Writer's Guild of America, and two Academy Award nominations. His latest film, Amigo, came out in 2010.

Sayles continues his work for hire on features and ...

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Name Pronunciation
John Sayles: sails

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