The Melancholy Fate of Capt. Lewis

July 30, 2007
Pritchett (The Venus Tree
) retells the saga of Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame) from the perspective of Bill Lewis, a modern-day high school teacher who is writing a book about the explorer. Shuttling between the early 19th and 21st centuries, the twin narratives contrast the historic exploits of Lewis's life with the more mundane events of Bill's suburban existence. Lewis explores the Northwest Passage, makes Indian policy as governor of the Louisiana Territory, becomes peripherally involved with the traitorous Aaron Burr and takes his own life only three years after his return from the West Coast. In the present, a clinically depressed Bill, prone to suicidal thoughts tries to finish his book while dealing with a deeply troubled marriage, a teenage son with an eating disorder, a student who drops out of school after becoming pregnant and a dangerous flirtation with a friend's wife. Pritchett raises classic questions about the nature of heroism and society's need for (and treatment of) heroes. Oddly, however, Lewis the adventurer remains muted, while Bill's disintegrating life, with all its quotidian disappointments and conundrums, is heartbreakingly affecting.