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    Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
    Unavailable
    Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
    Unavailable
    Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
    Audiobook11 hours

    Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

    Written by Timothy Egan

    Narrated by David Drummond

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan’s book tells the remarkable untold story behind Edward Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rainforest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. Even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan, it took tremendous perseverance. The undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. He would die penniless and unknown in Hollywood just a few years after publishing the last of his twenty volumes. But the charming rogue with the grade-school education had fulfilled his promise - his great adventure succeeded in creating one of America's most stunning cultural achievements.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateOct 9, 2012
    ISBN9781611209709
    Author

    Timothy Egan

    TIMOTHY EGAN is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and the author of eight other books, most recently The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction. He writes a biweekly opinion column for the New York Times.

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    Reviews for Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher

    4/5

    40 ratings42 reviews

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    • 5/5
      One of the best books I have read this year. At once a gripping mystery and also an exploration of power and race. The characters rang very true to me. Caren's family drama is particularly well drawn. It is complex and we are left without complete resolution. This is how these things really work. I need more of these stories that paint the grey around the current state of race relations. Particularly in the South, there is so much history and complexity. But, there are also everyday lives. I love how this walks the line between the two. It is not a screed and yet the lessons are clearly there. Really, compelling work that is also very readable and enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Read this in one day. The second terrific book from Ms Locke. She's fantastically tuned in to race in America and this book deftly reaches back into the past to tell a thoroughly modern story. Of course plot always makes people behave in less than optimal ways or there wouldn't be any crime fiction but here people make bad decisions for believable reasons. This was a fine standalone thriller.
    • 2/5
      so boring...........................hmmmmmll............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
    • 2/5
      I found this book disappointing, essentially because of the writing style, which I felt was weak. The plot was OK, if a bit thin for 400 pages and I could not achieve any empathy with the lead character.
    • 2/5
      Too slow, not for me.
    • 4/5
      Locke has written a mystery set at a Louisiana plantation, Belle Vie. (Don't bother looking it up as it's an imaginary place! Nonetheless, it sounds lovely.) Caren Gray, the curator, has family ties to the place dating back to her slave ancestor, Jason. Now she and her daughter live there in an apartment above the library. A migrant farm worker from an adjoining sugar cane farm is knifed to death and left on Bell Vie's grounds. Caren realizes that her nine-year-old daughter, Morgan, is somehow involved when she finds blood on her blouse sleeve. One of workers at Belle Vie, Donovan, is arrested for the crime after a summary investigation by the police. Caron spends the rest of the novel unraveling what actually happened to the victim, Inez, as well as to her long-missing ancestor Jason. The book provides a interesting look at life in post-Katrina Louisiana and has a good level of suspense. Recommended.
    • 3/5
      Slow in places and ending a bit forced.
    • 4/5
      Excellent. A complicated, conflicted female lead narrates this wide reaching mystery. Family, history, guilt, jealousy and fear play out in a tense, deeply researched fast paced story. I truly enjoyed it.
    • 5/5
      Attica Locke is a terrific writer. She moved me on from one suspense filled scene to another, avoiding cliches, keeping me guessing. She has an eye for detail, keeps the location intimate and vivid, and stays honest with her clues. All of that would be enough. But for me the most compelling aspect of the book is her unflinching look at the social scene and her embrace of all the characters. This is a social commentary intimately entwined with a first class mystery. She is a gifted writer. I hope she keeps at it for a long time.
    • 4/5
      I really loved this mystery set on a plantation in Louisiana during modern times. The mystery links to a mystery in the narrator's family tree. The resolution is bittersweet, but also just right.
    • 3/5
      A contemporary murder mystery that begins with the discovery of a body in the cane fields next to a plantation home in Louisiana. A parallel historical story about a missing slave also runs throughout the novel.
      Although not the most gripping mystery I've read, this book piqued my interest about the Mississippi and the history of slavery in the South. If nothing else, I'm keen to read other stories that evoke a similar sense of place.
    • 4/5
      This book was intense. Though it takes place today its mysteries are historical. The setting is Belle Vie, a historic landmark in the middle of Lousiana. The history of a sugar plantation and the slaves that lived and worked there. Get ready for 2 murders. One modern-day and one 100 years ago.
    • 5/5
      A triumphant, heartbreaking biography of an artist with heroic energy and conviction.
    • 5/5
      Well-written mystery about a murder on a former plantation abutting a modern sugar cane farm. Compelling images including the ambivalence of the Southern black population to preserving historic Civil War sites, the connection that former slaves might have to a symbol of repression. Unexpectedly moving in places, and a good sense of place.
    • 4/5
      Another library shelf lottery read - because, on a personal tangent, finding new and different books is about the only perk of my job these days. Anyway, I did enjoy this quasi-historical murder mystery, set on a Louisiana plantation in the present day, even if the pacing was a little off. Reading about the Deep South is one of my literary weaknesses, coming from the UK and having only ever visited Florida for a fortnight's holiday. The descriptions of humid heat and thunderstorms, mouth-watering local cuisine and almost tangible aromas ('the cane, like cut grass and sweet milk, damp and terrestrial, the scent of southern Louisiana'), not to mention the history and culture, create a powerful atmosphere that supports the story. Belle Vie, the plantation, is also captivating, more a central character than a location (I was more concerned for the house and grounds than solving the mystery, to be honest).The plot could have been tighter, I feel. Dipping into Caren's backstory might help get a sense of her life, but since she is only really there to solve the crime, I was impatient to return to the story, whenever the narrative started delving into her relationship with Eric, daughter Morgan, or her late mother. The murder was cleverly handled, though, with a couple of convincing red herrings and a scapegoat. And I'm strangely glad that there wasn't a neat conclusion with regards to Caren and the future of Belle Vie.An engrossing, evocative mystery, recommended for the scenery alone!
    • 4/5
      This was a good mystery that kept my interest and one of the few I wasn't sure " who dun it." Easy, fast read.
    • 2/5
      I just couldn't get in to this book. As other people have said way too many characters to keep track of at the plantation. Very choppy writing questionable editing but ultimately it was a story I was never able to get into. I would like to try the author's first book and see if it was different.
    • 3/5
      A suspenseful tale of murder old and new on a restored Louisiana plantation. The protagonist, Caren Gray, is general manager and event co-ordinator for Belle Vie, a combination museum/historical site/event venue where her ancestors have served for generations, going back to a man named Jason, who was a slave there at the time of the Emancipation. Modern agribusiness has its eye on Belle Vie, and its future is uncertain. Caren's past is a bit messy, and her future is none too clear either. When an undocumented migrant worker from the adjoining cane fields is found dead just over the fence line on Belle Vie property, life becomes even more complicated for the whole plantation "family". There are just a few too many story lines going on here, the most interesting of which, in my opinion, was given short shrift. But the setting was fascinating, and the pages seemed to turn themselves. A solid three star read that could have been a 4+, if the story had been either tightened up as a pure murder mystery, or expanded to develop the 19th century elements into a true historical novel.Review written January 19, 2015
    • 4/5
      Locke has written a mystery set at a Louisiana plantation, Belle Vie. (Don't bother looking it up as it's an imaginary place! Nonetheless, it sounds lovely.) Caren Gray, the curator, has family ties to the place dating back to her slave ancestor, Jason. Now she and her daughter live there in an apartment above the library. A migrant farm worker from an adjoining sugar cane farm is knifed to death and left on Bell Vie's grounds. Caren realizes that her nine-year-old daughter, Morgan, is somehow involved when she finds blood on her blouse sleeve. One of workers at Belle Vie, Donovan, is arrested for the crime after a summary investigation by the police. Caron spends the rest of the novel unraveling what actually happened to the victim, Inez, as well as to her long-missing ancestor Jason. The book provides a interesting look at life in post-Katrina Louisiana and has a good level of suspense. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I listened to the audio version of this novel, and the reader really brought the book to life. The real story here is the history of the plantation life in the south during the precivil war days and the heritage it left to the many descendents of both the slave population as well as to the white landowners. The mystery is actually secondary and a means to move the story along albeit a little slowly. I wished the characters had been a little more fully developed and that their motivations for doing and saying what they did a little clearer, but overall, a good read.
    • 2/5
      Very disappointing book. Premise was good, and has an interesting assortment of characters. Unfortunately, the book was dry and the characters were flat.
    • 5/5
      A sad yet exhilarating saga of a phenomenal artist. Author Egan does a splendid job with a difficult topic, photographs. His careful chronological story is easy to listen to and evocative of the time and myriad locations. He does CURTIS' memory proud.
    • 3/5
      Caren manages the plantation which has been in the Clancy family for generations. Now a tourist attraction and a venue for weddings and upscale parties, Caren oversees staged plays of the plantation’s history, lavish receptions and parties, and in essence, cares for the people who work there. When a young woman is found murdered on the premises, Caren is drawn unwillingly into the depths of the police investigation. Not only does it seem like one her workers is somehow involved with some shady behavior, it may be that her own daughter knows more than she is telling. And it seems like a cover-up of a death generations ago is somehow connected. This tale bogs down in connecting the past with the present. Though an interesting setting and mystery, the characters are not well developed nor are the storylines fully explored. In trying to maintain an air of mystery as the story unfolds, the tale instead just becomes stagnant. A good idea, just not a well written story.
    • 2/5
      Caren Gray and her family have lived and worked on Belle Vie as long as she can recall. Now Caren is managing the sprawling plantation she feels a responsibility to both her staff (Belle Vie is their livelihood) and daughter (Belle Vie being the only home she knows) to keep the place running. The sugar cane plantation next door has always been a concern, but never so much as since the body of a young woman was found on the dividing line between the two properties. As the investigation into the murder continues Caren becomes more and more involved, not only in the police investigation but some of the secrets it uncovers about the plantation and her own family.

      Ms. Locke received many accolades for her first book Black Water Rising. I did not read that book so I have no basis for comparison, but in light of all that praise I was a little disappointed in this book. Personally, I felt there was too much going on … was this a murder mystery? Was this a historical look at the old south? Was this a commentary on migrant workers? All of those points make for interesting reading, but combine too many and it just frustrates me as a reader.
    • 4/5
      A memorable book, set in New Orleans. Good characters, ended right. Descriptions excellent. Well-written. 
    • 4/5
      Well written crime story set on an ex plantation in Louisiana. The story is layered & complex themes regarding slavery, race & migration in modern day America emerge. Very good characterisation of protagonist & place is vividly conjured. Attica Locke is one to watch.
    • 5/5
      Won through Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.This book was a well written page turner. I enjoyed it very much. The suspense held me captive. Very impressed as only the author's 2nd book. I will certainly keep an eye out for more from her.
    • 3/5
      After enjoying Attica Locke's first novel, Black Water Rising, I expected another fast-paced, tense, and action-filled story. The Cutting Season was a disappointment in all three areas. Aside from the finding of a body in a shallow grave, everything else in the first 3/4 of the book seemed like background or side-story. Very little happened to advance the plot. As I started to listen, I groaned aloud at the narrator's voice. She sounded like a cranky child. But within a few minutes I got used to her, and appreciated her clear diction and the appropriate emotional content of her reading. Quincy Tyler Bernstine's narration actually improved the story.A romantic scene seemed to be added for no purpose at all; it gave little insight into the characters beyond making me like them a bit less for their questionable encounter. As with much of the text, it had nothing to do with the plot.I have already recommended Black Water Rising to many friends, and will continue to do so, but I've also started adding "but avoid Locke's second book."
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book more than the author's first book, Black Water Rising,. I found the story very compelling and loved the interaction for our protagonist, Caren, and her ancestral family past as slaves on the very plantation she now managed. There is a nice story as a single mother raising her precocious nine year old daughter and the mystery, such as it was, was intriguing. I think I would have to agree with several other reviewers that some of the characterization just felt flat. There were plenty of other characters to interact with but something was missing. There was a good deal of background information as to how slaves were treated and what occurred during the freedom of Reconstruction and that was all handle very well. Her descriptive passages are very detailed and very complete. I like the author and look forward to the next book as I did enjoy both of her recent publications.
    • 4/5
      I found myself sucked into this story right from the start. I have a bit of a thing for old homes, and tour them every chance I’ve get. I’ve even been to Oak Alley Plantation, outside of New Orleans, which I believe is the inspiration for Belle Vie. So the unusual setting for this novel appealed to me.The writing is beautiful, and I liked the characters, for the most part. I actually found Caren to be one of the weaker characters. There’s not very much that is interesting or unique about her, other than her ability to mess up every relationship she’s ever had, romantic or familial. I’m still not sure I quite understand what her problem with her mother was. And she really just happens upon the solution to the mystery, rather than actually figuring it out. I also ended up confusing a lot of the Belle Vie workers with one another, especially towards the end.As far as the mystery goes, I found myself more interested in its effect on the workers of Belle Vie than in finding out whatever happened to the poor woman. I also ended up feeling a bit cheated, because you’re lead to believe that there is a connection between this woman’s murder and the disappearance of Caren’s ancestor, and it doesn’t pay off. In fact, we never truly find out what (or who) it is that was found in the fields.Overall, I found this to be a relatively satisfying read. There’s a definite undercurrent of social issues, but the author’s agenda is not overpowering. I certainly liked it enough to pick up something else by Locke.“Still, she took it as a sign. A reminder, really, that Belle Vie, its beauty, was not to be trusted. That beneath its loamy topsoil, the manicured grounds and gardens, two centuries of breathtaking wealth and spectacle, lay a land both black and bitter, soft to the touch, but pressing in its power. She should have known that one day it would spit out what it no longer had use for, the secrets it would no longer keep.”