The last of the Mohicans

During the month of Ramadhan, I had a week-old kitten to take care of. This meant feeding every two hours, making sure she was not gaseous or constipated, and that she was warm enough.

Not to mention the weekly vet visits to check her growth progress, especially with weight. This of course affected my sleep and life in general as it was hard to find time to do anything, especially reading.

In order to ease the guilt of not feeding my mind, I decided to listen to one of the many audiobooks stacked on my shelf.

I chose The Last of the Mohicans that I watched when in high school but never had the chance to read. Written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826, the book is set during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) where the French and the British fought each other to gain control of North America with the help of Native Americans.

It focuses on the siege of Fort William Henry that was conducted by French and Indian forces led by Marquis de Montcalm against the British Lieutenant-Colonel George Monroe in 1757.

The story starts with Lieutenant Colonel Munro’s daughters Cora and Alice being escorted from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry to meet their father. They’re accompanied by Major Heyward and a Native American guide called Magua.

A short while after, they’re joined by a singing teacher called David Gamut, Hawk-Eye- a white scout for the British - who’s accompanied by his foster brother Chingachgook and his nephew Uncas.

The latter two are known to be the last survivors of the native Mohican tribe. However, it turns out that Magua had allied himself secretly to the French and had plans to kidnap the ladies to revenge himself on their father, who had turned him into an alcoholic and whipped him for his drunken behaviour which led Magua to be outcasted from his own tribe, the Huron.

Hawk-Eye and his two friends help the others to escape and try to bring the ladies to their father, while Magua seeks the help of the French to track them down before reaching the fort.

The party reaches the fort successfully but after a while Magua manages to kidnap Alice and Cora, and another adventure unfolds.

Munro, Heyward, Hawk-Eye, the Mohicans, and Gamut try to save the sisters from Magua and his tribe’s hold, leading them to meet other significant characters and attempt plans that are original and funny at times.

The story ends with unforeseen tragedies but altogether it’s interesting for those who enjoy adventure literature.

However, the opening which explains the war is a bit long and gets tedious (I lost focus and had to repeat some parts many times). Once you get into the story, it’s authentic and engaging as it deals with many themes such as friendships, interracial romance (unfavourable in that era), and the challenging terrains of the New World.

The audiobook is narrated by William Hope, a Canadian voice actor with an amazingly flexible voice that switches effortlessly from English to French to Scottish accents and from Cora’s high pitch voice to Magua’s guttural one.

It's astonishing to learn the number of times that the novel had been adapted, including eleven American movies between 1909 to 1992 which were Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stow that has a different ending to the novel and three German movies (1920, 1965 and 1967).

The Last of the Mohicans is the second book of Cooper’s pentalogy The Leatherstockings, where Hawk-Eye is the principal character. Highly recommended for military and historical fiction fans.

Rasha al Raisi

rashabooks@yahoo.com

The writer is a certified skills trainer and the author of The World According to Bahja