I read this on the way to work -- short snippets of 15 minutes on the underground. As I approached the last 50 pages however I just had to take to replacing my late-night reading with this book at home.

I liked the book a lot and would recommend it. It does accord well with much of the true historical studies of early North American Indians and the cultural clash with Europeans. Some of it shocking indeed by present standards.

I should state that there is nothing in this book meant to appeal to either the cultural relativists of the left or the neocolonialists who see any interaction of Native Aboriginals (First Nations People) as an exercise in preordained cultural enslavement. The main interesting question explored by the book is: who aculturates whom? In this book the French are largely subsumed into the culture and ways of the native peoples. Even our hero Laforge has doubts about his way with God in the face of the rather logical local beliefs.

Laforge's doubts are also not of a contemporary kind. He does not so much doubt God, but doubts God's way in the life of the people that surround him. The wonderful part of the book is the sort of metamorphosis in his faith to one that redeems both himself and the native peoples he is with. It is a rejoice of the love of God as he sees it. Not one of wrath and dubious casuistry he eventually escapes.

In the end I am not really sure where Moore is heading with this book. But that is part of the beauty of it. The ending and the meaning have many interpretations.

This book is short, but there is nothing superficial about it. This excellent historical novel is set during the conquest of Canada by the French in the 17th century (Champlain has a couple of brief scenes).

But the real story is about the struggle between faith and doubt, a favorite theme for Brian Moore. He placed a zealous but conventionally pious man, Father LaForgue, in very extreme circumstances where everything he knows and believes will be seriously challenged. Father LaForgue is sent, along with wilderness journey in the company of a group of Algonqian people, into the harsh and snowy wilderness of Quebec province. Extreme weather, hunger, exhaustion, sadistic enemies, cultural misunderstanding, lust, illness, disillusionment--they find it all on this journey.

Moore made good use of the Jesuit's "Relations" as his source of information about this era; these were the documents in which the clergymen who came to settle and save "New France" kept extensive records of their findings, experiences, and hardships to report back to their superiors in Europe.

This book is explicit and contains heartbreaking, disturbing and brutal scenes. At the end, you'll find LaForgue's state of doubt, confusion, and exhaustion completely believable--but some readers will find this hard to take. You may find out things about New France you'd rather not know. The Algonquians cuss like a bunch of sailors, and their social customs were definitely at odds with those of the Europeans. And yet the reader comes to understand their frustration with the fussiness and strangeness of these foreigners whom they regard as powerful sorcerers.

Yet Moore presented all characters in this book fully, faults and virtues, and if you read this book, you will never forget it. The Canadian movie based on this book is well worth seeing as well--visually stunning, marvelous performances, and haunting.

One of Brian Moore's best novels, BLACK ROBE is about the clash of cultures between the Jesuits in Canada and the Algonkin Indians they hoped to convert to Christianity. The Jesuits see the Indians as savages, while the Algonkins view the Black Robes as witches and even cannibals with regard to the Sacraments. The action of the novel revolves around a journey to a remote tribe by Fr. Laforgue with a group of Indians on their way to their winter hunting grounds. Laforgue also is accompanied by Daniel, a young man secretly in love with an Indian girl. Moore captures brilliantly the zeal of both groups and the passion of their beliefs. It's a powerful story, very realistic and dramatic, and very well told. It's also a real page-turner: once you start reading it, it's hard to put down. [It was also made into a terrific movie.]

Black Robe is one of my favorite movies and thoughtfully and accurately portrays life in early French Canada. Unfortunately, the book on which the movie is based, just....well, stinks. It's really dry, dull, and is laced throughout with so much profanity, it's pretty much unfit reading for high-school students. I know, they hear a lot worse at school every day but this is pretty bad. Forget the book and get the movie instead, you'll be glad you did.

The Black Robe was actually based on the Jesuits coming to turn the Native Americans into Christians. He showed first hand how the Native Americans and the Jesuits really were. The Native Americans yes were crude in their talk, found sex as a vehicle of pleasure, however far worse was the way the Jesuits decided to convert the Native Americans at any cost even to the point of lying to them. The Jesuits spread small pox, killing off thousands of Native Americans because they had build no immunity to it and then, told them if they converted god would save them. All in all it was a great book and well written! An honest and compelling piece of fiction.