"Sorrow of the Earth", by Eric Vuillard
Last Saturday, Julie Longuemare from Foyles selected Sorrow of the Earth. Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and the Tragedy of Show Business as one of her favourite French titles to celebrate Bookshop Day. Today, we would like to tell you more about this astonishing novel, the first of Éric Vuillard’s books to be translated into English.
And now the show is starting. An Indian enters the arena; it's the victor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He's wearing his finest costume. "Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce the great Indian chief..." vociferates Frank Richmond from his rostrum. Sitting Bull has probably never been as alone as he is at this moment, in the midst of the American flags and the great entertainment machine*...
The show is starting and it must go on, claims show business in his early days, though the voice of William Frederick Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, legendary character of the conquest of the Wild West. Creating Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in the late 19th century, he staged shows with “real-life Indians” – including the mythic Sitting Bull – that displayed cowboys themes and episodes from the Indian Wars, taking his large company on tours in the United States and in Europe.
Bringing back to life those "characters”, author and film director Éric Vuillard reveals what really goes on behind the scenes and tells us how the Native Indian Genocide was cynically turned into a bankable performance, a painful masquerade, packed full of clichés.
This brilliant and poignant literary biopic that denounces “the greatest hoax of all time” and is written, accorded to his English publisher, “with beauty, compassion and anger” has been selected by the French magazine Lire as the best narrative of the year.
* Extract from Sorrow of the Earth. Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and the Tragedy of Show Business, by Éric Vuillard, translated by Ann Jefferson, Pushkin Press, 2016.