Last of the Breed
Last of the Breed, by Louis L'Amour, tells the fictional story of Native American Air Force pilot Joe Mack, shot down over Soviet airspace. Although the setting of the book is never precisely stated, it must be set in the mid- to late eighties, the time Gorbachev was in power.
Plot summary
The start of the book chronicles his daring escape from captivity, but also introduces another captive, an English chemist. The chemist is mentioned later, as the first of their captor Zamatev's mistakes, because it turned out he was after all only working on developing insect repellents.
The success of his subsequent foot travel across Siberia to the Bering Strait is dependent on his Native American hunting, tracking, and evasion skills. It is mentioned several times in the text that these skills were learned by his people, and taught to each generation across thousands of years. Now the skilled flyer of aircraft must remember and practice bow and arrow, fire-making, tracking, stalking, hunting, skinning, and ambush skills taught by his elders. Knowing that "a man with a knife can survive," he sneaks into a miner's cabin, and leaving no evidence he was there, he steals preserved food, a coat and a knife. This knife becomes a key item keeping him one step ahead of his pursuers but also gives them a clue as to his whereabouts.
He also has strong attachments to his people's discipline and self-mastery. When he comes upon an army patrol he crawls inside in an old hollow tree to hide. His pursuers make camp in the same area, and he must remain motionless until it gets dark and only the sentries are awake. When captured, he receives a very rough beating from his pursuers, but true to his heritage, he never makes a sound. A man who previously informed on him unlocks the shed he is in and allows him to escape. He ends up killing Alehkin the Yakut, who was following him.
At the end of the book, the success of Joe's 90-mile kayak ride to Alaska (given a good kayak) is left unresolved. The resolution
of the story is left to the imagination of the reader.
Characters
Major Joseph Makatozi (Joe Mack) - He is a test pilot in the United States Army Air Force. He is a Sioux, Native American; one grandfather was a Scotsman.
Colonol Arkady Zamatev
Alekhin - "He is a Yakut, a Siberian counterpart of the American Indian."[1]
Yakov
Evgeny Zhikarev - He is a furrier in the town of Aldan. After Natalya's father dies, he becomes a father figure to toward her. He leaves for China with Natalya.
Kyra Lebedev - She is an ambitious woman who works for Col. Zamatev. Katerina's sister.
Stegman - Kyra's assistant.
Katerina - Kyra's sister. Ostap's wife.
Baronas
Natalya
Colonol Rukovsky
Lieutenant Suvarov
Pennington - a chemist from England
Shepilov
Reference List
- ^ L'Amour, Louis, Last of the Breed, (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), p.7.
External links
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