"I Should Be Extremely Happy In Your Company"

Brian Hall

Step into the amazing adventure of Lewis and Clark as they make their way across the continent, charting their course as they go. Take into your mind their personalities and all that this journey meant to them. Add a most unusual cast of characters: their Shoshone guide - Sacagawea, a young girl whose world is turned upside down, Toussaint Charbonneau, her fur trader husband, the expedition's crew, and the native peoples they meet along their way. Voila! A story fit for the telling!

This compulsively readable novel is told in four voices - Lewis, Clark, Sacagawea, and Charbonneau, each taking their turn, adding to the tapestry of this tale. These lives and their journey - all of which had an effect on our own lives - are filled out as history class never managed. 

Hall tackles a tale whose ending we all know, but it is in the lyrical and precise prose of his telling that the wonder of this story occurs. His use of language is supreme - a unique and creative style that immediately won me over. Written almost in stream of consciousness, the book requires the reader to relax, and just go along for the ride. Let your eyes do the work. A wonderful journey!