It's Impossible

Impossible Major Rogers by Patricia Lee Gauch

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Gauch paints a warts and all portrait of a figure from the French and Indian wars. Neither all good or all bad, Rogers is a fighter and determined, and for that much he can be admired.  The book is punctuated with the refrain of his impossibility.  By stressing this, Gauch also does not try to paint him too much as a hero.  She shows him as a man conflicted by his hatred and admiration of his chosen enemy and as someone at a loss when the fighting is over.  At least in war he could fight his way out of trouble. 
Although later forced to fight on the British side because the colonists viewed him as a possible spy, Rogers' style of combat (developed from his experience of fighting the Abenaki as well as trading with them and studying them) was what the colonists chose.  Rogers' determination could have been interpreted as unscrupulousness and he ended badly.  He was jailed, apparently for his enormous debts, for three years and eventually had nothing left but his braggadocio. 
 



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