A rambling re-telling of the Eastern band of the Cherokee's efforts to remain in Western North Carolina, as told by the fictional Will Cooper, who is a stand-in for the real Will Thomas. Anyone who has read the history of Tsali (called Charley in the novel) and the Cherokee removal will be familiar with this story. And Frazier has probably written the first fictional account of it, and has come as close as anyone could to capturing the feel of the times and the people.
It does ramble, though. The love story is opaque and hard to get excited about, as opaque as the female character in the tale. We never find out what she is thinking, and why she seems to come and go without much emotion for Will. In a sense the novel reminded me a lot of David Copperfield, in that it was a coming of age novel, but it is also comic in parts and just plain nostalgic in others.
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