Cherokee America

by Margaret Verble

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Maud's Line, an epic novel that follows a web of complex family alliances and culture clashes in the Cherokee Nation during the aftermath of the Civil War, and the unforgettable woman at its center.

It's the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, a gold stash, and a preacher have all gone missing. Cherokee America Singer, known as "Check," a wealthy farmer, mother of five boys, and soon-to-be widow, is not amused.

In this epic of the American frontier, several plots intertwine around the heroic and resolute Check: her son is caught in a compromising position that results in murder; a neighbor disappears; another man is killed. The tension mounts and the violence escalates as Check's mixed race family, friends, and neighbors come together to protect their community--and painfully expel one of their own.

Cherokee America vividly, and often with humor, explores the bonds--of blood and place, of buried histories and half-told tales, of past grief and present injury--that connect a colorful, eclectic cast of characters, anchored by the clever, determined, and unforgettable Check.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Native American, Indigenous, Westerns, Adult Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 2019

About the author

Margaret Verble, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has set her novel on her family’s Indian allotment land near Ft. Gibson, OK. She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Verble is a successful business woman and novelist. Her consulting work has taken her to most states and to several foreign countries. Upon the publication of her debut novel, Maud’s Line, Margaret whittled her consulting practice down to one group of clients, organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, and eye banks, to devote the rest of her time to writing. Maud’s Line is a Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Reviews

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to go into this one prepared...

You need to know going into Cherokee America that there are gobs of characters, and they will be introduced rather quickly for the first chunk of the book. I read a review that mentioned bookmarking those pages where the characters are introduced, and that helped me keep up. Once you have the characters down, there is much to love within this story.

The year is 1875, and the setting is Cherokee Nation West. Cherokee America Singer, nicknamed “Check,” is our beloved, strong main character. She’s a wealthy mother to five boys, finding her fortune in farming.

There are multiple plots to follow. A murder involving one of her sons, a neighbor disappears, a gold stash is stolen- basically, bad things are happening on the sometimes lawless frontier. The violence seems to escalating, and something has to be done. What can Check get her community to do?

The frontier is a land of rough and tumble, and Margaret Verble’s writing transports you to that fervent time and place. Check is a hero of a character- one to admire, one to shake your head, one to be in awe of her sheer grit and determination. This is a dense, epic story, requiring patience, but with that investment, I found the pay-off residing in my fondness for Check and her family.

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com

[Angela M]

There are just too many characters and too many distractions to hold my interest. I really was taken by Check, the main character snd interested in the time period . Maybe I’ll pick it up another time when I can focus more. For now , I’m setting this aside .

[Susan Waller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I heard about this book on NPR and looked forward to reading it. The descriptions were authentic and conveyed a strong sense of place. But it was not plot driven, and I struggled to get interested in it. There were way WAY too many descriptions of men masturbating. I found myself turning the page whenever a man reached for his belt. Maybe that's why I couldn't follow the plot - I kept skipping chunks of it! It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, but I was unable to appreciate it.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about a strong Cherokee woman and her family living on a reservation during the days just after the civil war in America. It was almost a more modern day family saga with a strong woman at the helm just trying to keep her little bit of the world safe and together.

Check is a full blooded Cherokee married to a white man and they are living and working on a farm that is on land belonging to the Cherokee Nation. Early on her husband is sick and his dying takes up the early stages of the book, as it is the first trial Check must face and continue to try to keep her sons and her farm working as they should. This family seems fairly well off as they have some free black slaves who work for them and other hands working on the farm.
At first the book has a cozy feel to it as crisis come and go but all seems to work in this family's favor, even when times get hard.

There is the threat constantly of loosing the tribal lands, allusions to the history and the long march and the many dead to get to where they are now and how important it is to the tribe to keep the land they have now. There is a constant threat from the government forces--interference with how the Cherokee Nation does things and how the U.S. Marshalls might intercede.

A search for buried gold keeps the story lively for sure and seems to infect most on one level or another. This book was easy to read had strong modern day themes with historical information about the Cherokees and Indians living together working to keep a culture and heritage to pass on.

I found the themes quite entertaining and would recommend this author. This book was her second but was written to get her Pulitzer prize nominated book Maud's Line published. Much of this book came about by the author's research into her own family's heritage. So she does know of what she writes.

A good story well told. 3.5 stars round up.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to thank Edelweiss for this ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy). It's due to be released February 19, 2019.

I had very mixed feelings about this one. Even though I was interested in reading the ARC and was sent it last May, I struggled to pick it up. I have fallen back in love with historical fiction and decided to pick this up and read it before it was released.

However, I found it difficult to get through. I kept putting it down. I nearly DNFed (did not finish) it several times. It is 400 pages and the material is very dense. I'm also unfamiliar with the setting (1875 Cherokee-Western from a Cherokee point-of-view). I'm not a huge fan of westerns, but I wanted to learn more about the Native American experience during that time. And I felt that I did.

You're introduced to so many characters at the start. Usually this is a non-issue for me, but I found it difficult to form attachments to most of the characters. I did like the main character, Check. She is determined And a very strong female lead. Also the caring nature of another character, Ezell.

Check is the matriarch of her wealthy farming family on a reserve. She is of Cherokee descent. Her husband, who is white, is slowly dying and she must care for him and her five children (though the ages range quite a bit - a couple are older and able to care for themselves). She is thrown into a fragile situation when one of her servants, Puny, married to their cook Ezell, impregnates a 14 year old girl. The girl isn't lactating and the baby is starving, so Check swoops in and tries to help. There are several subplots interwoven, including buried gold, a missing preacher, and a murder. We also learn a bit about the Trail of Tears and the Civil War, which was fascinating. We see many race relations as a good portion of the characters are either Native Americans, black, and white. Their interactions are peaceable at first, until something causes tensions between them.

I think what I found difficult was not only the density and lack of attachment to characters, but also the fluidity of the plot as it went off on several subplots. It wasn't a compelling or enjoyable read (for my personal tastes), but I did feel I learned quite a bit. I also really appreciate that several characters were based off of real people. I loved that this was an Own Voices novel. The author's other book Maud's Line was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. So I think it is definitely worth a read, if it interests you.

[John Hatley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. There are a number of reasons for that, but foremost amongst them is the fact that in my opinion it is just a good book. I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the view of the lives of the Cherokee in Indian Territory. I can recommend it highly.

[Hayley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dialog and obsession with the penis was this book's downfall for me. I couldn't get past that stuff to be interested in any other aspect of the book.

[The Lit Bitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book intrigued me for one reason—it sounded different. This is an ‘Own Voices’ book so I loved that it would be more about people on the fringes and as a historian this book held a lot of appeal to me.

It weaves Native American culture with a more traditional family narrative all set in a post Civil War world to create something unique and new. Based on that promise, I was eager to read this and see how it all worked together.

I haven’t read a lot of books set on the frontier or with Native American culture mixed in, so something like this book appealed to my curious side. Not to mention this cover is beautiful and eye catching so I didn’t want to miss out on it!

It also helps that the author was a finalist for the Pulizter Prize which says to me that it would be a well written book.

This book had a lot going on. It was dense and tedious at times. There were a number of characters to keep track of so that was a bit of a distraction for me and it started a little on the slow side. I felt like I was so worried about who was related to who for the first third of the book until it finally became familiar. I have seen a few others comment on the same issue and I will admit, it was a struggle at first.

But eventually the characters became familiar and the list of how they are related helped a lot, and then the story started picking up and eventually I became engrossed in everything that was going on. I loved the backdrop of a post Civil War era. As I am sure many of you know, I am a huge Civil War buff, but mostly as it pertains to the South and nursing. I have done some research on frontier America but my research into Indian culture is extremely limited, so with this book I found something new and fresh to relish in during one of my favorite eras of American History.

This isn’t a book that you want to rush through. I did aggressively read this one admittedly, but mostly because I was eager to make headway with it. I thought the research the author poured into this book was commendable and did the time period, culture, and character justice. I especially loved Check, I thought she was an interesting character, she was strong and independent in a time when women had to rely on their man, she didn’t and I found her character fresh and invigorating. However, there was just so much going on for me that I periodically stalled in my reading efforts. I think it would have helped if all of the plot points to characters ended up connecting some how but sometimes it just didn’t have any bearing on the overall narrative.

In the end I went with 3 stars for this one. It was good and definitely worth a read especially if you are looking for an Own Voices type of book, but just be prepared that there is a lot going on in this one.

Se my full review here

[Reading Badger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts a bit slow, introducing the main character of the novel, Check Singer, the matriarch of an important family of farmers in the area, of Cherokee descent. Her husband is dying, and she has to deal with the fear and sadness of losing him but at the same time, stay strong for her five children. After that, I would have expected for the action to pick up a bit, but that did not happen.
Read the full review: https://readingbadger.club/2018/11/28...

Final thoughts, I warmly recommend this book, especially now that the holiday season is almost here and there is nothing better to do on a cold winter day then stay in bed with a good book.

[Julia Simpson-Urrutia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check Singer is a character who grows on you, getting right under your skin. Her husband is very ill and she has children ranging from school age to grown. She worries and manages all of them as she does her farm and the people working it. Puny works for her and has got himself in a heap of woman trouble. I love the women in his life, especially Ezell. She has a heart of gold! Both she and Check (Cherokee) are strong, practical women with a sense of obligation to help other people and care for them. The story is fascinating in the disclosures about the manner in which the Cherokee people have acted as a glue and a bridge between the white, native and African American cultures in the USA. I can see why this is an award-winning author: Verble engages readers with problems we can relate to, whether we are women with grown children or young men who have suffered a disgrace. There are times when the story reminds me of the style of William Faulkner. Check is a survivor of her era and culture, and we in our era and culture will find much to relate to. I believe Verble will gain a truly wide audience. Thank you, #HoughtonMifflin Harcourt and #MargaretVerble! I am halfway through and thoroughly enjoying this book!

[Stacey D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost passed this one up after reading reviews featuring a dislike of the large ensemble cast. Glad I didn't, as Cherokee America turned out to be one of this year's favorites for me. Yes, there are loads of characters, but they're all are so appealing, you want them to stick around. The novel is one large continuous story that's divvied up into smaller, palatable portions using clever subtitling, giving the story focus, direction and an old-timey appeal. So perfect here and in keeping with this American frontier novel set in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in 1875, a rapidly changing and increasingly dangerous post-Civil War landscape. Colorful characters of every stripe can be found, but it's Check, the no-nonsense, half-breed Cherokee matriarch who's central to the novel. At its heart, this funny, graphic, poignant and even erotic tale is about the bonds that exist between family and community, despite race, heritage and class divide.

[Maddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much masturbation.

[Karen Ashmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I normally don't like to read westerns or books that take place over 100 years ago but this book was great. Loosely based on true stories experienced by the author's ancestors in the Cherokee Nation, it was a fascinating exposure to Cherokee culture as well as an interesting story. Sadly, it recounted the racism experienced by blacks and Natives and the corrupt injustices that the US perpetrated in broken treaties. But the warmth and support of the Cherokee families for each other was heartwarming. Highly recommend.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having received a copy of Maud's Line, I decided before I read it, I needed to get the prequel under my belt. Hmm.

Check is one of my favorite characters ever. . . .but the entire read went off in so many different directions I had a hard time staying with it. Made it through, but at the end Check backs off, and it was a disappointing conclusion for me.

Can now move forward to Maud's Line and we'll see where that leads. . . .

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realize when I began reading this book that Cherokee America was a woman’s name. Called Check for short, Cherokee America is the matriarch of a prosperous family living in the Cherokee Nation during the 1870’s.

Check’s husband is a white man who is on his death bed at the start of the novel. With a family of five boys and a potato farm to run, Check has her hands full as she tries to care for her husband in his final days.

It is during this time that some pivotal events occur in the lives of her boys and some of her closest neighbors. As Check grieves for her husband, she is distracted by the shooting involving one of her sons, the disappearance of a young neighbor girl and then the murder of a member of the Cherokee Nation.

While the story had some terrible events, I found the writing to have a sort of slap-stick humor at times. The characters were amusing and different. Also fascinating was the racial pecking order in the Indian Territory. Not too many years had passed since the Civil War and blacks who had been slaves were still at the bottom of the pecking order.

Because of the crimes in the territory, federal Marshalls were sent in to investigate. This was counter-productive to the Indians and threatened previous treaties with the white man. The Indians worked together to seek their own justice, while satisfying the goals of the federal Marshalls.

Readers who like historical fiction, westerns and Native American culture will enjoy this book. Sensitive readers should know there is no graphic violence, but there are some incidents involving the young men and their overactive libidos.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

[Renae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped reading at 1%.

I don't have time for "good" slave-owning protagonists.

Puny emerged from a shack to the left of the mules. He was tall, muscular, and broad-shouldered. Darker than a fullblood, but not completely black. Check’s parents had owned slaves. She’d known Negroes all of her life. But she’d been taught they were people...

and the Black characters talk like this:

I’z Lizzie, Miz Singer. You know me. My mama was Beth. After the hard times, your mama brung us visiting to Tennessee.

Nope.

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[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cherokee America is the name she was given at birth but she is known to family and friends as Check. This is her story.

It is 1875 in Cherokee Nation West (now Oklahoma) and Check is about to become a widow. She had married a white man and they raised five sons together after their first baby, a daughter, died. Now the two oldest boys are in their late teens and are considered men. Of the three younger boys, the youngest is a two-year-old toddler. Check and her husband are successful and wealthy potato farmers but now her husband is dying from a disease that is never explicitly named but seems to be stomach cancer. Check's time is spent mostly caring for him as the two older boys must take increased responsibility for the farm.

In addition to the family, a black couple who are the family cook and handyman live as part of the household and are treated as part of the family. Besides these characters, there is a mind-boggling number of others that we must get to know and keep all the relationships in mind in order to follow the story. It is a story that includes full-blooded Cherokees, half-bloods, blacks, and whites. Part of the story is how all of these mixed races live together in the community and how the various relationships play out and are informed by the racial makeup.

One of the things that I really liked about the book was its exploration of these relationships. Another thing that I especially liked was the fact that the author wove in so much of Cherokee history and culture into the narrative.

The narrative contains multiple plotlines which make it a challenge to summarize. There are murder and mayhem and missing people, including a child's disappearance which turns the community upside down, and there are heroics and selfishness, humiliation and acts of kindness. Through it all, the plethora of characters makes it sometimes hard to follow. But there is also simply the day-to-day happenings of life on the farm. All in all, it's a lot to take in, but mastering the cast of characters and their relationships makes it all a bit easier.

This is a sprawling tale of complex familial relationships and alliances and diverse cultures and through it all our guide is Check. We experience things through her eyes. She is a vivid and sympathetic character and we learn in the author's afterword that she is based on a real historical figure, as are a few of the other characters.

I had not read Margaret Verble before but I am impressed with her writing. This was a story that could have veered out of control, but Verble kept to her narrative and told a complicated tale in an understandable and relatable way. One of her previous books,Maud's Line, was a contender for the Pulitzer Prize. I can easily see this one following in those footsteps.

[Courtney Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a TON of characters in this story. At the very beginning of the book, you are given a list of all the characters and how they are connected (if they are connected) and I would recommend keeping those pages (yes, there are pages dedicated to these descriptions) handy for the first 25% of the book. They come at ya fast and furious. Once I had them figured out, for the most part, the story flowed much smoother.

Overall, Cherokee America was a wonderfully heartbreaking and thought provoking story about the complicated and often intertwined lives of Native Americans following the Trail of Tears and the Civil War. While the story is a historical fiction read, many of the characters were based on real people - both Native American and White. I found myself a little shocked at the added pressures African Americans living in the Indian Nation were facing as well. This is something I would absolutely love to see on the big screen, despite many parts being very hard to watch. Glad I picked it up, and I would recommend fans of historical fiction pick it up as well.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story takes place around 1875 in Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. It's a big, epic Western, but not what you'd expect-- it centers a woman, Check (aka Cherokee America) and her family of mixed Cherokees living in Cherokee Nation, many having been removed from Tennessee and walked the Trail of Tears.

This was character driven (and there are a lot of characters but there is a glossary at the front to refer back to) and nuanced in terms of families, community, social strata, politics and governance, race and identity.

I liked being reminded that progressive mores now might also have been progressive 130 years ago, but might also have just been "normal". Cherokee women had rights and could hold property regardless of their marital status. Check wanted her sons to grow up with education not poverty and and an inclination towards war and killing.

This was a fast read-- once I started it I didn't want to put it down. It was immersive and just the right amount of challenging.

[Erika Wurth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly one of the smartest historical breakdowns—while being a compelling story to boot—of what it was like in the time in Oklahoma after removal, and before the Cherokee (& Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (lost full sovereignty by a Cherokee citizen.

[Eva Hattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

At 49% and the (by my count) hundredth masturbation scene, I did myself a favor and set this one aside. In a lot of ways, Cherokee America reminds me quite a bit of the average HBO original show; the plot is ambitious, the pacing determinedly (and impressively) drawn-out, the cast is in large in numbers and complex in character, and there is a bizarrely gratuitous focus on sex, as both an act of pleasure and an act of violence.

I appreciate that Verble captured many of the facets of nineteenth century America that probably run counter to the average America's understanding of history, such as Cherokee citizens owning slaves and fighting on the Confederate side of the Civil War. Verble doesn't excuse these realities, nor does she condemn them. Rather, this is simply presented as the reality of the time, seen as good, bad, or unremarkable from character to character, just as opinions on the reality of our own time vary from person to person.

However, I found the plot extremely meandering. For a book not meant to be a (long) collection of short stories, Cherokee American is episodic in a way that feels forced.

In the end, nothing about this story really captured my interest.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This ain't a church service. It's an arrest." 1875, the Cherokee Nation. With the Trail of Tears in her recent past, Verble's larger-than-life Cherokee America, her community and her boys play out a yarn that will capture you and hold you hostage. It passed my most stringent criterion for a 5-star designation: would I read it again? Yes! So it was surprising to me when only 50%ish of my book group members liked this read. Complaints: the numerous intertwined community members and kinship members were too hard to keep straight, the too frequent appearance of "Buckaroo", gritty "westerns" generally disliked, characters too "flat". I had to disagree, particularly with that last assessment. I found it both hilarious and heartbreaking and loved many of the characters. It taught me about a people and a period in history. . .which, let's face it, is what I am looking for in an awesome read.

[JoBeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Verble is a remarkable storyteller. Her tales weave a gossamer web - shimmering and stronger than it might appear - of community, kin, Cherokee Nation-US tensions in 1875, and Black/White/Native relationships before prejudices and power locked hierarchies irrevocably in place. It was particularly interesting to me because my dad's family basically stole the land in the Oklahoma Land Rush near Talequah where the story is set. Strong and decent characters, humor, Cherokee dialogue patterns, snakes, romance, disgrace, and acknowledgment of usually-politely-ignored bodily functions make this a lively read. I read Cherokee America after Maud’s Line, which was a Pulitzer finalist, and loved them both. I would suggest reading this first, though there is only minor overlap in characters, to help with the family and historical chronology.

[Renata]

DNF

I kept trying to get through an arc of this and it just really wasn't clicking for me and then I remembered that I had struggled with her previous book Maud's Line and really only finished it because of book club, and I had no social pressure to finish this one, so I'm not. DOBBY IS A FREE ELF.

Fans of gritty historical epics or whatever will probably like this, and it's always great to have more #OwnVoices books about Native Americans, especially when a lot of other American historical fiction has uhh problematic portrayals of Native Americans.

But it's just not for me!

[Megan]

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review!*

I was interested in reading this because of my Cherokee heritage, and even reading just 10% into the book, I learned a lot. However, this book is dense and I'm tabling it (for now) until I can get it on audiobook.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

No plot and unlikeable characters. What more do I need to say?

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the worst books I have ever read. Too much masturbation and phedophelia. I never write reviews but with this one it’s necessary, would give zero stars if I could.

[Maddie Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many characters, way too many extremely descriptive masturbation scenes

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told from the perspective of a mixed blood Cherokee woman, the story is about the difficluties Native Americans encountered as they tried to live with whites and former slaves. Cherokee has a dying husband, several children to raise, and a potato plantation to manage.Her problems include the death of a new born baby of one of her black workers and the growing encroachment of white law.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years after the end of the American civil war, with the issue of the settlement of American natives largely in the past, the Cherokee, in their own semi-autonomous region, are trying to live in the only way that the government has left them: like the whites. Seemingly this is what happens, they live as peasants, have adopted Christianity, speak English and have the same dreams and the same aspirations as all the other citizens of the United States. Behind this picture, however, things are quite different, as many costumes of the past are still part of their everyday life, while the bitter memories of the oppression they have suffered in previous years and their common problems make their tribal consciousness to be particularly strong, which unites them and makes them unwilling to let strangers mingle in their affairs. A series of small and big, serious and less serious events are the occasion to confirm these ties, with their jointly treating of these events, in their own way, under the guidance of the older ones to show that despite the disappearance of their traditional way of life, despite the attempts of total assimilation and their own compromises in the heart remained Cherokee.

The Pulitzer Prize candidate for her previous book author, with her somewhat raw - and sometimes very raw - and restrained writing describes us all this, in a way that looks subdued, and in some readers it may even look cold but hides much more "colouring "discreetly in a beautiful way the most intense moments. So we quietly watch the lives of the protagonists of this story, with their simple occupations interrupted only when something unusual happens that they quickly forget it to return to them. Of these protagonists, the main heroine of the book that has the most important role in this story, a woman who, by her power and intelligence, faces the sufferings of life, stands beside her loved ones and becomes the support of the community, a characteristic model of the most worthy of women. Of course, as a background, there are always the tragic events of the history of the violent treatment of the American natives, but this belong to the past that they think they should remember, but they should not let it determine their future. That's why instead of scraping the old wounds they find the power to try to create something better under the difficult conditions of the violent American frontier. This image given by the author I especially appreciated in this book.

Λίγα χρόνια μετά το τέλος του αμερικανικού εμφυλίου πολέμου, με το θέμα της τακτοποίησης των Αμερικανών ιθαγενών να αποτελεί σε μεγάλο βαθμό παρελθόν, οι Cherokee, στη δική τους ημιαυτόνομη περιοχή, προσπαθούν να ζήσει με τον μοναδικό τρόπο που τους έχει αφήσει η κυβέρνηση: όπως ακριβώς οι λευκοί. Φαινομενικά αυτό ακριβώς γίνεται, ζούνε ως αγρότες, έχουν ασπαστεί το χριστιανισμό, μιλάνε αγγλικά και έχουν τα ίδια όνειρα και τις ίδιες επιδιώξεις με όλους τους υπόλοιπους πολίτες των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών. Πίσω από αυτήν την εικόνα, όμως, τα πράγματα είναι αρκετά διαφορετικά καθώς πολλές συνήθειες του παρελθόντος εξακολουθούν να είναι μέρος της καθημερινότητάς τους, την ώρα που οι πικρές αναμνήσεις από την καταπίεση που υπέστησαν τα προηγούμενα χρόνια και τα κοινά προβλήματα τους κάνουν την φυλετική συνείδηση τους να είναι ιδιαίτερα ισχυρή, κάτι που τους ενώνει και τους κάνει να μην επιθυμούν την ανάμιξη ξένων στις υποθέσεις τους. Μία σειρά από μικρά και μεγάλα, σοβαρά και λιγότερο σοβαρά γεγονότα γίνονται η αφορμή για να επιβεβαιωθούν αυτοί οι δεσμοί, με την από κοινού αντιμετώπιση τους, με τον δικό τους τρόπο, κάτω από την καθοδήγηση των μεγαλυτέρων να δείχνει ότι παρά την εξαφάνιση του παραδοσιακού τρόπου ζωής τους, παρόλες τις προσπάθειες ολοκληρωτικής αφομοίωσης αλλά και τους δικούς τους συμβιβασμούς στην καρδιά παρέμειναν Τσερόκι.

Η υποψήφια για Πούλιτζερ για το προηγούμενο βιβλίο της συγγραφέας με την κάπως ωμή - ως πολύ ωμή - και συγκρατημένη γραφή της μας περιγράφει όλα αυτά, με έναν τρόπο που μοιάζει υποτονικός και σε κάποιους αναγνώστες ίσως φανεί ακόμα και ψυχρός αλλά κρύβει πολύ περισσότερα πράγματα, "χρωματίζοντας" διακριτικά με ωραίο τρόπο τις πιο έντονες στιγμές. Έτσι ήσυχα παρακολουθούμε τη ζωή των πρωταγωνιστών αυτής της ιστορίας, με τις απλές ασχολίες τους που διακόπτονται μόνο όταν συμβαίνει κάτι ασυνήθιστο που γρήγορα το ξεχνάνε για να επιστρέψουν σε αυτές. Από αυτούς τους πρωταγωνιστές ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον έχει η βασική ηρωίδα του βιβλίου που έχει τον σημαντικότερο ρόλο σε αυτήν την ιστορία, μία γυναίκα που με τη δύναμη και την εξυπνάδα της αντιμετωπίζει τα βάσανα της ζωής, στέκεται δίπλα στους αγαπημένους της και γίνεται το στήριγμα της κοινότητας, ένα χαρακτηριστικό υπόδειγμα των πιο αξιών γυναικών. Φυσικά ως φόντο υπάρχουν πάντα τα τραγικά γεγονότα της ιστορίας της βίαιης αντιμετώπισης των Αμερικανών ιθαγενών αλλά αυτά ανήκουν στο παρελθόν που πιστεύουν ότι πρέπει να το θυμούνται αλλά ότι δεν πρέπει να το αφήνουν να καθορίσει το μέλλον τους. Για αυτό αντί να σκαλίζουν συνέχεια τις παλιές πληγές βρίσκουν τη δύναμη να προσπαθήσουν να δημιουργήσουν κάτι καλύτερο κάτω από τις δύσκολες συνθήκες της βίαιης αμερικανικής μεθορίου. Αυτήν την εικόνα που μας δίνει η συγγραφέας εκτίμησα ιδιαίτερα σε αυτό το βιβλίο.