The Grand Canyon country of the 1880s is the setting of Oakley Hall's compelling new novel. As the plot unfolds, the West of the late nineteenth century is displayed in all its vastness and complexity. Hall carries us from the wild, perilous depths of the Canyon to the drawing rooms of San Francisco, from the desolate Mormon settlements and Indian camps of the Southwest to the haciendas of Old California. And he reveals once again his consummate power as a storyteller as he brings to life the fierce conflicts of the day - between rapacious mining and railroad barons eager to exploit the riches of the West and those who would preserve its beauty pristine; between Mormons and Gentiles; between land-hungry whites and beleaguered Indians; between men and the women they would love, and use. And the fiercest conflict of all - between man and nature.
Oakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.
Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
What I like about Oakley Hall is the way he sets up his characters with a moral system and then proceeds to make his characters confront and experience deep challenges to their beliefs, some victoriously others tragically. I would give Separations 3.5 stars.