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. Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award (Best Western Traditional Novel) It’s the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A … 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.
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Cherokee America does what all the best historical fiction does — it vividly captures its particular time and place, yet simultaneously offers valuable insights about our own era. Margaret Verble is an exceptional storyteller, and this novel will enhance her already considerable literary reputation.
Cherokee America, by Cherokee citizen Margaret Verble, is a Western at heart… but a kind of Western you’ve never read before. All the elements are there: cowboys and Indians, outlaws, the remembrance (and aftermath) of war, gold hiding and searching, sheriffs, farmers, and a close community in a wide open prairie. The plot also revolves around familiar themes (at least on the surface): revenge and the hunt for a hidden stash of gold.
Everything that you would expect from a good Western novel is there, but the perspective of the story makes this novel unique. Cherokee America is set in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma when that nation was still independent from the United State and the rule of the land derived from traditional Cherokee culture. Here, women have they place and social role, very different and more free than it was in larger America society (Cherokee America – Check – is one of the main characters in the novel… though in spite of the novel being called after her, I’d hesitate to call her ‘the protagonist’ because this is truly a choral novel at heart). Here people are all equal and judged by what they contribute to the community, rather than by their gender or race.
The multi-culturality of the setting is one of the things I enjoyed the most. The diversity of this rather small community gives richness to the story and the characters, and suggests how this is true in life also. I loved seeing how characters from different cultures relate to each other in a way that underlines their identity, but also showcases the attitude of reaching out, an attitude that often turns into respect and even friendship.
The novel is split into two quite different halves. The first part revolved around Check’s husband sickness and eventual death. It’s a very intimate, ponderous part, heavy with a sense of loss and sorrow, and the way it is written and structure seems to call the reader for a slower partecipation, an invitation to take their time and get to know this place and those characters. Everything is designed to take the rhythm down, including the sentence structure, to mark a place and time where rhythms were widely different from ours. The peak of this first half is Andrew’s funeral, where all the community gathers.
The sense of a closely knitted community then carries over into the second part of the novel, where only working together, and offering rather than taking, makes the outcome possible.
The second part of the novel has a clipper pace and a more adventurous focus, as a girl goes missing and the community goes out in search of her. There’s a murder too, there’s revenge, difficult diplomatic relations, clever and unexpected solutions.
It’s a very complex story, not just for the crowded cast of characters and their arcs, but also for the themes weaving onto each other. But it is also a very satisfying story, one that will open your eyes on a sleeve of history that is seldom addressed. And on the matters of life, which is what all good stories are about.
This is a great book and it got better with every page I turned!
Historically informational
I found this book to be a very interesting window into the Cherokee Nation and surprisingly also insight into the origins of American gun culture. I did find it harsh and crude at times which did not make for easy reading but certainly was an honest portrayal of the times. Well worth a read.
I loved this book!
I hope this book is fiction based on fact. The subtle humor tempers description of the grim reality of the characters’ day to day lives.
Never finished it; couldn’t follow it.
Informative and gritty read about life in the Cherokee Nation including several characters based on actual historical figures.
I didn’t care for it. I thought it could have been much better because it was a good story, but just didn’t come off.
I found it historically fascinating. A window into our past with a personal encounter with characters who actually lived it. (charters based on real people)
The Cherokee tribe was exceptional and has a unique story of its experience with the US government. Poignant.
Very slow reading.
I tried to read this book but it was so hard to know the characters as they were all introduced in the first few pages but I could not remember the characters when I got into the book. would have been better to introduce them when the time came
This is a wonderful piece of American history rarely seen or discussed except, I imagine, by those, like the author, directly related to the people and the times. The characters and the mismatch of political organizations and disputes which rocked the Cherokee nation after the trials of the Trail Of Tears and the forced collection into the Indian Territory in the 19th century are well and truly stated.
The characters are truly characters, in every sense; individuals joined by their heritage and common fears, doing what all historical characters were doing…the best they could. It’s a story of several societies living in close proximity, some well off, others barely getting by, but as today, all trying to make a better place where they are.
There’s a good story here, a tale of strong people in a semi-wild territory. But the deeper story is of a people being subsumed by the dominant culture and their conscious recognition that it’s not going to turn out well.
Got bogged down and was boring! did not finish it. Very unusual for me.