Book Review
Thirteen Moons
By CHARLES FRAZIER Reviewed by PEGGY BARNETT
Charles Frazier won the Na tional Book Award for his novel, Cold Mountain, which has since been made into a movie, like many best sellers. He has set this second novel in the mountains of North Carolina again, but this time his protagonist is an advocate for and adopted member of the Cherokee Nation.

Will Cooper is sent away from his aunt and uncle's home to be a "bound boy" to run a trading post on the edge of Cherokee territory. He is 12 years old and remarkably resourceful, already culturally educated because of a fortunate encounter with a teacher who also taught him to play poker.

Will is an engaging hero, and Frazier knows how to draw the reader into the story, telling bits and snatches of Will's history through Will's eyes, while withholding ultimate outcomes. Early on, it is revealed that Will, narrating his tale from old age, has been a wealthy and influential man, as well as a colonel and a senator. He also hints that he has not always been totally noble in his pursuits.

Basically, though, this is a love story - a story of Will's love for Claire, whom he first met when they were 13, and for the Cherokee people who became his people. Further, there is his love of the mountains and the wilderness land that became the home of the Cherokee as they were moved farther back from hunting and farming lands.

We anticipate the dread years of the "Removal" of the Cherokee, hoping that Will may somehow rescue his special friends. We hold our breath as Will and Claire's relationship waxes and wanes. In spite of Will's "colonel" title, the section dealing with the Civil War is not extensive and is low-key compared to the rest of the story.

Perhaps those who made Cold Mountain such a success will not be as enamored of Thirteen Moons, but it is an absorbing story, with likeable characters.

It is available at the Mary Willis Library.

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