by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
Overall: I found this book featured in my library and was intrigued. A murder set in a fancy inn in Asheville, NC, while it was serving as an upscale prison for Axis diplomats and their families during WWII? With a disabled man of Cherokee heritage as the main character? Sounded compelling! However, this isn’t the murder mystery promised in the book’s blurb. Rather, it’s a quiet, meditative book about one summer in the life of 19-year-old Cowney Sequoyah, who was orphaned as an infant and raised by his grandmother, called Lishie, and his cantankerous Uncle Bud on the Cherokee reservation in western North Carolina. Cowney takes a job as a manual laborer at the Grove Park Inn to save money for college. The job doesn’t require much mental effort, leaving him plenty of time to think about his place in the world – his budding relationship with Essie, a young woman from the reservation who works as a maid; his complicated feelings about his father’s death in WWI; his inability to serve in the military due to his club foot; and the constant aura of prejudice that surrounds him.
Likes: the prose is beautiful, with unique turns of phrase. I especially enjoyed the passages set in the forests and mountains of North Carolina, which contain beautiful descriptions of wildlife and waterfalls. The book illuminates pervasive anti-Native American prejudice between World Wars I and II.
Dislikes: As mentioned above, I think the description of this book is misleading. It stresses that the Grove Park housed Axis diplomats and their families, but we barely see any of these people on the page. World War II feels very far away, with just a few references to rationing and the draft. Additionally, the abduction/murder in the description doesn’t occur until two-thirds of the way through the book, and Cowney doesn’t investigate or solve the crime. The conclusion of the book veers toward the melodramatic, especially the explanation of the murder. The pace of this one is quite slow, even though many chapters are short.
FYI: Prejudice & discrimination against Native Americans and disabled people. Murder. Near drowning. Death of family members.
Liz Helfrich 