What a good story! You can read this and just enjoy a well-told story that is nicely paced, has humor, mystery, and a ghost or two. Or, you can pause and consider the sensibility and perception of events past, present and future through the various characters you will meet
…more in the story. There is much to think about as you read: from the history of the settling of American and the natural history, and multilayered cultural perspectives. There’s the history of early Tennessee and the European pioneers who ultimately created dynasties in that state. Then, there is the complex story of the relationships of the Black slave descendants who came with the pioneers and who in 1925 can claim a distinguished antebellum ancestry which they share with the white pioneers. There’s the story of the Cherokee who were run out of Tennessee during the Trail of Tears relocation/displacement to Oklahoma.
The main character is a Cherokee woman named Two Feathers (Two) set in 1925 Dayton, Tennessee. Two is the courageous and very popular entertainer at the local amusement park who dives from a platform into a pond while on her horse. She's disciplined, athletic, independent, brave, practical and stands with one foot in the future and the other in her tribal past. We learn a lot about Two’s character through her relationships with her few friends and with the animals on display in the zoo as well as with how she handles a serious on-the-job injury. We’re reminded that WWI has just ended and the terrible costs of that war through the British character Clive, Park Manager, who suffers from PTSD. We also learn about the black experience in the south through Crawford, the Park mechanic, all-around jobber, member of a largest landowning Black in the state, and Two’s best friend. The place of women is reflected in the stories of Two’s career, the women entertainers, the young, widowed owner of the boarding house and the cameos by other women in this book. America stands on the cusp of change in 1926 as the war to end all wars has ended, cars are a new way to travel, science is making advances as evidenced by the Scopes Trial underway in town, and women are looking for social changes in voting rights and other feminists’ pursuits, Indians have been recognized as citizens of the USA for only one year and black citizens are not fully equal.
There is a mystery to solve and retribution to be had; there’s a spiritual element that floats through the story. There are also subtle reminders of serious tribal issues for present-day Native Americans in references to the uses and abuses of sacred grounds, disposition of land, and blood quantum concerns among the tribes as Two moves through the story and often thinks back to her grounding by the tribal elders. (less)
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