Customer Reviews
a little bit of editing would not have gone amiss - By: the scribbler, 07 Sep 2008 
This lacks the emotional depth of Cold Mountain but it is a story well told of Will Cooper, whose own life story he relates while waiting for the trains to go by his house. Will Cooper's tale is extraordinary & through him we get to understand the ethnic cleansing of the native American Indian. His rise to prominence & falll from grace are well depicted & Charles Frazier paints a vivid picture of the countryside steadily being stripped of its wildlife in the name of progress & of the local people being stripped of their own identity & status. A book which contains much to brood over even when it is finished.
Lost in another time - By: JillyAnn Roffo, 05 Jan 2008 
I loved it. I felt I was inside Will's head - I liked his rambles, & I longed for Claire to come back to him, but it wasn't to be & I cried at his loneliness. But most of alll I loved the vision it gave of the last of the Cherokee & his & Bear's struggle to keep them in their own country. I've just ordered the biography of the real Will Thomas on whom I presume this is based so let's see how much of it is true.
An American Saga - By: Wynne Kelly, 15 Dec 2007 
An American saga. Will Cooper looks back on his life & reflects on his reluctance to accept "modern ways". Will, an orphan at 12, becomes "bound" to a store owner & is sent off from his home to run a trading post in a remote community of Indians (with a few rag-tag white folks) He wins a girl at a card game - & he continuallly longs for her to be his. Chief Bear adopts him as a member of the Cherokee tribe, he takes part in the Civil War & eventuallly becomes a member of the senate.
Some brilliant evocative scenes, such as his time in the wilderness trying to survive & find his way to the store & the actual running of the store. His description of how the Indian tribes were forced out of their homelands is particularly harrowing.
The language is a bit flowery in parts but the whole story is told with warmth & affection for a lost world.
beautifully written, but . . . - By: Liz Mint, 06 Dec 2007 
I couldn't get into this at alll. It is beautifully written & certain descriptive passages are sublime, but it didn't seem to have any direction & I lost interest in it about a third of the way through (before that reallly, but I read on in the hope that things would improve). A great disappointment because I loved Cold Mountain.
Transformational - By: The Red Irish, 27 Nov 2007 Must be the only person who hated Cold Mountain & loved Thirteen Moons which is down as my book of this year. It is a transformational story of a lonely outcast boy to a chieftain of Indians, Senator, bankrupt & lover. He has only three friends, & one is a horse; he has to betray friends for the greater good of the many; he has to learn to work with the media; he has to give up his love, or does he. The country is transforming at the same time, losing buffalo & elk, the indians losing their own identity, the government increasingly corrupt & self absorbed. The character & place are so magnificently drawn you could read it for ever. As an old man reflecting on his life, the only thing that remains is desire, desire never dies according to Will. I absolutely loved the close out of the old man taking pot shots at passing trains, the very latest in technology which brings about a revival of fortunes, by formal prearrangement. Excellent read, highly recommended.
