I’m not sure why so many people gave this very low star rankings. I suppose it is a bit unique in terms of how it’s written; you do have to pay attention and stick with where the narrator goes to really enjoy the fullness of the nuances. But I found a lot of the lower ratings kind of harsh.
So, this was a very enjoyable read! Funny…not laugh out loud but amusing because the narrator’s observations about certain types of social norms and lifestyles is so spot on. Which makes his own inability to see what’s going on in his own life all the more ironic.
And, too, there is the complication that his parents lied to him about so much during his youth. He really had no choice but to become the loser he was as an adult. The story shows him peeling back those layers and taking responsibility for his own life…and even for that of his parents.
So, layered on much deeper levels than you’d think. The layers don’t all come clear until really the last handful of pages, so well worth sticking with it if you’re unsure whether to continue reading to the end.
4 stars!

This book has stayed with me for days. I saw the movie and was so touched I picked up the book. It has several threads: nuclear or other weapons that can destroy humanity, living with nature, women’s issues, and oneness with the universe.
The last point might be one of the most interesting. The character notes several times that entering the universal one in her situation is dangerous. It is because she needs to remain aware of the dangers of her situation as well as the potential for other human survivors to appear and potentially enslave or harm her. This resonates with her former lifestyle where she became enslaved to marriage and all the usual trappings society pegged as good and proper. It also resonates on its own level, because while we often strive to achieve oneness, there is actually danger there because we exist in physical form and need to defend that physical form.
A very thought-provocing novel that reads quickly, is riviting in surprising ways, and should be on the shelves of anyone with an interest in the various threads that appear.
5 stars!
Read more fiction where characters interact with their environments in the two-time award-winning Message Stick and the multi-finalist novel He Drinks Poison.

I gave this a good 30 pages or so before I stopped. It started out well on the ship but once it moved to land to take up the life of the main character, it slowed quite a bit. The first activites of the main chacter were interesting enough but then it settled into a parlor and his fascination with a particular woman. The dialog did me in. It was a gabby kind of dialog intended to reveal the backstories of the main character and what I assumed would be his love interest. It is in my mind a very weak way to introduce backstory. It also was overdone, went on too long, etc. So I stopped reading. I was looking forward to this work very much as it had been recommended to me and I am interested in nautical novels in this historic timeframe but it wasn’t written in a style that I could tolerate.
1 star.

I thought this book was better than many of the one- and two-star reader reviews note. It is about a man’s struggle to find himself, really, and to find his own heart. All of the other things that were used to market this book–the touches of native culture and lifeways, the environmental issues, and even the death of the woman–all feed back into this primary concern.
I feel this utilization of these various threads to enhance and expand the character and to both position him for a change and to push him to accept the change are the mark of a good writer. The prose in this book is slightly more than servicable…it doesn’t exactly sing but it does have its own voice, and that voice is enjoyable enough. I read this quickly and enjoyed it.
3 stars.
Want to read more fiction with Native American lifeways threaded through the narrative? Check out the free release of Break the Bow by Laine Cunningham on Wattpad.