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Cherokee America

Margaret Verble

3.54 · Rating details · 973 ratings · 197 reviews

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Maud's Line, an epic novel that follows a web of complex family alliances and culture clashes in the Cherokee Nation during the aftermath of the Civil War, and the unforgettable woman at its center.

It's the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, a gold stash, and a pre ...more

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Hardcover, 400 pages

Published February 19th 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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· 973 ratings · 197 reviews

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Feb 28, 2019 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it really liked it

You have to go into this one prepared...

You need to know going into Cherokee America that there are gobs of characters, and they will be introduced rather quickly for the first chunk of the book. I read a review that mentioned bookmarking those pages where the characters are introduced, and that helped me keep up. Once you have the characters down, there is much to love within this story.

The year is 1875, and the setting is Cherokee Nation West. Cherokee America Singer, nicknamed “Check,” is ou ...more

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Feb 16, 2019 Angela M marked it as setting-aside

There are just too many characters and too many distractions to hold my interest. I really was taken by Check, the main character snd interested in the time period . Maybe I’ll pick it up another time when I can focus more. For now , I’m setting this aside .

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Feb 10, 2019 Anna (holdthepage) rated it liked it

Shelves: arcs, own-voices, poc-main-character, historical-fiction, culture

I would like to thank Edelweiss for this ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy). It's due to be released February 19, 2019.

I had very mixed feelings about this one. Even though I was interested in reading the ARC and was sent it last May, I struggled to pick it up. I have fallen back in love with historical fiction and decided to pick this up and read it before it was released.

However, I found it difficult to get through. I kept putting it down. I nearly DNFed (did not finish) it several times. It is 40 I would like to thank Edelweiss for this ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy). It's due to be released February 19, 2019.

I had very mixed feelings about this one. Even though I was interested in reading the ARC and was sent it last May, I struggled to pick it up. I have fallen back in love with historical fiction and decided to pick this up and read it before it was released.

However, I found it difficult to get through. I kept putting it down. I nearly DNFed (did not finish) it several times. It is 400 pages and the material is very dense. I'm also unfamiliar with the setting (1875 Cherokee-Western from a Cherokee point-of-view). I'm not a huge fan of westerns, but I wanted to learn more about the Native American experience during that time. And I felt that I did.

You're introduced to so many characters at the start. Usually this is a non-issue for me, but I found it difficult to form attachments to most of the characters. I did like the main character, Check. She is determined And a very strong female lead. Also the caring nature of another character, Ezell.

Check is the matriarch of her wealthy farming family on a reserve. She is of Cherokee descent. Her husband, who is white, is slowly dying and she must care for him and her five children (though the ages range quite a bit - a couple are older and able to care for themselves). She is thrown into a fragile situation when one of her servants, Puny, married to their cook Ezell, impregnates a 14 year old girl. The girl isn't lactating and the baby is starving, so Check swoops in and tries to help. There are several subplots interwoven, including buried gold, a missing preacher, and a murder. We also learn a bit about the Trail of Tears and the Civil War, which was fascinating. We see many race relations as a good portion of the characters are either Native Americans, black, and white. Their interactions are peaceable at first, until something causes tensions between them.

I think what I found difficult was not only the density and lack of attachment to characters, but also the fluidity of the plot as it went off on several subplots. It wasn't a compelling or enjoyable read (for my personal tastes), but I did feel I learned quite a bit. I also really appreciate that several characters were based off of real people. I loved that this was an Own Voices novel. The author's other book Maud's Line was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. So I think it is definitely worth a read, if it interests you. ...more

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Mar 17, 2019 Susan Waller rated it it was ok

I heard about this book on NPR and looked forward to reading it. The descriptions were authentic and conveyed a strong sense of place. But it was not plot driven, and I struggled to get interested in it. There were way WAY too many descriptions of men masturbating. I found myself turning the page whenever a man reached for his belt. Maybe that's why I couldn't follow the plot - I kept skipping chunks of it! It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, but I was unable to appreciate it. ...more

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Nov 28, 2018 Reading Badger rated it liked it

The book starts a bit slow, introducing the main character of the novel, Check Singer, the matriarch of an important family of farmers in the area, of Cherokee descent. Her husband is dying, and she has to deal with the fear and sadness of losing him but at the same time, stay strong for her five children. After that, I would have expected for the action to pick up a bit, but that did not happen.
Read the full review: https://readingbadger.club/2018/11/28...

Final thoughts, I warmly recommend thi ...more

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Mar 03, 2019 The Lit Bitch rated it liked it · review of another edition

This book intrigued me for one reason—it sounded different. This is an ‘Own Voices’ book so I loved that it would be more about people on the fringes and as a historian this book held a lot of appeal to me.

It weaves Native American culture with a more traditional family narrative all set in a post Civil War world to create something unique and new. Based on that promise, I was eager to read this and see how it all worked together.

I haven’t read a lot of books set on the frontier or with Native A This book intrigued me for one reason—it sounded different. This is an ‘Own Voices’ book so I loved that it would be more about people on the fringes and as a historian this book held a lot of appeal to me.

It weaves Native American culture with a more traditional family narrative all set in a post Civil War world to create something unique and new. Based on that promise, I was eager to read this and see how it all worked together.

I haven’t read a lot of books set on the frontier or with Native American culture mixed in, so something like this book appealed to my curious side. Not to mention this cover is beautiful and eye catching so I didn’t want to miss out on it!

It also helps that the author was a finalist for the Pulizter Prize which says to me that it would be a well written book.

This book had a lot going on. It was dense and tedious at times. There were a number of characters to keep track of so that was a bit of a distraction for me and it started a little on the slow side. I felt like I was so worried about who was related to who for the first third of the book until it finally became familiar. I have seen a few others comment on the same issue and I will admit, it was a struggle at first.

But eventually the characters became familiar and the list of how they are related helped a lot, and then the story started picking up and eventually I became engrossed in everything that was going on. I loved the backdrop of a post Civil War era. As I am sure many of you know, I am a huge Civil War buff, but mostly as it pertains to the South and nursing. I have done some research on frontier America but my research into Indian culture is extremely limited, so with this book I found something new and fresh to relish in during one of my favorite eras of American History.

This isn’t a book that you want to rush through. I did aggressively read this one admittedly, but mostly because I was eager to make headway with it. I thought the research the author poured into this book was commendable and did the time period, culture, and character justice. I especially loved Check, I thought she was an interesting character, she was strong and independent in a time when women had to rely on their man, she didn’t and I found her character fresh and invigorating. However, there was just so much going on for me that I periodically stalled in my reading efforts. I think it would have helped if all of the plot points to characters ended up connecting some how but sometimes it just didn’t have any bearing on the overall narrative.

In the end I went with 3 stars for this one. It was good and definitely worth a read especially if you are looking for an Own Voices type of book, but just be prepared that there is a lot going on in this one.

Se my full review here ...more

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Jan 29, 2021 Stacey D. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2021-goodreads-aty-challenge

I almost passed this one up after reading reviews featuring a dislike of the large ensemble cast. Glad I didn't, as Cherokee America turned out to be one of this year's favorites for me. Yes, there are loads of characters, but they're all are so appealing, you want them to stick around. The novel is one large continuous story that's divvied up into smaller, palatable portions using clever subtitling, giving the story focus, direction and an old-timey appeal. So perfect here and in keeping with t ...more

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Aug 29, 2018 Julia Simpson-Urrutia rated it it was amazing

Check Singer is a character who grows on you, getting right under your skin. Her husband is very ill and she has children ranging from school age to grown. She worries and manages all of them as she does her farm and the people working it. Puny works for her and has got himself in a heap of woman trouble. I love the women in his life, especially Ezell. She has a heart of gold! Both she and Check (Cherokee) are strong, practical women with a sense of obligation to help other people and care for t ...more

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Oct 04, 2019 Hayley rated it it was ok

Dialog and obsession with the penis was this book's downfall for me. I couldn't get past that stuff to be interested in any other aspect of the book. ...more

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Feb 13, 2019 Tami rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, 2019, net-galley, historical-fiction, netgalley-2019

I didn’t realize when I began reading this book that Cherokee America was a woman’s name. Called Check for short, Cherokee America is the matriarch of a prosperous family living in the Cherokee Nation during the 1870’s.

Check’s husband is a white man who is on his death bed at the start of the novel. With a family of five boys and a potato farm to run, Check has her hands full as she tries to care for her husband in his final days.

It is during this time that some pivotal events occur in the lives ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Karen Ashmore rated it it was amazing

I normally don't like to read westerns or books that take place over 100 years ago but this book was great. Loosely based on true stories experienced by the author's ancestors in the Cherokee Nation, it was a fascinating exposure to Cherokee culture as well as an interesting story. Sadly, it recounted the racism experienced by blacks and Natives and the corrupt injustices that the US perpetrated in broken treaties. But the warmth and support of the Cherokee families for each other was heartwarmi ...more

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Jul 15, 2018 Courtney Judy rated it really liked it

Shelves: advance-reader-editions

There are a TON of characters in this story. At the very beginning of the book, you are given a list of all the characters and how they are connected (if they are connected) and I would recommend keeping those pages (yes, there are pages dedicated to these descriptions) handy for the first 25% of the book. They come at ya fast and furious. Once I had them figured out, for the most part, the story flowed much smoother.

Overall, Cherokee America was a wonderfully heartbreaking and thought provokin ...more

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Apr 08, 2019 JoBeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Verble is a remarkable storyteller. Her tales weave a gossamer web - shimmering and stronger than it might appear - of community, kin, Cherokee Nation-US tensions in 1875, and Black/White/Native relationships before prejudices and power locked hierarchies irrevocably in place. It was particularly interesting to me because my dad's family basically stole the land in the Oklahoma Land Rush near Talequah where the story is set. Strong and decent characters, humor, Cherokee dialogue patterns, snakes ...more

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Oct 23, 2018 Renata added it

Shelves: arc, abandonded

DNF

I kept trying to get through an arc of this and it just really wasn't clicking for me and then I remembered that I had struggled with her previous book Maud's Line and really only finished it because of book club, and I had no social pressure to finish this one, so I'm not. DOBBY IS A FREE ELF.

Fans of gritty historical epics or whatever will probably like this, and it's always great to have more #OwnVoices books about Native Americans, especially when a lot of other American historical fictio ...more

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Jul 30, 2018 Megan marked it as dnf

Shelves: pick-up-again-later

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review!*

I was interested in reading this because of my Cherokee heritage, and even reading just 10% into the book, I learned a lot. However, this book is dense and I'm tabling it (for now) until I can get it on audiobook. ...more

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Apr 22, 2019 John Hatley rated it it was amazing

I love this book. There are a number of reasons for that, but foremost amongst them is the fact that in my opinion it is just a good book. I enjoyed the plot, the characters and the view of the lives of the Cherokee in Indian Territory. I can recommend it highly.

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Apr 10, 2019 Sotiris Karaiskos rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

A few years after the end of the American civil war, with the issue of the settlement of American natives largely in the past, the Cherokee, in their own semi-autonomous region, are trying to live in the only way that the government has left them: like the whites. Seemingly this is what happens, they live as peasants, have adopted Christianity, speak English and have the same dreams and the same aspirations as all the other citizens of the United States. Behind this picture, however, things are A few years after the end of the American civil war, with the issue of the settlement of American natives largely in the past, the Cherokee, in their own semi-autonomous region, are trying to live in the only way that the government has left them: like the whites. Seemingly this is what happens, they live as peasants, have adopted Christianity, speak English and have the same dreams and the same aspirations as all the other citizens of the United States. Behind this picture, however, things are quite different, as many costumes of the past are still part of their everyday life, while the bitter memories of the oppression they have suffered in previous years and their common problems make their tribal consciousness to be particularly strong, which unites them and makes them unwilling to let strangers mingle in their affairs. A series of small and big, serious and less serious events are the occasion to confirm these ties, with their jointly treating of these events, in their own way, under the guidance of the older ones to show that despite the disappearance of their traditional way of life, despite the attempts of total assimilation and their own compromises in the heart remained Cherokee.

The Pulitzer Prize candidate for her previous book author, with her somewhat raw - and sometimes very raw - and restrained writing describes us all this, in a way that looks subdued, and in some readers it may even look cold but hides much more "colouring "discreetly in a beautiful way the most intense moments. So we quietly watch the lives of the protagonists of this story, with their simple occupations interrupted only when something unusual happens that they quickly forget it to return to them. Of these protagonists, the main heroine of the book that has the most important role in this story, a woman who, by her power and intelligence, faces the sufferings of life, stands beside her loved ones and becomes the support of the community, a characteristic model of the most worthy of women. Of course, as a background, there are always the tragic events of the history of the violent treatment of the American natives, but this belong to the past that they think they should remember, but they should not let it determine their future. That's why instead of scraping the old wounds they find the power to try to create something better under the difficult conditions of the violent American frontier. This image given by the author I especially appreciated in this book.

Λίγα χρόνια μετά το τέλος του αμερικανικού εμφυλίου πολέμου, με το θέμα της τακτοποίησης των Αμερικανών ιθαγενών να αποτελεί σε μεγάλο βαθμό παρελθόν, οι Cherokee, στη δική τους ημιαυτόνομη περιοχή, προσπαθούν να ζήσει με τον μοναδικό τρόπο που τους έχει αφήσει η κυβέρνηση: όπως ακριβώς οι λευκοί. Φαινομενικά αυτό ακριβώς γίνεται, ζούνε ως αγρότες, έχουν ασπαστεί το χριστιανισμό, μιλάνε αγγλικά και έχουν τα ίδια όνειρα και τις ίδιες επιδιώξεις με όλους τους υπόλοιπους πολίτες των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών. Πίσω από αυτήν την εικόνα, όμως, τα πράγματα είναι αρκετά διαφορετικά καθώς πολλές συνήθειες του παρελθόντος εξακολουθούν να είναι μέρος της καθημερινότητάς τους, την ώρα που οι πικρές αναμνήσεις από την καταπίεση που υπέστησαν τα προηγούμενα χρόνια και τα κοινά προβλήματα τους κάνουν την φυλετική συνείδηση τους να είναι ιδιαίτερα ισχυρή, κάτι που τους ενώνει και τους κάνει να μην επιθυμούν την ανάμιξη ξένων στις υποθέσεις τους. Μία σειρά από μικρά και μεγάλα, σοβαρά και λιγότερο σοβαρά γεγονότα γίνονται η αφορμή για να επιβεβαιωθούν αυτοί οι δεσμοί, με την από κοινού αντιμετώπιση τους, με τον δικό τους τρόπο, κάτω από την καθοδήγηση των μεγαλυτέρων να δείχνει ότι παρά την εξαφάνιση του παραδοσιακού τρόπου ζωής τους, παρόλες τις προσπάθειες ολοκληρωτικής αφομοίωσης αλλά και τους δικούς τους συμβιβασμούς στην καρδιά παρέμειναν Τσερόκι.

Η υποψήφια για Πούλιτζερ για το προηγούμενο βιβλίο της συγγραφέας με την κάπως ωμή - ως πολύ ωμή - και συγκρατημένη γραφή της μας περιγράφει όλα αυτά, με έναν τρόπο που μοιάζει υποτονικός και σε κάποιους αναγνώστες ίσως φανεί ακόμα και ψυχρός αλλά κρύβει πολύ περισσότερα πράγματα, "χρωματίζοντας" διακριτικά με ωραίο τρόπο τις πιο έντονες στιγμές. Έτσι ήσυχα παρακολουθούμε τη ζωή των πρωταγωνιστών αυτής της ιστορίας, με τις απλές ασχολίες τους που διακόπτονται μόνο όταν συμβαίνει κάτι ασυνήθιστο που γρήγορα το ξεχνάνε για να επιστρέψουν σε αυτές. Από αυτούς τους πρωταγωνιστές ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον έχει η βασική ηρωίδα του βιβλίου που έχει τον σημαντικότερο ρόλο σε αυτήν την ιστορία, μία γυναίκα που με τη δύναμη και την εξυπνάδα της αντιμετωπίζει τα βάσανα της ζωής, στέκεται δίπλα στους αγαπημένους της και γίνεται το στήριγμα της κοινότητας, ένα χαρακτηριστικό υπόδειγμα των πιο αξιών γυναικών. Φυσικά ως φόντο υπάρχουν πάντα τα τραγικά γεγονότα της ιστορίας της βίαιης αντιμετώπισης των Αμερικανών ιθαγενών αλλά αυτά ανήκουν στο παρελθόν που πιστεύουν ότι πρέπει να το θυμούνται αλλά ότι δεν πρέπει να το αφήνουν να καθορίσει το μέλλον τους. Για αυτό αντί να σκαλίζουν συνέχεια τις παλιές πληγές βρίσκουν τη δύναμη να προσπαθήσουν να δημιουργήσουν κάτι καλύτερο κάτω από τις δύσκολες συνθήκες της βίαιης αμερικανικής μεθορίου. Αυτήν την εικόνα που μας δίνει η συγγραφέας εκτίμησα ιδιαίτερα σε αυτό το βιβλίο. ...more

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Jan 30, 2021 Maddy rated it it was ok

Too much masturbation.

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Mar 07, 2019 Sarah Zama rated it really liked it

Cherokee America, by Cherokee citizen Margaret Verble, is a Western at heart… but a kind of Western you’ve never read before. All the elements are there: cowboys and Indians, outlaws, the remembrance (and aftermath) of war, gold hiding and searching, sheriffs, farmers, and a close community in a wide open prairie. The plot also revolves around familiar themes (at least on the surface): revenge and the hunt for a hidden stash of gold.

Everything that you would expect from a good Western novel is t Cherokee America, by Cherokee citizen Margaret Verble, is a Western at heart… but a kind of Western you’ve never read before. All the elements are there: cowboys and Indians, outlaws, the remembrance (and aftermath) of war, gold hiding and searching, sheriffs, farmers, and a close community in a wide open prairie. The plot also revolves around familiar themes (at least on the surface): revenge and the hunt for a hidden stash of gold.

Everything that you would expect from a good Western novel is there, but the perspective of the story makes this novel unique. Cherokee America is set in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma when that nation was still independent from the United State and the rule of the land derived from traditional Cherokee culture. Here, women have they place and social role, very different and more free than it was in larger America society (Cherokee America – Check – is one of the main characters in the novel… though in spite of the novel being called after her, I’d hesitate to call her ‘the protagonist’ because this is truly a choral novel at heart). Here people are all equal and judged by what they contribute to the community, rather than by their gender or race.

The multi-culturality of the setting is one of the things I enjoyed the most. The diversity of this rather small community gives richness to the story and the characters, and suggests how this is true in life also. I loved seeing how characters from different cultures relate to each other in a way that underlines their identity, but also showcases the attitude of reaching out, an attitude that often turns into respect and even friendship.

The novel is split into two quite different halves. The first part revolved around Check’s husband sickness and eventual death. It’s a very intimate, ponderous part, heavy with a sense of loss and sorrow, and the way it is written and structure seems to call the reader for a slower partecipation, an invitation to take their time and get to know this place and those characters. Everything is designed to take the rhythm down, including the sentence structure, to mark a place and time where rhythms were widely different from ours. The peak of this first half is Andrew’s funeral, where all the community gathers.
The sense of a closely knitted community then carries over into the second part of the novel, where only working together, and offering rather than taking, makes the outcome possible.
The second part of the novel has a clipper pace and a more adventurous focus, as a girl goes missing and the community goes out in search of her. There’s a murder too, there’s revenge, difficult diplomatic relations, clever and unexpected solutions.

It’s a very complex story, not just for the crowded cast of characters and their arcs, but also for the themes weaving onto each other. But it is also a very satisfying story, one that will open your eyes on a sleeve of history that is seldom addressed. And on the matters of life, which is what all good stories are about.

...more

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Mar 26, 2019 Dorothy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-literature, historical-fiction

Cherokee America is the name she was given at birth but she is known to family and friends as Check. This is her story.

It is 1875 in Cherokee Nation West (now Oklahoma) and Check is about to become a widow. She had married a white man and they raised five sons together after their first baby, a daughter, died. Now the two oldest boys are in their late teens and are considered men. Of the three younger boys, the youngest is a two-year-old toddler. Check and her husband are successful and wealthy Cherokee America is the name she was given at birth but she is known to family and friends as Check. This is her story.

It is 1875 in Cherokee Nation West (now Oklahoma) and Check is about to become a widow. She had married a white man and they raised five sons together after their first baby, a daughter, died. Now the two oldest boys are in their late teens and are considered men. Of the three younger boys, the youngest is a two-year-old toddler. Check and her husband are successful and wealthy potato farmers but now her husband is dying from a disease that is never explicitly named but seems to be stomach cancer. Check's time is spent mostly caring for him as the two older boys must take increased responsibility for the farm.

In addition to the family, a black couple who are the family cook and handyman live as part of the household and are treated as part of the family. Besides these characters, there is a mind-boggling number of others that we must get to know and keep all the relationships in mind in order to follow the story. It is a story that includes full-blooded Cherokees, half-bloods, blacks, and whites. Part of the story is how all of these mixed races live together in the community and how the various relationships play out and are informed by the racial makeup.

One of the things that I really liked about the book was its exploration of these relationships. Another thing that I especially liked was the fact that the author wove in so much of Cherokee history and culture into the narrative.

The narrative contains multiple plotlines which make it a challenge to summarize. There are murder and mayhem and missing people, including a child's disappearance which turns the community upside down, and there are heroics and selfishness, humiliation and acts of kindness. Through it all, the plethora of characters makes it sometimes hard to follow. But there is also simply the day-to-day happenings of life on the farm. All in all, it's a lot to take in, but mastering the cast of characters and their relationships makes it all a bit easier.

This is a sprawling tale of complex familial relationships and alliances and diverse cultures and through it all our guide is Check. We experience things through her eyes. She is a vivid and sympathetic character and we learn in the author's afterword that she is based on a real historical figure, as are a few of the other characters.

I had not read Margaret Verble before but I am impressed with her writing. This was a story that could have veered out of control, but Verble kept to her narrative and told a complicated tale in an understandable and relatable way. One of her previous books,Maud's Line, was a contender for the Pulitzer Prize. I can easily see this one following in those footsteps.
...more

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May 09, 2020 Andrea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This story takes place around 1875 in Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. It's a big, epic Western, but not what you'd expect-- it centers a woman, Check (aka Cherokee America) and her family of mixed Cherokees living in Cherokee Nation, many having been removed from Tennessee and walked the Trail of Tears.

This was character driven (and there are a lot of characters but there is a glossary at the front to refer back to) and nuanced in terms of families, community, social strata, politics and ...more

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Nov 24, 2020 Lois rated it it was amazing

"This ain't a church service. It's an arrest." 1875, the Cherokee Nation. With the Trail of Tears in her recent past, Verble's larger-than-life Cherokee America, her community and her boys play out a yarn that will capture you and hold you hostage. It passed my most stringent criterion for a 5-star designation: would I read it again? Yes! So it was surprising to me when only 50%ish of my book group members liked this read. Complaints: the numerous intertwined community members and kinship member ...more

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May 20, 2020 Susan rated it did not like it

No plot and unlikeable characters. What more do I need to say?

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Aug 03, 2020 Karna Converse rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An intricate story of white, black, full-blood, and mixed-blood families living together in the Cherokee Nation shortly after the Civil War

Aunt Check is both family and community matriarch—not much happens in the Nation without her knowledge or her consent—but when one of her sons is shot and a neighbor girl goes missing, she knows they must all act quickly before Federal Marshalls take action . . . and even if she doesn’t know the full story.

Cherokee America is loosely based on the lives of Ve ...more

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Dec 27, 2019 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult-books

An outstanding novel of the American frontier as I have never read before, based the history of the author’s family and viewed through the eyes of the Cherokee, white and African American people who lived in the Cherokee Nation, before it was Oklahoma. It is a domestic drama, murder mystery comedy of manners and sociological study, all rolled into one. It is rare to find a novel that is vastly entertaining and deeply thought provoking at the same time, and this one succeeds on all levels. Highly ...more

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Jul 07, 2020 Anne rated it really liked it

When I started this book I wasn't sure if continue with it. It felt disjointed and I was at first put off by Check. But I began to feel the rhythm of the story and then had trouble putting it down. It reflects life in 1875 on the Cherokee Nation's reservation in Oklahoma and this is not the kind of life we outsiders gave been led to expect. The kinship and community is well illustrated, as is the way the outside whites viewed the Cherokee. It is a lovely, sad story and I'm glad I stuck with it. ...more

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Jan 17, 2020 Lindsey Z marked it as dnf

DNF @ 30%. I absolutely loved Maud's Line and had been looking forward to this book, but it's an entirely different book in style, focus, and unfolding. I love Check but we only get glimpses of her. We mostly follow a huge cast of characters around without satisfying connection and without the "heart" of her first novel. And the writing in this story just isn't appealing. I'll check out what she writes next but this book just isn't for me. ...more

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Jul 25, 2019 Jennifer rated it liked it

Can I give it 3.5? The story was really good, well researched, and gives a much-needed perspective of reservation life. But she makes irritating use of sentence fragments, most of the males are constantly fucking or masturbating, and a preacher runs off with a married woman and that little thread is just dropped - we never find out about it so it's not even relevant (neither is all the aforementioned sex). There are not really any loose ends beyond that, but she invested a lot of character devel ...more

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Nov 08, 2019 Neysa Zurkammer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As a descendant of a Cherokee great-great grandmother, I found this book very interesting. It tells what life was like for the nation after the American Civil War. Several families are featured in this story, so sometimes the multitude of characters can be confusing, but you get to know them over time. I enjoyed reading this and would like to see more from the same author.

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Oct 23, 2020 Lynne rated it it was ok

This novel provides much more about life as a Cherokee citizen in Oklahoma than is ever learned in school.
Cherokee America is the matriarch of a family and I would have liked the story to be more about her. It was difficult to keep track of all the side characters in the story although a list of them and the relationships was helpful. The emphasis on the oldest son's sex life made the story tiresome. ...more

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About Margaret Verble

Margaret Verble

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Margaret Verble, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, has set her novel on her family’s Indian allotment land near Ft. Gibson, OK. She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Verble is a successful business woman and novelist. Her consulting work has taken her to most states and to several foreign countries. Upon the publication of her debut novel, Maud’s Line, Margaret whittled ...more