Silas House

This is the story of a young woman named Vine, from an assimilated Cherokee family living in Kentucky in the early 20th century. She falls in love and marries a white man named Saul Sullivan, who takes her to live among his family, far enough away from home to make visits a rare occurrence. She finds life among these strong descendants of Irish immigrants different from what she has been accustomed to, and she misses her parents, but she builds strong relationships with her mother-in-law, and other women of God's Creek. The character development is good, the regional history and culture very well presented, but there isn't an awful lot to this story, until a traumatic event threatens to destroy Vine's composure and possibly rip her new family apart. I enjoyed spending time in this place, with these people, but the ending was a bit abrupt and unsatisfying. This is considered to be the first of House's Appalachian trilogy, but he wrote these books chronologically inside out, starting with Clay's Quilt set in the late 20th century, then A Parchment of Leaves which takes place during WWI, and ending with The Coal Tattoo set in the 1960's. I'm reading them in publication order by happenstance, not choice.… (mer)