"Carefully historical, short on personal stories"
I expected from the publisher's description to hear more stories about what things specifically happened to the people who were captured by Indian tribes. Basically, the author carefully follows only those historical facts that can be verified reporter-style and he finds that no one knows what happened during their capture. Most of them won't talk about it at all in later years, so anything we know about them is just observation after they return home. They seem to be loyal to the tribe, but we never learn why. The often forget how to speak English and even when they re-learn their native tongue, they don't translate anything that happened to them from the Apache or Comanche. The most we know are vague things like, "Apparently the Indians let the boys run wild, learn to jump on horses and become warriors. Apparently the women had to learn to clean the animals from the hunt and to prepare them as food." As an historical treatise, it is well documented and concise and there is no dramatization or conjecture about what is covered. As drama, it is pretty dry and does not deliver any real stories about the human beings involved.
"Wonderful to catch back up on the classics"
You can tell why it's a classic. Lots of layers to the story and just as fun to hear the second time after reading it so long ago.
"Fun to hear her read her own story"
She did a great job with keeping things interesting and telling her own story without sounding like a gossip.
"You go through it all"
Very realistic and a great reader. Sometimes getting so thoroughly into someone else's head is just as tedious as being in my own though :-)
"The only book I can't finish"
This is the first book in 50 or 60, that I just can't finish. It sounds like it probably has a good plot, but it's all driven by one dialog after another, giving long, history accounts to fill us in on where we are. Too tedious to finish. I know it has to be a good book. Just not my style I guess.
"Fun short story"
The author did a great job of making you feel like you knew people you'd barely met. Fun story.
"Too rushed at the end"
The reader was great and I love classic science fiction, so I would recommend this to a friend. I was disappointed that all the plot and character development that seemed so important in the middle of the story line seemed to rush to a finish. It may be a style of that time or the genre at that time, but I wished the strength of the tale and the people in it had kept that momentum till the end. Maybe it's the author's comment on all of us and our lives - we just sort of drizzle out and stop?
"typical romance novel"
I was really surprised that none of the readers' comments warned me that this is just a romance novel. I thought it started off with some potential, but the bottom line is women are always there for each other; there are a few bad apples in the male population, but if you just hang in there the perfect guy will come along. He will always be big and strong. Always rescue you - whether you're sick or broke or hurt by another guy. And the best part, they are all perfect lovers who kiss you, worship you and take all the time in the world to be certain of your pleasure. There's no doubt that Carr is a great writer - her descriptiveness, about anything besides men, is captivating and imaginative. But this was a waste of time. You could stop way early in the book and just end with "and they all lived happily ever after." It was also disconcerting to be a third generation Californian and wonder if she even googled the area. Times and spaces (and counties) are way off. It's the first time I've written a disappointed review, but this was just plain shallow....unless you're a romance novel junkie, in which case you'll love it.
"Amazing reader."
I loved the story line, up to the end. The reader really made it first class with the voices, accents and languages. The way the ends tied together at the closing were a little Dickensonian for me - too tidy for real life, but the rest drew me in.
"Loved the reader"
The only other time I've enjoyed the author reading as much was when Alice Walker read Possessing the Secret of Joy. Amazing ability to do accents and voices. The story is so complex and well-researched that you can't tell where reality stops and the story begins.
"Kept the story moving"
Keeping the story moving is not an easy task in a novel which specifically carries the major suspense of the story to the end. Generally, I get bored with the wait when the big moment comes close to the end, but the author did a great job of making the story itself even more central than the outcome. It helped me handily through several long commutes!