My folks recently reviewed this book at their book club meeting and it attracted very lively and animated discussion for at least three hours from the participants of the meeting. Having witnessed the excitement generated by the book I felt that I really should read it myself to find out what all the excitement was about.
I enjoyed the book. But I wouldn't say it was a fantasic read or a gripping story. I found the main characters, 2 Indian sharp shooters, to be a little remote. I liked the character of the medicine woman aunt and the accounts of life in the bush and of living in the Indian community in the wilds of Canada.
The accounts of the First World War are difficult to comment on, however having read other fictional accounts of the war, the descriptions in this book tally with other accounts. But saying this it didn't increase my knowledge of the war and the experience of those who lived through it, and I don't feel that it was in anyway a ground breaking experience in literary terms.
The best aspect of this book, for me, was the accounts of the spiritual and religious beliefs of the Indian trio, the errosion of faith and their perception of western religion. Otherwise I felt the book lacked something more definitive, maybe it tried to do too much in not enough pages. Saying that it didn't end too abruptly which for me is a cardinal sin, but it did leave me a little dissatisfied all the same.
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