Tom Eidson knows how to tell a story. The mixture of nineteenthcentury misfits brought together under the mothering wing of a blindQuaker widow will make the reader deal with his own prejudices as the characters rise above the struggles of frontier America. This is one of Eidsons best offerings to date. It passes St. Agnes Stand in character depth and dwarfs the plot of The Last Ride. The only one of Eidsons works that surpasses All Gods Children in literary worth is Hannahs Gift which was never published in the US. Eidson is one of the hidden gems among American Literature. May his tribe increase.
I thoroughly enjoyed this narrative. It may never win any awards for great literature, but the author has a fertile imagination and comes up with fascinating characters. The events in the story kept me riveted. Its funny, too. But the thing I enjoyed the most was finally reading a novel in which the main characters were truly heroic in their actions. The bad guys are really, really bad dudes (rape, murder, torture - for starters), and you want to stand up, whistle, and clap for the good guys.
Mr Eidson turns in a third well written and thoroughly engaging story which will transport you in time to the hard life of the frontier. I found the book both interesting and profoundly moving in parts - and always entertaining as well as informative. Great literature: well, no. A great read - and one which does not resort to mega-block-buster fantasy - yes! Perhaps the strongest recommendation for the book is the fact that the reviews at this site are rarely less than 4 stars. Can we all be wrong?
