This is Frazier's first novel and it turned out to be a National Book Award Winner. It is so well written that it is enjoyable to read if only for its style.

      The book is set in the Civil War period and plays back and forth between women (including a special woman) and a young soldier. The awful memory of that war is fanned alive. The stark, basic life style of those attempting to survive on their own wits and resources is graphically described. The details of how basic things are done appear again and again throughout the book.

      "Did the book end well?" asked a neighbor.  Being careful not to disclose the ending, I responded, "It ends with both the inspiration and reality about human life in those hard days."  We went on to talk about how our time, in spite of crime and guns and terrorism and the unsolved problem of cancer, is relatively sheltered from the kind of life lived less than 150 years ago. We can hardly imagine a time when living to 50 was considered a long life, when it was common for a number of children to die in infancy and childhood, where mothers often died giving birth, where sickness was treated in primitive ways, when infection was not understood, before sanitation was common, before anesthetics were used in surgery.  In our time we do not bear grief as one of the common and expected parts of life, but rather as a rare and unexpected intruder. The poorest in our society have more of life's comforts and access to help in times of trouble than did all but the very wealthy in those days.  This book helps remind its readers of that.

      I found it a compelling read, very interesting, and sometimes inspiring.