Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

I spent about a month waiting for this novel to appear at the library for me, and finally, when my waiting was up, found out I had only two weeks to read this thick stack of paper. This proved quite impossible. For those of you who have read Cold Mountain, you are familiar with the dense descriptions, complicated characters, and often confusing passages of events. For those of you who only saw the movie starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law, you are probably still reeling from the graphic sex scene...I know I am.
I will say from the outset that I expected much more from this novel that I received. Charles Frazier creates another wondrous character with quite the odyssey before him, but attempts to use the scape of a whole life to tell the man's story. Trying to incorporate so many events of such differing timbre and still have a compelling through-line doesn't work for Frazier. I did find the love story to be lyrical -- our main hero and his Claire, she of the silver bracelets make an empathetic couple -- but because the novel is taking us through the span of an entire life, the love story gets cut short.
All in all, if you wish to read a book like this, I would recommend Any Human Heart by William Boyd. It is one of my favorites, and works where Frazier has -- failed is a strong word, so we'll go with -- not reached this reader's expectations. This is of course the trouble with such a strong first novel -- you'll be watched closely on the second try.