I got this at a fundraising auction for my library; it’s by a local author who’s also a talented artist. I like to read local books, although “like” usually describes my attitude rather than my actual experience of the works, which have included some of the worst books I’ve ever read (I’m talking about the self-published stuff/vanity press rather than what’s chosen by an actual editor). This was a happy exception. Although it is a “Writers Club Press” book (imprint of iUniverse), Karmazin has been frequently published in little magazines, which is a good sign. Bones isn’t great literature, and a good editor would have helped (not that even “real” publishers seem to employ many of those any more), but it’s a decent workmanlike job and I enjoyed the whole thing.
Jayne Copely works in a small museum. She finds that holding the finger bone of a long-gone shaman brings her back in time to live Eyes-of-Wolf’s life. The experience eventually enables her to make some positive changes in her own life. Eyes-of-Wolf is a sympathetic character and her environment seems very real; Karmazin is especially good at delineating the personalities of the various men and women of the tribes Eyes-of-Wolf encounters. I’m automatically suspicious of outsiders writing about Native American cultures; unless their research skills are impeccable, it’s very easy to make awful mistakes and get away with them. (I don’t know much, but in cursory reading of other books I catch enough tipis in the woods, etc. to indicate that it’s a problem).
Sure enough, I hit what I thought was an absolute howler on page 52 and almost stopped reading. It’s made perfectly clear that the setting is Northeastern PA. There are woods, hills, streams, ponds, etc. Then Eyes-of-Wolf’s father dies…how? A buffalo hunting accident! I was sure there were no bison in this area of the country back then, but apparently I was wrong. Some sources say that there were herds of wood bison (different from the plains bison) in certain parts of Pennsylvania, although others say they were only in Canada. This page convincingly argues that they would have been a variety of plains bison (wood bison are much bigger). A page on the bog turtle indicates that there were buffalo in Snyder County, which isn’t that far from here. So good for you, Margaret, you were probably right and I was wrong, and I learned something cool.