Thirteen Moons – Charles Frazier
(warning – you may consider some things in this piece to be spoilers)
A map, a key and a horse. With these three things twelve year old Will Cooper sets off on the journey
of his life. A key to let him in at his destination, a map to get him there and a horse on which to travel. What unfolds is the story of a nation told through the life experiences of the central character and the opening words of ‘Thirteen Moons’, Charles Frazier’s second novel.
‘There is no scatheless rapture. Love and time put me in this position’
Despite his best efforts to fix his place and defy the passage of time, he finds he can’t. He ends his days with an attic full of journals, and papers which serve only to describe his passing through the world. These countless written words were an attempt to fix a barrier against the world, but they succeed only in capturing memory not events, as stationary and meatless as a rattlesnake skin stripped from the meat and stretched and tacked to a barn wall (p21).
Three people shape his life. In a way they are the three sides of Will himself. Bear, his Cherokee friend is the personification of wisdom gained through long generations of living. Claire, the true love of his life, whom he touches but never fully owns. And Tallent, a quiet figure who provided the skill and dedication necessary to buy him the life he led.
The closing image of the book is of the old man Will sitting on his porch and taking potshots at the trains as they pass his property. He is little more than a tourist attraction of the old times locked in a tame arrangement that suits everyone. He adds thrill to the sheltered lives of those travelling south on the modern railroad, and allows Cooper to vent his frustrations.
By the end only the key remains. His horse, Waverley, lies buried on his land, and he visits the grave frequently. The map was destroyed by the rains on the original journey, meaning that he finds his way by chance and circumstance. Only the key to let him in. But the only journey remaining, and the last door to be opened is at the entrance to the Nightland.
Will’s life story is also the story of a nation that changes all around him. His misfortune is to live too long.
“We all, when we’re young, think we’ll live forever. Then at some point you settle for living a great long while. But after that final distinction is achieved, survival becomes at best uncomfortable. Everyone and everything you love goes away. And yet it is your fortune to remain. You find yourself exiled in a transformed world peopled by strangers. Lost in places you’ve known as intimately as the back of your hand…You’re left with nothing but your moods and your memory. Pitiful and powerful tools.” (p419).
This is a beautiful and melancholy book and a worthy second novel to Cold Mountain. The pace flags every now and again while the story meanders as if lost in the vast forests of the south he describes so wonderfully. But do yourself a favour this winter, and settle down in front of a log fire and find yourself lost in a story of time and place.