Synopsis
In pre-Revolutionary America, two women, one black and one white, are captured by Seneca Indians and adopted into the tribe, but when they return to a white world at the age of seventeen, the black woman becomes the white woman's slave, and their lives become a tangled mess.
Reviews
The travails of a colonial Scarlett O'Hara, her free black friend, and the man they both love, by the prolific Fleming (Loyalties, 1994; Over There, 1992, etc.). As children, Catalyntie, who is Dutch and white, and Clara, a family slave, are captured by the Seneca and adopted into Indian families. As they approach adulthood, kindly and beautiful Clara is much pursued by the tribe's aspiring warriors, while Catalyntie, known as Moonwoman for her pale skin, is considered scrawny and ugly. Nevertheless, the two are devoted friends. When, in a prisoner exchange, the girls are returned to colonial society, Catalyntie discovers their roles are reversed: Now it's Catalyntie who's the sought-after beauty, while Clara is expected to serve her. As Catalyntie, who's not yet old enough to inherit her grandfather's estate, schemes to buy Clara's freedom, Clara is sent to work for neighbors. There, she begins an affair with strapping Malcolm Stapleton, her mistress's stepson, that ends tragically after Clara becomes pregnant and is forced to undergo a brutal abortion. Finally, Catalyntie manages to free her friend, but, having been jilted by a fortune-hunting rou‚, she's become willful and selfish. As she realizes her own attraction to Malcolm, she and Clara become rivals, even as they go on a harrowing fur-trading expedition together and form a partnership as shopkeepers. Catalyntie then manages to trick Malcolm into marriage, Clara takes up with an ambitious slave who's both a thief and a revolutionary, Malcolm gets in touch with his Scottish roots, and Catalyntie goes to Amsterdam, where she becomes the talk of the town--all leading ultimately to scenes first of acrimony, then weepy reconciliation. Plausibility goes out the window within the first few pages, making room for Fleming to conjure up a rollicking moral melodrama with an intriguing pair of heroines. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Reaching deeply into the Colonial past of the United States, this sixth volume in the Stapleton series chronicles the turbulent life of Catalyntie Van Vorst; her fated friend and ex-slave, Clara; and their mutual lover, Malcolm Stapleton. Kidnapped as youngsters by the Seneca, Catalyntie and Clara are returned to their Dutch family at age 17, but they can never totally shed their Indian personas. Forced by circumstances to become self-sufficient, Clara becomes half-owner of a tavern where anti-monarchical conspiracies are hatched. Catalyntie is a businesswoman, too, trading with Indians and setting up a store in New York City. Malcolm successfully lives his life as a fearsome warrior or soldier, depending on which affiliation brings him closer to his lifetime goal to build an American consciousness. Infused with Fleming's (Loyalties: A Novel of World War II, LJ 5/1/94) thorough command of history and his stereotype-smashing insights into the psychology of ambitious, conflicted young people, this historical saga is a marvelously fresh reinterpretation of an era. For all general fiction collections.
-?Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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