Word: cudjoe
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...background and foreground that he has learned only a few ways of doing faces. One expression represents nobility, and another fills in the crowd scenes. Pentaquod, the Susquehanna Indian whose migration to the Chesapeake Bay's eastern shore in 1583 begins the new novel, is later seen as Cudjo the rebellious slave. He reappears as George Washington, who visits the bay area after the Revolution, and then as Onkor, the wise and valiant old Canada goose. There is nothing wrong with bringing George Washington or a goose onstage, but the author should make the two distinguishable...
Still, if the little lives of individual people sputter too briefly for careful notice, clan characteristics do take on recognizable shape. There are the Steeds, wealthy Catholic landowners, tending to be intellectual; the Paxmores, steadfast Quaker shipbuilders: the Caters, solid, intelligent descendants of Cudjo: and the Turlocks, swamp trotters and poachers. Their interlocking fortunes and catastrophes never quite qualify for the terms "gripping" or "absorbing," but they are consistently diverting. Therein lies the author's secret: an attraction that lies not so much in the story as in a serene detachment from the story. The reader gets a four...
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