Changes

Starting with the characters... Elisabeth was very well crafted, and whenever she appeared, I found myself reading with interest and concern. Ahead of her time in many respects, a born teacher and philosopher, with more than a passing interest in human rights, she came across as a very real character, plucked from her environment and making the best she could of it. However, she appeared to be quite a loner - which I found hard to believe - in order to survive, surely more interaction with the village they set up, would have been necessary?  Perhaps her character bordered on the aloof, but it would have been good to have seen it develop beyond her involvement with teaching and midwifery. She appeared to have no friends nor confidants - such a shame that this wasn't developed, allowing her character to interact more with her compatriots. Learning about the daily trials and tribulations of setting up a new community from scratch, in general, and for her in particular, would have been welcome - but it was sadly lacking at times.We were offered occasional insights - but fewer detailed descriptions than I would have expected.

Jean Claude was rather an enigma - as indeed was Auguste, the lad whom he befriended. I found I wasn't terribly interested in their conversations and relationship - necessary to move the plot forward, so it formed a vital part of the book. But interest flagged somewhat when moved away from Burnt Canes (the village) - perhaps it was too big a canvas. The savage lands of the title physically at least wasn't accorded too much detail. There were incidents reported, and the landscape itself was well described. But somehow, it didn't come across as being as savage as it would have been to the few people around at this time!  The true savagery appeared in the emotions of the characters - whether Elisabeth's attempts to make a home, Jean Claude's duplicities - or Auguste's misplaced affections - this is where the novel truly succeeds. Having said that, the author is much, much better with the female characters - the males quite bored me! Whereas the relationship between Elisabeth and her adoptive native daughter was moving in the extreme, and shows the true depth and breadth of this author's talents.

The plot was interesting depicting as it did, the tensions - and friendships - between the native populations and the incomers. Playing this all out against a wider canvas was a good move, and gave us some idea as to the sheer vastness of the area in question - apparently stretching as it did from the mouth of the Mississippi for three thousand miles north, taking in the present day states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, as well as parts of Canada! All of this inhabited by a few hundred intrepid souls, and native Americans.  Tragically the area chosen for the settlements was poor, in terms of what could be grown there, so the newcomers had to trade with the Indians and traders from Canada. Add to this, the fact that the incomers were not farmers - they were poor and unskilled city dwellers, who had been led to believe that they would find their fortune in this new land - a potent mix for any author to tackle, and Ms Clark moves well between this larger picture and the birth of the small village.