I don’t know what, if anything, I gained from reading 53% of this book. But I can unequivocally tell you that all this novel has to offer is a pretty dispassionate and removed description of various Native American massacres, with a boat load of racism from our main character that is never reckoned with. 

Ok, yes, a lot of people ‘back in the day’ had these views on Native Americans. But did Barry do a single thing to bring these views under the lens of modern day, or at least make it clear that he disagreed with them? Did he fuck. 

It’s just a barrage of outdated thinking, with no actual plot apart from ‘my boyfriend/husband/whatever is going to die at some point’, which surprise, surprise is written by a (as far as I can tell) straight man. Even weirder that it appears he was inspired by his gay son to write this. Not every queer story has to end in tragedy my guy, and it makes me wonder what you think of your son’s sexuality if he inspired you to write about this shite.  

The novel also assumes the reader has a working knowledge of this period in America’s history, which I don’t, so I had no context for a lot of the events, meaning they were even more meaningless than I thought possible.  

It’s essentially a vague textbook-esque description of a load of bullshit. Don’t waste your time.