In a saga set against the backdrop of the Civil War and the wide-open prairie of frontier Illinois, Rob J. finds love with a strong pioneer woman, and their sons grow to manhood. Reprint. NYT.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this quietly absorbing tale, set in 19th-century Illinois, a doctor raises a family and confronts racial injustice and religious prejudice.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Gordon (The Physician, The Jerusalem Diamond, etc.) offers two fictionalized generations of doctoring on the Illinois frontier from 1839 to 1865, covering such medical history as the advent of hygiene and anesthesia. Rob J. Cole, political agitator in Scotland facing banishment to Australia, decides to migrate to the US. A doctor, he lands in Boston and can find work only in the Irish ghetto, making hovel calls for a charity. Disillusioned with the politics of the charity and intrigued with Indians, he heads west, stopping in Illinois at Holden's Crossing. Rob finds his Indians in the Sauks, who have fled the reservation and are now starving nearby. He treats and feeds them, becoming their ``white shaman,'' and eventually Makwa- Ikwa, their healer, goes to work with him. He travels the countryside, snipping off fingers and enlisting household help to pinch off spurting arteries. He removes kidney stones from a recluse named Sarah, who has holed up because she thinks she's dying from cancer. After he removes the stones, she blooms, and they marry. Sarah gives birth to a boy, and Makwa tags him ``Little Shaman.'' At age five, Shaman develops scarlatina and loses his hearing, a disability that makes his road to a medical practice difficult. Both father and son end up doctoring during the Civil War, the carnage of which is graphically described. The story moves too fast to develop either characters or scenes deeply, but it's a good read and has a refreshing approach to the frontier as part of a larger culture, not an isolated place where people did nothing but murder each other. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sequel aren't supposed to be this good,
By
This review is from: Shaman (Signet) (Paperback)
What a wonderful followup to The Physician. As a physician there is much to learn about the history of my profession, however, this story transcends the history. The characters are vivid and as in Rob J vol.I Gordon displays honestly characters with all their warts and makes us like them anyway. For me, this wasn't Shaman as much as it was Rob J. One of the best reads in quite some time. It is a story that sets its own tempo and one you won't want to rush through. I revisited many parts of the book while reading it. It won't be the last time I read it. I have added the hard cover to my permanent library. I encourage everyone to read both The Physician first than Shaman. Don't be daunted by the size of the books. Every page is a delight. Ferrol Sams' Whisper of the River is the only sequel I have ever read that surpassed the original. Now I've read Shaman and that makes two
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sequel that is every bit as good-and in some ways better-than the orginal, despit an 800 year time gap!,
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This review is from: Shaman (Paperback)
Before I actually read "Shaman" I was a little confused. How could a book have a sequel that was at all successful or keeping in the spirit of the book when the sequel is set eight hundred years after the first book. Reading it however I came to appreciate that I could not expect the book to be anything like "The Physician" really. On top of all the characters being different, the world had changed. New continents had been discovered in the interim and enormous life changing advances had been made in the field of medicine (which the much later generations of Cole's still practiced) and all of this changes the canvas the story was to be written on in many ways.
"Shaman" is really the story of two Rob. J. Cole's, father and son. The senior came to America fleeing political unrest and became a small town doctor in a newly settled Indiana town and formed close relationships with the Indian people who were displaced. The junior was his son, called Shaman by the Indians and who became deaf at the age of five but didn't let it stop him in his quest to be a doctor. Because of the timeframe of the novel (the time before and just after the civil war) there is a great deal of the politics of the time which is one of the best aspects of the book. I learned more about the civil war and what were the real reasons behind it and the horror of it from this book than any history class I've ever taken. I was especially surprised to learn that many American Jews sided with the south. I had always thought that as a group that is traditionally persecuted that Jews would find a bond with and side with other disenfranchised groups but it seems that like a kid being picked on by a playground bully, there is more relief then a sense of camaraderie when the bully finds a new target. Also the civil war was so little about slavery and so much about economics and not having a weak union. The medical advances and theories of that time were also fascinating because they are inching closer to what we now enjoy as standard practice and are miles away from what the original Rob J. went so far and risked so much to learn, but are still primitive compared to today's standards. Cleanliness is just being considered to have an effect on health, vaccines are just cropping up and hospitals are often more dirty and contributing to disease than anything else. Keeping with one of the themes of "The Physician" "Shaman" does have a faith aspect. Rob J. is a pacifist and swore never to hurt another human being and becomes deeply involved in the religion of the Indians and Shaman, with his love for a Jewish neighbor brings on a controversy of a mixed race marriage. I loved this book just as much as the first and more in different ways. Noah Gordon is truly a talented author who combines history, science and faith to come out with a novel that is an astounding read. I really wish there were more in the series. (hint to the author-there were eight hundred years between these books Go back and fill some of that in!) Five stars.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A doctor in a flourishing country,
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This review is from: Shaman (Signet) (Paperback)
This is the continuation of the 11th-century saga of the Cole family. Apparently, the Cole family formed a dinasty of doctors since then. This time, the story passes in the 19th century and the Cole family has immigrated to the United States and settled in Illinois, the Indian country. The story is not as interesting as in "The Physician", however, the book is better written with a nonlinear and more elaborate plot. Also, the book describes the beginning of the use of ether as anaesthetics, a turning point in the history of medicine and how Dr. Cole plays an important role in it.
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