ZEKE AND NED

With his folksy accent, Whitener is agreeable company, an essential attribute in a lengthy novel that unfolds leisurely and with a good many digressions. Whitener is in no hurry, knowing that the story he's relating is slow in building. The novel concerns the lives of two Cherokees during post-Civil War years and the hardships visited upon them and their families at the hands of White Man's justice. In his amiable narration Whitener's one flaw is the one shared by the book itself. Zeke and Ned, part folktale, part tragedy, is more interested in plot than the creation of complex characters. It's a sad novel about raw times and elemental needs and people who cannot hold back a rising tide. M.O. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT 97]