by Ernest J. Gaines

...[A] grand, robust, most valuable novel that is impossible to dismiss or to put down....Because politics are strung throughout this rich and very big novel, it will no doubt be said that Gaine's book is about politics. But he is too skilled a writer to be stuck in so sordid, so small a category....Gaines is mellow with historical reflection, supple with wit, relaxed and expansive because he does not equate his people with failure.