Shaman (The Cole Trilogy Book 2)

Absolutely wonderful read. Will be part of my library. The Cole family of physicians are like treasured friends who I will visit often.

The story was well assembled with a good cast of characters. It covered the westward movement of immigrants and the clash with native Americans. Indians were persecuted for existing on their own land. A loving but troubled story that is in fact a part of our American heritage.

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.

This book is the Sequel to The Physician. As I'm sure you know by now, The Physician was set in 11th Century England and Shaman is set in 1840s through 1860s frontier America, so this is not a sequel in the traditional sense. Indeed, aside from a few anecdontes about a Cole dynasty of physicians in Scotland and the inheritence of the "gift" of sensing when patients are about to die, The Shaman is a free standing novel.The Shaman is about Dr. Rob J. Cole, who is forced to immigrate to America after becoming involved in political protests in his native Scotland that resulted in the hanging death of a friend. He first arrives in Boston and is taken under the wing of Oliver Wendell Holmes, a famous Boston doctor who is the father of the even more famous Supreme Court Justice. While in Boston, Rob J. lives in a boarding house and lives a hand to mouth existence as a doctor to the poor. Ultimately, he decides that Boston is not for him and decides to move west. He travels and works his way to Illinois, where he settles in the small town of Holden's Crossing, in the Quad Cities area. While there, the reader meets members of the local Indian tribe - particularly a shaman named Makwa-Ikwa, whom Rob J. befriends and with whom he develops a close working relationship. We also see the developments of the xenophobic Know Nothing Party and the underground railroad in Illinois, and the civil war through Rob J.'s eyes, as the bulk of the novel is narrated through Rob J.'s journal.The second central character in the novel is Rob J.'s only natural son, also named Rob J., but who is called "Shaman." Shaman became deaf due to a boyhood illness and adeptly learns to navigate his world as a deaf child and later as a deaf physician.This novel is a fascinating look at the development of America. The reality of the civil war and the racial tensions that infected American politics in the era leading up to the war are told in detail, without white-washing. Indeed, the sections on the civil war are at times long and dull, but at other times are shocking in their detail. Gordon is a gifted writer with a talent for creating a complex understanding of a period in history. While Shaman was less interesting at times than The Physician, the characters were no less developed and the ability to create a 'historical mood' no less compelling. I rate this novel 4.5 stars.

Wonderfully written. Will miss the characters. Really liked the medical and historical aspects to this book. Looking forward to number three.

I have walked down the rode with the Cole familyThe chapters of the war were too long for me but I did still enjoyed this path.

There is a section towards the beginning of the book about Indian history which just doesn’t seem to flow within the story. It reads like a history book and I found it hard to focus on or to retain. I enjoyed everything else but must note that this book ( and the first one) seem to take a long time to end. The story is basically over but there are always more things to wrap up

Noah Gordon does meticulous research for his books and this one is no exception. Yet the intertwined stories of father and son, both doctors with a particular gift, never drags and the historical accuracy enhances a page turning narrative. Physician, another excellent book, gave us insights into Islamic medicine when the Christian west had little medical knowledge of value. In Shaman we learn a bit of North American Indian medicine and also the pioneering work in simple things like cleanliness when doing operations or delivering a child. The plot is well crafted and unfolds its secrets right up until the end. The Indian wars and more particularly the Civil War provide the backdrop. Read and enjoy!

Early days of settlement in America, are rarely captured with as much detail as in Noah's books. I had already read book 1 in the series years ago, about the Middle East and medicine. This time, it was based in a time in the 1800-1900s and it covers issues such as slave liberation in a delicate manner. I think it was rather interesting to have a deaf doctor, but that actually might have been achievable back then. It also covered relationships with work animals and fellow humans. Quite an interesting read about Indians, too, and their alternative medicine. However, I would not recommend the last book in this trilogy. I really didn't like it. So it's worth buying this book separately.

Enjoying this book.! A pity we skipped several centuries but an interesting period used to continue the COLE series.

I really enjoyed this book. It gave me (a non-American) a different perspective on American history. I love books that give alternative views of what happened and why. And it appears that not much has changed in the world of politics, and most probably never will.

The cole family of physicians continues into the American settler context with a the story of a deaf physician in the middle of the nineteenth century complete with new Jewish and Indian connections.