This book turned out to be something quite different than I thought it would be.
The narrative jumps from present day to the early years of the settlement of the Olympic forest/western Washington area.
Characters include natives, social reformers, society ladies, pioneers, fish factory workers, businessmen...even a parole officer.
The flashbacks work well, stringing a thread through the characters and storylines of both eras.
Simultaneously, it follows a group of explorers trying to map the Olympic peninsula, an ambitious group of investors building a dam, a convict recently released from prison, two native boys -- one today, one from 1890 -- and a suffragette trying to change the world.
It was fascinating. There were no happy endings, no tidy wrap-ups of storylines...just a bunch of people plodding through life the best they could.
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