A Heart for Any Fate: A Frontier Story

With A Heart for Any Fate, Suzanne Lyon has drawn on the history, family stories and myths surrounding her fourth-great grandmother, Hannah Allison Cole, to tell a story of epic proportions...and to tell it with compassion, honesty of emotions and historic truths. The story opens with Hannah's marriage to William Temple Cole when she meets two people who are to have a strong impact on her life: his brother Stephen and their cousin Dolley Todd. Stephen is a frontiersman, constantly seeking game, adventure and the far vista; his returns to family are marked by his increasing attachment to his brother's wife. Dolley presents the young bride with a blank journal in what is to be their only meeting. Hannah uses the journal over the years to express her most secret desires and conflicts; through her entries, Dolley's life is also reflected as she becomes the First Lady of the Nation after her marriage to James Madison. The Coles start out married life in Virginia only to have the land on their homeplace go sour and productivity drop. With three children in tow, Temple responds to his brother's tales of the great Kentucky dream of sweet grass, fertile land, and good water. Hannah is saddened to leave her home and family but must go, in the fashion of the period, where her husband leads. Her slave girl Lucy, sullen and difficult on a good day, begs her to buy the father of her child but Hannah refuses. As the story develops, Lucy evolves as a companion and friend and Hannah, too. When Temple loses the claim in Kentucky after years of hard work and an ever-increasing family, there is no choice but to follow Stephen once again into the wilderness. This time it is Missouri that calls to the brothers. Long ennamored of Stephen, Hannah's younger sister Phoebe has finagled marriage to him, only to disrupt ties to their parents for both sisters. It is a miserable marriage that ends eventually in tragedy. The story is told against the wonderful expanse of western movement, the effects of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the War of 1812, the actions of the Indian leader Tecumseh and the uncanny prophecies of his brother, Indian unrest and violence, slavery and the advances into the far west. Lyon relates it all with fine attention to detail, the nuances of period language and custom and a deep understanding of her characters motivations, strengths and weaknesses. These are people whose struggles make for a tender and strong read; people with whom we can identify and come to care for deeply.