One day you will have barely thought of something, and that little thought inspires such excitement and fear that you don't want to think of it again, but some few days later, maybe three or four, the thing you could hardly think of is now done, and you are embarked upon a new life. In no time at all, Thomas and Lidie are married, much to the relief of her sisters, and on their way West. What she and Thomas go through are extremes of heat and cold, insult and rancorousness. The chief appeals of Ms. Smiley's narrative are the integrity of her protagonist and the authentic feel of the world she creates. Like actual history, the plot offers no neat solutions, no final victories or defeats, no revenge for wrongs done, no poetic justice.
Characters wander randomly on and off stage.
Details accumulate for no particular reason. The only sure thing is Lidie's voice and presence. The only thread of development is her growth as an Abolitionist. But a little of this goes a very long way, and Ms. Smiley has given us some 450 pages of it. After a hundred pages or so, the story grows intermittently tedious.