"In this compelling and cleverly constructed novel, author Robin Patric Clair uses her own family’s story and the contested landscape of the eastern Tennessee mountains in the Civil War’s immediate aftermath as a device to illuminate, through flashbacks, the Cherokee saga in nineteenth-century America—especially the processes, agonies of, and resistance to removal westward in the infamous Trail of Tears. I would recommend this tale not only to anyone searching for a gripping work of fiction to read, but also anyone anxious to probe Native American cultures in their complexities and nuances. The fast-paced story, reinforced with informative notes, is so enlightening on Cherokee government, factionalism, medicinal practices, sacred principles, and legends that it is an educational primer of sorts, a trigger to the inquisitive reader. And yet, the ethical issues Clair raises about dissent in wartime, pacifism, killing, racial attitudes, and family and tribal loyalties have universal applications that transcend the particulars of Native and Confederate history that she relates." – Robert E. May, Professor Emeritus, Purdue University, historian and author of Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory
In Robin Clair’s most recent novel, Buried Together, she cleverly reminds us of how individuals aspire to conjure up memories in order to make sense of their lives. By doing so, we learn of a deeply sensitive man’s life history. Her writing has a tone and nature that mimics the quality of orality; when we put down the book, we feel as if we have just listened to a remarkable oral history. That’s a true gift to the reader. As in her past work, Clair finds pithy story lines to link the reader’s thoughts to current social ills. Woven throughout her story we experience an epidemic, religious divides, slavery, discrimination against Native Americans, and failed leadership. In Chapter 16, she introduces the reader to a native prayer aimed at providing individual strength in troubled times. It’s in the spirit of this prayer that Clair tells the story. That makes Buried Together a highly worthy read." – Leonard Cox, Columbia University, Center for Oral History
"As a work of historical fiction and as a social justice novel, Buried Together offers truths and insights that have been left unrecorded in official documents. Through rigorous research and imaginative reconstruction, Clair marvelously weaves together her family's history with Cherokee history and culture, as well as American Civil War history. Her novel makes the past come alive on the page, and as I read, I felt as though I were present in the cabin with Silas Jr. and his family in 1865, dealing with one agony after another, held in the grip of riveting storytelling.
Intriguingly, the novel reveals how Cherokee removal, the Civil War, and outbreaks of measles, typhoid fever, and smallpox afflicted the Beasley family in the nineteenth century, and in so doing, the novel speaks to our present moment as well—a moment when we are facing a terrible pandemic, at a time when America is deeply divided and when cruel inequities abound. Buried Together is powerful storytelling, combining aspects of literature, history, ethnography, philosophy and ethics, public health, and social justice in a way that makes it a valuable text for classes in literature, history, Native studies, and American Studies." – Nancy J. Peterson, Professor of English at Purdue University, author of Against Amnesia: Contemporary Women Writers and the Crises of Historical Memory
"Dr. Robin Clair’s gripping, exquisite prose helps us feel as though we are alongside this family, in time, journeying into their lived experiences and like them, searching for connection inspired during moments of isolation. Clair’s novel positions us all within the complex interconnectedness of religion, culture, social relations, economics, politics, and policies that has shaped our lived experiences over time… before, during, and after the Civil War era in the United States. Clair’s historical novel brings to mind pressing social issues of the past that remain today, such as the forced migration of the silenced, the erased, in the United States and around the world. Clair invites us to consider epistemological, ontological, and existential questions all the while captivating our interest in what is unfolding on the written page. What does it mean to be a 'real member of [a group]'? What does it mean to be? What does it mean to be silenced and how can that happen with or without our knowledge? Through Silas and his family, we are encouraged to interrogate power relations, the overt and the subtle, that permeate society and the so many ways they have done so throughout U.S. history. We cannot help but ask: Who gets to speak in the U.S., and for whom? How do policies and legislation make some people present in society and others absent? Through Silas, we question what it means to be free, and whether freedom is possible for everyone in a democracy.
Clair’s message is of relevance to those who study and do peacebuilding for it speaks to the power of narrative and storytelling in peacebuilding scholarship and practice. The three main questions Clair addresses are central to peacebuilders: 'By what right do any of us take a human life? How has ethnic and racial divisiveness wrenched humanity apart? How do everyday actions promote policies of peace, or thwart them?' Through her account of Silas and others, Clair reminds us that we have much to do in the United States of America. That to heal and to emerge as a more just society, we must remember and act. For to do the work of peacebuilding, we must be at peace with ourselves, our choices, and our actions. Through Clair’s account of Silas Beasley, Jr., the conscientious objector, she reminds us that everyday people can and do choose peace despite monumental political, economic, cultural, and social impediments to that choice. In this way, Clair’s historical narrative is timeless." – Stacey Connaughton, Ph.D., Director, The Purdue Policy Research Institute, Director, The Purdue Peace Project, Professor, Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University, Associate Editor, Journal of Communication, and co-editor of two books: Transforming Conflict and Building Peace (2020) and Locally Lead Peace Building (2019).
