“An Echo in the Bone” by Diana Gabaldon

Delacorte Press. Sept. 22, 2009. 832 pp. $30, ISBN 0-38-534245-4

“The good old days.” How we yearn for “the good old days.” When exactly were they, can you tell me? Can any generation of men and women ever fully appreciate how hard it was for the generation, or generations, before?

I am convinced that none can, and yet Diana Gabaldon has done it in her passionately popular Outlander series.

The series ranges in time from the 18th century Jacobite Risings in Scotland to the almost modern 1980s. To the delight of Gabaldon fans around the world, the long-awaited seventh book in the series, “An Echo in the Bone,” released Sept. 22.

Set during the American Revolution “Echo” is historical “fiction” but includes enough fact that it can teach us something about who we are as a nation.

The characters and real life heroes (and villains) of the American Revolution were not mere folk tales but flesh-and-blood men and women who were shaped by their parents and the wars of their parents. They struggled with their identity as patriots and rebels and Gabaldon brings them, and their story – our history – to breathtaking life.

“Echo” is religious “fiction” but includes fact enough to give us insight into the traditions of today’s America. Are we a Christian nation? How did we come to be? Are we truly a melting pot or has intolerance always been the ugly underside of American history, a bequest from those who came before?

In “Echo” the religious diversity and all the struggles that come with learning to live with, and love, people of other traditions is brought factually to mind in a way that only fiction can do.

“Echo” is science “fiction”, but reveals our bias to what is known. The heroine Claire Fraser is a physician from WWII ripped from her time into one long ago. The medical knowledge she brings is more often than not seen as witchcraft but she is compelled by compassion to bring healing where she can though it frequently puts her life in danger (not to mention our willing suspension of disbelief). Where are we afraid to bring healing because of how we might be judged?

The book also is a romance. I began this review by saying that Gabaldon has done what cannot be done – she has identified exactly when the good old days were and how they can be again. They are the days when we are with those we love.

“An Echo in the Bone” is the continuing love story of Claire and Jaime Fraser. The good old days are the days they spend together laughing, making love, building their lives and our history. “Echo” is 800-plus pages that shout to us “LOVE!”

If “Echo” were being rated for the movies it would likely be “NC-17” for sexually explicit content. Books have no such rating standard, but as a romance novel told with wit, historical accuracy and for provoking thought – this reviewer gives it an “A.”

Geri Williams is a local book fancier.