LYNCOYA

A moving fictionalization in the form of recollections by Andrew Jackson, Jr. (actually a twin born to in-laws but adopted as an infant by the future president), about growing up at the Hermitage with the Indian boy who joined the household after General Jackson's men had killed his parents in battle. The boys are raised like brothers until the time for Andrew to be sent to college and Lyncoya apprenticed to a saddle-maker; young Andrew protests the separation and differential treatment (and tries to deny it to the other boy), but Jackson, preoccupied now with his Presidential campaigns, is heedless -- until Lyncoya is discovered to be fatally ill and is brought home to die. What might seem a sentimental ending is redeemed, and what must be acknowledged as paradoxical behavior by Indian-hunting Jackson is turned to a strength, by the fact that the novel was based on historical events and documents, including Lyncoya's poignant letter to his ""father"" which appears toward the end.