Rating: 
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: Anti-climactic is the best single phrase to describe this book. I guess it depends on what you want in a novel. It starts out with the air of mystery surrounding the "Crown of Columbus" and what it actually is; sort of a historical mystery, although fictional. The book then becomes a story about the two main characters and their on-again/off-again romance of opposites. Most of the book is about this romance and the action and resolution of the mystery don't really get going until the very end. By the time you find out what the "Crown" is, it is sort of "so what?" In other words, not very satisfying. I wouldn't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: Anti-climactic is the best single phrase to describe this book. I guess it depends on what you want in a novel. It starts out with the air of mystery surrounding the "Crown of Columbus" and what it actually is; sort of a historical mystery, although fictional. The book then becomes a story about the two main characters and their on-again/off-again romance of opposites. Most of the book is about this romance and the action and resolution of the mystery don't really get going until the very end. By the time you find out what the "Crown" is, it is sort of "so what?" In other words, not very satisfying. I wouldn't recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not Recommended
Review: Anti-climactic is the best single phrase to describe this book. I guess it depends on what you want in a novel. It starts out with the air of mystery surrounding the "Crown of Columbus" and what it actually is; sort of a historical mystery, although fictional. The book then becomes a story about the two main characters and their on-again/off-again romance of opposites. Most of the book is about this romance and the action and resolution of the mystery don't really get going until the very end. By the time you find out what the "Crown" is, it is sort of "so what?" In other words, not very satisfying. I wouldn't recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit too slow and not historical
Review: Crown of Columbus had some funny, exciting moments, but not enough in this 500 page "historical" novel. The main characters are both academicians, so I can allow for some introspective monologues and analyses. But action does speak louder than words - especially in a mystery/adventure novel such as this - so I wanted more action and less words. And this is not what I would call historical fiction - there is very little history in it. The second half of the book picks up the pace and that's where you'll find most of the adventure and humor. The ending is a bit surprising and, for me at least, a bit confusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Among the worst I've read
Review: I am a very big fan of Erdrich and the one other book of Dorris' I read, "Yellow Boat.." was good if seeming to me, a bit derivative from some of Erdrich's work. But "Crown of Columbus" ranks among the most tedious, unoriginal works I can recall. The characters, especially Roger Williams, are all too familiar stereotypes of ivy league social dynamics, painfully etched in more interesting tales elsewhere. Indeed, every character without exception from the semi-rebellious teenage son to the resentful Native granny to the mildly eccentric old couple in the Bahamas (I am forgetting names as much else about the book, thankfully) are gnawingly predictable. This book strikes me as the downside of collaborative fiction. Please Louise and Michael: enjoy your lives together but pursue your individual muses separately lest there be another such offspring to waste the time and money of your faithful!
Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly awful!
Review: I never bothered learning the names of the characters because everyone was a stereotype. . . we have "Honorable Native American woman trying to make it in the white man's world"; fifth generation male WASP with obsessive compulsive tendancies; ever wise and quirky Grandmother; rebellious teen age male, miracluous infant daughter; and greedy immoral industrialist. I did enjoy the description of the early research in the Dartmouth library . . . .but none of what was hinted at materialized and the "Indiana Jones" ending made me throw my copy of the book against the wall.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read this book on the strength of my experience with "A Yellow Raft in Blue Water" by Michael Dorris. There is no comparison between the two books.
"Crown of Columbus" is fundamentally a mystery (the crown) but makes an attempt at character development and at political correctness and throws in something related to university professors and poetry. None of it works together.
It was obvious, about two-thirds of the way through the book what the solution to the mystery was going to be. The characters were not real enough to keep my interest in whether they developed or did not.
The final burden that I was unable to bear was the several pages devoted to the male lead's reciting his poetry.
Not to my taste.
Rating:
Summary: too wordy, exciting characters
Review: I think that this book was decent, except that the authors tended to drag out the plot too much. If it was really historical, then they should have focused on more historical scenes. The love plot and the historical plot seemed to interrupt each other. I enjoyed the detailed characters, though. I also liked the suspenseful action in the Bahamas with Cobb, Roger, and Vivian. The last one hundred pages of the book were the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Captured my attention . . .
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Once I got past the misleading synopsis on back of the novel and accepted the novel for what it really was, I became intensely involved. Roger Williams and Vivian Twostar are stereotypes, which is the point. They are cariactures; Dorris and Erdrich having a little fun with the stereotypes people have placed on them. The depth of character found in Erdrich's other novels is clearing missing; however, _The Crown of Columbus_ is a different kind of novel. It is a modern romance, detective, adventure, and historical novel at the same time. I recommend this book to someone looking for an entertaining read; anyone seeking high literature should read Erdrich's _Tracks_
Rating:
Summary: Captured my attention . . .
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Once I got past the misleading synopsis on back of the novel and accepted the novel for what it really was, I became intensely involved. Roger Williams and Vivian Twostar are stereotypes, which is the point. They are cariactures; Dorris and Erdrich having a little fun with the stereotypes people have placed on them. The depth of character found in Erdrich's other novels is clearing missing; however, _The Crown of Columbus_ is a different kind of novel. It is a modern romance, detective, adventure, and historical novel at the same time. I recommend this book to someone looking for an entertaining read; anyone seeking high literature should read Erdrich's _Tracks_
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