What-to-Do?

What-to-Do? a novel is a work made up of a number of mostly inter-linked chapters, all of which bear, in one way or another, on the question, What are we to do with our lives? One character who reappears at different points in the book is a middle-aged rural widow whose son has mentioned to her that no one ever seems to have written out - spelled out - all the numbers from one to one million. Alone and with time on her hands, she sets out to do just that. Another character is a southern black man who served in World War II. Upon his return home, he builds a personal library of books, an act that wins him praise and also a good deal of trouble. Yet another character is a Native American man from the southwest who, from his teens onward, has attempted to heed a terrible vision he has received from a Nighthawk, only later in his life finding something more positive to do. Other characters appear as they "do" one thing or another.