First a confession: 'The Last of the Mohicans' had been on my bookshelf for four years and I'd never got past the third chapter. But with a five week break between jobs, I knew that if I didn't read it now, I never would. The first half of the book is slow, and Cooper's language is not easy on the modern eye. As other reviewers have pointed out, the plot does seem in places tenuous and the narrative over descriptive, but the book's strength is the brilliant characterisation. Despite the setting, as the story develops, the reader can identify strongly with the hopes and fears of the main characters. My fear on first opening this book that it would be irrelevant to my life proved wrong.
This book may be hard-going, but it's worth reading. You need to take some time over it and persevere with the first half, but when you finish the book you'll feel it was worth it.