By William Kent Krueger
Atria Books, 2019, 450 pages, Literary/Historical Fiction
In 1930s Minnesota, Odie O’Banion is an orphan living at the Lincoln School, a horrible place where the students’ education is spotty and most of the students are Native Americans who have been forcibly separated from their parents. One fateful night Odie, his brother Albert, and their best friends Mose and Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading down the river to hide from the authorities and find a place they can call their own. As they travel, they run into other adrift souls, and they learn to find hope and family in the unlikeliest of places.
This book is one that will stay with me for a while. A combination of The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn, and The Grapes of Wrath, this book can stand proudly next to its classic forebears. Travelling down the Missouri River and then the Mississippi, Odie and his friends encounter Hoovervilles, beleaguered farmers, those who are haunted by the past, and people who are trying to help others even when they don’t have much themselves. I reveled in the beautiful writing, and found the overall message of the book, one of family and forgiveness, to be really powerful. This is a book not to be missed.
MB
No comments:
Post a Comment