This Tender Land by William Kent KruegerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Set in a summer in 1932, four "vagabond" children set out on an "odyssey," escaping the horrors of the Lincoln School in Minnesota -- a residential Indian school run by the deceitful and abusive Brickmans. Odie O'Banion, his brother Albert, their friend Mose, and little Emmy, travel along the Mississippi River in what is a bit of a coming-of-age story, but more truly along the lines of an epic odyssey. The story is engaging and it is tough in its truths pulled from actual U.S. history, notably the abuse and murder of indigenous peoples. At the center of everything is Odie, who is twelve-going-on-thirteen, a thoughtful-yet-precocious courageous young person who in addition to his own very personal journey, fits the Campbellian monomyth archetype pretty well.
Krueger includes a whole host of characters--some who occasionally border on caricature--but all of whom are as engaging as Minotaurs and Sirens. Odie plays the harmonica and is quite the storyteller, providing a meta-narrative within the book itself.
Unfortunately, I did not totally care for Scott Brick's reading--I felt it was overwrought and entirely too dramatic at times, yanking me out of the dust of the Great Depression and on to a Shakespearean stage. While the book is told from Odie's perspective looking back, I would have liked a better sense of that thirteen year old's voice. That said, each character is thoughtfully rendered and Emeline, in particular, comes alive.
It is, on the whole, an excellent and important work of American fiction in the tradition of Sinclair Lewis, and tunes in to the ongoing saga of American dreams, with all their many facets and challenges.
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