This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger
I heard about this book from people in my former book club, and my current book club, so I knew I should probably check it out… Plus, it is set in my new home state of Minnesota. And what a book it was!
This Tender Land is the story of Odie O’Banion, who is, along with his brother, one of only two white kids living at an Indian boarding school in Minnesota in the early 1930s. Odie is a kid who can’t quite obey the rules, so he experiences the cruelty of the headmistress and her henchman on a regular basis. Odie can stand it if he’s the one being picked on, but when it comes down to a sweet, timid boy being abused, he can take no more.
After committing a crime that could land him in a worse place than the school, Odie, his brother, a mute Indian kid and a little girl set off in a canoe down the river. On their journey, they meet other souls who are down on their luck, those who are kind and others who are ruthless, those who keep fighting and those who have lost hope.
William Kent Krueger tells the story of the atrocities of the Indian schools, but he also weaves in a story of starting over, persevering and relying on the kindness of others.
The last paragraph of the book was so fitting and poignant, it brought tears to my eyes. Mind if I read it to you?
“In every good tale there is a seed of truth, and from that seed a lovely story grows. Some of what I’ve told you is true and some… well let’s just call it the bloom on the rosebush. A woman who can heal the afflicted? A girl who looks into the future and wrestles with what she sees there? Yet are these things more difficult to accept than that all of existence came out of a single, random moment when cosmic gases exploded? Our eyes perceive so dimly, and our brains are so easily confused. Far better, I believe, to be like children and open ourselves to every beautiful possibility, for there is nothing our hearts can imagine that is not so.”
5 stars.
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