Review by ChainsawCat -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
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ChainsawCat
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- Latest Review: Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
Review by ChainsawCat -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
Part outdoor adventure story, part coming of age tale, part speculative paleoanthropology, Strong Heart is an engaging and rewarding novel from Charlie Sheldon.
Tom Sheldon’s preparations for a backpacking trip into the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula are interrupted by the sudden appearance of a teenage granddaughter he didn’t know he had. His companions, a Native American fisherman nicknamed “Walleye” or “‘Eye” and Eye’s daughter Myra, convince Tom to take the troubled girl along with them.
The first few chapters of this novel, which is comprised of a high density of , were a little hard to follow. It took me a while to really sort out who the characters were. Once things got going, though, and everyone’s stakes in the backpacking trip became clear, I didn’t want to put the book down.
Tom’s mission in bringing his friends on this backcountry trek, it turns out, is to visit the grave of his grandfather, whom Tom buried on hike in the same mountains long ago. On that previous trek, Tom’s grandfather had died while splitting wood, before he could reveal to Tom the purpose of the trip. There had been something he had wanted to show Tom up in the mountains… was it the ancient carved bone spear thrower Tom found next to his body?
As Tom and his party return to the site of Tom’s grandfather’s death, they continue to debate the best things to do with the ancient artifact. Should Tom return the spear thrower to the mountain, in respect for the native people who created it? Or should he announce his discovery, thereby perhaps preventing a mining company from exercising the mineral rights that once belonged to Tom’s family, and damaging the region’s ecosystems?
My favorite quality of this novel was its comfort with unresolved problems and unanswered questions. When Sarah gets lost on the mountain and experiences a lengthy vision of a prehistoric hominid migration path between Kamchatka and North America, the other characters must reckon with their varying degrees of belief in her narrative.
The reader will also have to choose between suspension of disbelief or acceptance of her vision-quest-like experience. Sarah’s story occupies a significant portion of the novel, and it is told in an epic narrative style totally unlike the dialogue of the modern day characters. The story is certainly more fun if you accept Sarah’s story, which is full of well-researched details about land and water routes of hominids of ancient Berningia, plants and animals of the Late Pleistocene, etc. It makes a compelling, if not actually scientific, case for human habitation of North America many millennia than scientific consensus now suggests. The scientific debate over the possible veracity of Sarah’s vision is taken up from across the Bering Strait by a pair of Koryak scientists, father and son; again, the theme is lingering uncertainty.
There is plenty of action and adventure in this novel, with search and rescue operations, forest fires, fights with various weapons, and nefarious mining company operatives. I appreciated that the author managed this “adventure” novel without the typical macho adventure hero— in fact, there is no one clear protagonist, and each character is presented with realistic physical and emotional limitations.
The part that I like least was the storyline of Sarah’s transformation from juvenile delinquent to ideal granddaughter. It was just not quite convincing, and Sarah’s complex issues seemed too easily resolved. That said, I appreciated the basic sensitivity and respect with which Sheldon depicted the character.
I really enjoyed this novel. The part that I will remember months after finishing it, I think, is a sense of the wonder and drama of scattered groups of early humans navigating boats alongside glaciers, beset by massive short-faced bears and dire wolves, eking out survival as a species year by year. It is clear that the author, a retired sailor and fisherman, feels the wonder of this narrative acutely, and he communicates it admirably. I rate it four out of four stars. I particularly recommend it to readers with an interest in history, geology, anthropology, or the outdoors. Readers looking for flowery metaphors, or who cannot imagine characters without internal monologues, would do better to choose another book.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Part outdoor adventure story, part coming of age tale, part speculative paleoanthropology, Strong Heart is an engaging and rewarding novel from Charlie Sheldon.
Tom Sheldon’s preparations for a backpacking trip into the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula are interrupted by the sudden appearance of a teenage granddaughter he didn’t know he had. His companions, a Native American fisherman nicknamed “Walleye” or “‘Eye” and Eye’s daughter Myra, convince Tom to take the troubled girl along with them.
The first few chapters of this novel, which is comprised of a high density of , were a little hard to follow. It took me a while to really sort out who the characters were. Once things got going, though, and everyone’s stakes in the backpacking trip became clear, I didn’t want to put the book down.
Tom’s mission in bringing his friends on this backcountry trek, it turns out, is to visit the grave of his grandfather, whom Tom buried on hike in the same mountains long ago. On that previous trek, Tom’s grandfather had died while splitting wood, before he could reveal to Tom the purpose of the trip. There had been something he had wanted to show Tom up in the mountains… was it the ancient carved bone spear thrower Tom found next to his body?
As Tom and his party return to the site of Tom’s grandfather’s death, they continue to debate the best things to do with the ancient artifact. Should Tom return the spear thrower to the mountain, in respect for the native people who created it? Or should he announce his discovery, thereby perhaps preventing a mining company from exercising the mineral rights that once belonged to Tom’s family, and damaging the region’s ecosystems?
My favorite quality of this novel was its comfort with unresolved problems and unanswered questions. When Sarah gets lost on the mountain and experiences a lengthy vision of a prehistoric hominid migration path between Kamchatka and North America, the other characters must reckon with their varying degrees of belief in her narrative.
The reader will also have to choose between suspension of disbelief or acceptance of her vision-quest-like experience. Sarah’s story occupies a significant portion of the novel, and it is told in an epic narrative style totally unlike the dialogue of the modern day characters. The story is certainly more fun if you accept Sarah’s story, which is full of well-researched details about land and water routes of hominids of ancient Berningia, plants and animals of the Late Pleistocene, etc. It makes a compelling, if not actually scientific, case for human habitation of North America many millennia than scientific consensus now suggests. The scientific debate over the possible veracity of Sarah’s vision is taken up from across the Bering Strait by a pair of Koryak scientists, father and son; again, the theme is lingering uncertainty.
There is plenty of action and adventure in this novel, with search and rescue operations, forest fires, fights with various weapons, and nefarious mining company operatives. I appreciated that the author managed this “adventure” novel without the typical macho adventure hero— in fact, there is no one clear protagonist, and each character is presented with realistic physical and emotional limitations.
The part that I like least was the storyline of Sarah’s transformation from juvenile delinquent to ideal granddaughter. It was just not quite convincing, and Sarah’s complex issues seemed too easily resolved. That said, I appreciated the basic sensitivity and respect with which Sheldon depicted the character.
I really enjoyed this novel. The part that I will remember months after finishing it, I think, is a sense of the wonder and drama of scattered groups of early humans navigating boats alongside glaciers, beset by massive short-faced bears and dire wolves, eking out survival as a species year by year. It is clear that the author, a retired sailor and fisherman, feels the wonder of this narrative acutely, and he communicates it admirably. I rate it four out of four stars. I particularly recommend it to readers with an interest in history, geology, anthropology, or the outdoors. Readers looking for flowery metaphors, or who cannot imagine characters without internal monologues, would do better to choose another book.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
