Review by Lisa19643 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
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Lisa19643
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Review by Lisa19643 -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
4 out of 4 stars
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If the novel Strong Heart were a red wine, it would be subtly fruit forward with interesting characters heading on a seemingly normal camping trip in the mountains of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The wine would have strong tannins of ancient vineyard vines, and a mysterious blend of grapes hinting this wine is anything but normal. It would have a lingering finish that leaves one breathing in the empty glass and wanting to know more about the magical setting and the winemaker, author Charlie Sheldon.
Rarely do I spend weeks after reading a novel daydreaming and wondering about various implications. I found myself looking up facts about extinct species from millennia past, contemplating aspects of human nature, such as competitiveness and the will to survive, and wondering what I would do in similar circumstances as the characters, and reading about the author.
Mr. Sheldon’s bio shows he has lived many adventures himself, as a commercial fisherman earlier in life, and as seaman aboard the USNS Shugart in 2016. The Navy named the ship after US Army Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart of Newville, PA, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3, 1993, according to a Navy website. The USNS Shugart is operated by Bay Ship Management, Inc., under US Navy Military Sealift Command charter—home port of Baltimore, MD—and is manned by US Merchant Marine personnel: 26 civilian crew (up to 45), and up to 50 active duty. Mr. Sheldon’s real world experience gave a ring of truth to his descriptions of the novel’s scenes on the water.
I started reading the book blind, similar to pouring a glass of wine from a bottle without a label. I didn't know what Strong Heart referred to, and I was happy to allow the meaning to be revealed in time. I didn't know what to expect, but I decided to trust the author to unwind the narrative. Mr. Sheldon delivered.
The storyline begins with two older men—Tom Olsen and his Native American friend William, and William’s daughter, Myra—packing for a camping trip in the mountains. A girl of 12 or 13 named Sarah Cooley arrives on the doorstep, and unplanned interruption. It turns out she is Tom’s granddaughter. Her aunt is there to dump the girl on her grandfather's doorstep. Sarah, whose mother is deceased and whose deadbeat father lives overseas, has nowhere else to go.
Sarah displays a nose piercing and sullen attitude. This is the first time she has met her grandfather. The first conflict to arise is whether Tom should cancel the long-anticipated trip or take the girl with him. With William’s urging and Myra’s encouragement, but against Tom’s better judgment, they decide to take Sarah on the multi-day trip.
From the start, the girl shows her obstinacy, trying to run away a time or two. Once she is brought back forcibly by Myra. Sarah also displays great artistic talent as an illustrator, which proves useful along the way. The trip that takes them miles into the Olympic National Park would be challenging for anyone, but proves especially hard for Tom and William, no longer in their prime. They are determined to go the distance. They are on a mission to find Tom’s beloved grandfather’s make-shift gravesite from long ago, tend to it, and bury a native artifact that his grandfather—Bob-Bob—had with him some 50 years before on a similar trip. Bob-Bob had died suddenly before having a chance to show Tom something special and secretive in the mountains.
A second conflict in the storyline relates to a company, named Buckhorn, which desires to do mining inside the park. This prospect distresses Tom, William and Myra. The first hint that Sarah represents the “Strong Heart” of the title happens in chapter 2, when William thinks to himself that he know Sarah’s “spirit was hot and strong.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The descriptions were impressive. For example, Sarah sketched William, who Tom called Walleye or ‘Eye for short. The description was “She’d caught his huge domed forehead, wayward eye, the wild black hair, and the chin that could drive spikes…”
I also enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery, which placed me easily into the scenes. I was there on the trail or bobbing in the giant canoe and paddling hard to clear the “ice bear,” or glacier, as ice splashed into the water. For example, the trail was “covered with needles and leaves. The trees here grew close, and, despite the sun overhead, they walked in shadows. ...the forest was quiet but for the sound of their thudding feet and the cry of an occasional bird.”
While Sarah was on her mysterious journey, the descriptions transformed into refreshing metaphors that ancient natives might have used. For example, “The wave’s shoulders were hunched as if a great animal had come from the deep ocean and risen to toy with our canoe before diving again, deep.”
I could imagine myself sitting by the fires, feeling their warmth, or feeling the cold of the streams where the characters washed. In my mind, I tasted the fishy seal meat, bitter raccoon, and sweet venison that prevented starvation. What would vegans of today think about the necessity of meat and animal skins in a time before farms and domesticated animals?
Myra foreshadowed the mysterious twists and turns of the narrative when she told Sarah during the mountain trek that the Olympic Peninsula was “a land of magic, history, and legend. A place of myth, ancient stories, ancient people.”
The coverage of history had a feeling of time travel that was a bonus. As the reader, I felt like I was in the scene, experiencing the past through Sarah’s eyes. The book was peppered with symbolism and elements of wonder. Was the Short-face bear that appeared to Sarah actually the spirit of her second great grandfather, Bob-Bob, returning to guide them to safety, but not to any buried ancient artifacts that would have saved the mountain from Buckhorn’s mining operation?
The novel was a journey within a journey. Sarah’s experience reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy wakes up from her dream and sees Auntie Em and the farmhands at her bedside, and they look like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion from her journey. If Strong Heart were made into a movie, the bad guys from the mining company would probably look like the “Skin Boat People,” “Pretty Face,” “Fat Hair,” “Cold Eye,” and other unfriendly native people in her other-worldly dream. Or was it a dream?
I learned some interesting facts from the novel. I had no knowledge of an atlatl, which is a spear thrower, or of the extinct Short-face bear. The novel succeeded in helping me realize how terrifying life was with our fragile human bodies surviving among colossal, dangerous animals. We take many things for granted today, such as antibiotics, antiseptic and clean bandages to prevent infection, which the ancient natives referred to as the dreaded "hot flesh.”
The novel included a debate between Myra and a character introduced later in the story—Sergei—about when people first appeared in North America. Were the native legends true, and people have always been there? The discussion piqued my interest for further research on the topic.
I had a few disappointments in the plot, but not enough to curb my enjoyment. For example, I never found out what Bob-Bob had wanted to show his grandson, Tom, all those years ago, before he died. Was it the atlatl? Was it the “Marking Place” from Sarah’s story? Was it a cache of ancient bone tools and spear throwers from thousands of years ago? Maybe it was an in-tact skeleton of a Short-face bear? All of these would have been amazing finds.
The abrupt ending sent my imagination careening forward on its own—writing alternate endings in my mind. If that was the intent of the sudden ending, it worked on me. At the end, I wanted the characters to find the "Marking Place" with an ancient drawing that only Sarah could have drawn, or at least a hidden trove of native antiquities to prove the legends that people had always been there.
I gladly give Strong Heart a rating of four out of four stars. I would recommend this novel for anyone who likes a good adventure yarn, with hints of magic, history, legends, and a front row seat to witness prehistoric animals and ancient Americans in action.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Lisa19643's review? Post a comment saying so!
4 out of 4 stars
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If the novel Strong Heart were a red wine, it would be subtly fruit forward with interesting characters heading on a seemingly normal camping trip in the mountains of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. The wine would have strong tannins of ancient vineyard vines, and a mysterious blend of grapes hinting this wine is anything but normal. It would have a lingering finish that leaves one breathing in the empty glass and wanting to know more about the magical setting and the winemaker, author Charlie Sheldon.
Rarely do I spend weeks after reading a novel daydreaming and wondering about various implications. I found myself looking up facts about extinct species from millennia past, contemplating aspects of human nature, such as competitiveness and the will to survive, and wondering what I would do in similar circumstances as the characters, and reading about the author.
Mr. Sheldon’s bio shows he has lived many adventures himself, as a commercial fisherman earlier in life, and as seaman aboard the USNS Shugart in 2016. The Navy named the ship after US Army Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart of Newville, PA, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3, 1993, according to a Navy website. The USNS Shugart is operated by Bay Ship Management, Inc., under US Navy Military Sealift Command charter—home port of Baltimore, MD—and is manned by US Merchant Marine personnel: 26 civilian crew (up to 45), and up to 50 active duty. Mr. Sheldon’s real world experience gave a ring of truth to his descriptions of the novel’s scenes on the water.
I started reading the book blind, similar to pouring a glass of wine from a bottle without a label. I didn't know what Strong Heart referred to, and I was happy to allow the meaning to be revealed in time. I didn't know what to expect, but I decided to trust the author to unwind the narrative. Mr. Sheldon delivered.
The storyline begins with two older men—Tom Olsen and his Native American friend William, and William’s daughter, Myra—packing for a camping trip in the mountains. A girl of 12 or 13 named Sarah Cooley arrives on the doorstep, and unplanned interruption. It turns out she is Tom’s granddaughter. Her aunt is there to dump the girl on her grandfather's doorstep. Sarah, whose mother is deceased and whose deadbeat father lives overseas, has nowhere else to go.
Sarah displays a nose piercing and sullen attitude. This is the first time she has met her grandfather. The first conflict to arise is whether Tom should cancel the long-anticipated trip or take the girl with him. With William’s urging and Myra’s encouragement, but against Tom’s better judgment, they decide to take Sarah on the multi-day trip.
From the start, the girl shows her obstinacy, trying to run away a time or two. Once she is brought back forcibly by Myra. Sarah also displays great artistic talent as an illustrator, which proves useful along the way. The trip that takes them miles into the Olympic National Park would be challenging for anyone, but proves especially hard for Tom and William, no longer in their prime. They are determined to go the distance. They are on a mission to find Tom’s beloved grandfather’s make-shift gravesite from long ago, tend to it, and bury a native artifact that his grandfather—Bob-Bob—had with him some 50 years before on a similar trip. Bob-Bob had died suddenly before having a chance to show Tom something special and secretive in the mountains.
A second conflict in the storyline relates to a company, named Buckhorn, which desires to do mining inside the park. This prospect distresses Tom, William and Myra. The first hint that Sarah represents the “Strong Heart” of the title happens in chapter 2, when William thinks to himself that he know Sarah’s “spirit was hot and strong.”
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The descriptions were impressive. For example, Sarah sketched William, who Tom called Walleye or ‘Eye for short. The description was “She’d caught his huge domed forehead, wayward eye, the wild black hair, and the chin that could drive spikes…”
I also enjoyed the descriptions of the scenery, which placed me easily into the scenes. I was there on the trail or bobbing in the giant canoe and paddling hard to clear the “ice bear,” or glacier, as ice splashed into the water. For example, the trail was “covered with needles and leaves. The trees here grew close, and, despite the sun overhead, they walked in shadows. ...the forest was quiet but for the sound of their thudding feet and the cry of an occasional bird.”
While Sarah was on her mysterious journey, the descriptions transformed into refreshing metaphors that ancient natives might have used. For example, “The wave’s shoulders were hunched as if a great animal had come from the deep ocean and risen to toy with our canoe before diving again, deep.”
I could imagine myself sitting by the fires, feeling their warmth, or feeling the cold of the streams where the characters washed. In my mind, I tasted the fishy seal meat, bitter raccoon, and sweet venison that prevented starvation. What would vegans of today think about the necessity of meat and animal skins in a time before farms and domesticated animals?
Myra foreshadowed the mysterious twists and turns of the narrative when she told Sarah during the mountain trek that the Olympic Peninsula was “a land of magic, history, and legend. A place of myth, ancient stories, ancient people.”
The coverage of history had a feeling of time travel that was a bonus. As the reader, I felt like I was in the scene, experiencing the past through Sarah’s eyes. The book was peppered with symbolism and elements of wonder. Was the Short-face bear that appeared to Sarah actually the spirit of her second great grandfather, Bob-Bob, returning to guide them to safety, but not to any buried ancient artifacts that would have saved the mountain from Buckhorn’s mining operation?
The novel was a journey within a journey. Sarah’s experience reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy wakes up from her dream and sees Auntie Em and the farmhands at her bedside, and they look like the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion from her journey. If Strong Heart were made into a movie, the bad guys from the mining company would probably look like the “Skin Boat People,” “Pretty Face,” “Fat Hair,” “Cold Eye,” and other unfriendly native people in her other-worldly dream. Or was it a dream?
I learned some interesting facts from the novel. I had no knowledge of an atlatl, which is a spear thrower, or of the extinct Short-face bear. The novel succeeded in helping me realize how terrifying life was with our fragile human bodies surviving among colossal, dangerous animals. We take many things for granted today, such as antibiotics, antiseptic and clean bandages to prevent infection, which the ancient natives referred to as the dreaded "hot flesh.”
The novel included a debate between Myra and a character introduced later in the story—Sergei—about when people first appeared in North America. Were the native legends true, and people have always been there? The discussion piqued my interest for further research on the topic.
I had a few disappointments in the plot, but not enough to curb my enjoyment. For example, I never found out what Bob-Bob had wanted to show his grandson, Tom, all those years ago, before he died. Was it the atlatl? Was it the “Marking Place” from Sarah’s story? Was it a cache of ancient bone tools and spear throwers from thousands of years ago? Maybe it was an in-tact skeleton of a Short-face bear? All of these would have been amazing finds.
The abrupt ending sent my imagination careening forward on its own—writing alternate endings in my mind. If that was the intent of the sudden ending, it worked on me. At the end, I wanted the characters to find the "Marking Place" with an ancient drawing that only Sarah could have drawn, or at least a hidden trove of native antiquities to prove the legends that people had always been there.
I gladly give Strong Heart a rating of four out of four stars. I would recommend this novel for anyone who likes a good adventure yarn, with hints of magic, history, legends, and a front row seat to witness prehistoric animals and ancient Americans in action.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Lisa19643's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: Final Notice by Van Fleisher
