Review by Basya -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
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Basya
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Review by Basya -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon
[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]
3 out of 4 stars
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As this rich, imaginative story opens, three people are preparing to depart on a camping trip. William, a sixty-year-old Native American, and his daughter Myra are accompanying their elderly friend Tom on a quest: to find the latter’s grandfather’s grave deep in Washington State’s Olympic National Park. Once there, Tom plans to leave an artifact once in the old man’s possession—an ancient spear thrower called an atlatl—behind.
The group’s final preparations are interrupted when a surprise arrives on Tom’s doorstep: a heretofore unknown 13-year-old granddaughter. Tom’s ex-wife, Ruth, unravels the mystery: their daughter, Becky (who left home as a teenager) married and, unknown to her parents, had a daughter. The girl’s mother passed away five years ago, and her father—working in Europe and not in a position to care for a child—deposited her with Ruth. Sarah proved to be difficult, so her grandmother decided to unload the youngster on Tom.
This leaves the campers in a quandary. Should they abandon their plans or leave Sarah behind? William suggests that they bring the girl along. Although Tom disapproves, he is overruled and Sarah becomes a member of the expedition.
Even though the campers have a lofty goal, they find themselves preoccupied with real-life concerns. While Sarah is exploring the area armed with a sketchpad, Myra, a devoted member of the Sol Duc Nation, expresses concerns about a corporate plan. Buckhorn International proposes to use a Native fishing pier in a mining operation, which they will conduct in the park. Even though such activity is unprincipled and not exactly legal, the corporation is working its way around the difficulties. Myra suggests that Tom’s spear thrower would identify the area as an archaeological site—and put a stop to Buckhorn’s devious scheme.
The adults’ musings are interrupted by Sarah’s reappearance. She appears distraught and shows the adults a picture she drew. The bear in the drawing is tremendous, unlike any they have ever seen. Despite Sarah’s protests, her grandfather puts the creature’s unusual appearance down to the fact that she did not get the details right. It is Myra who recalls seeing a picture of a now-extinct bear looking like the one in Sarah’s drawing.
The campers arrive at their destination with Tom determined to leave the dart thrower, Sarah angry about the adults’ doubts about her story, and Myra and William understanding the girl better than her grandfather does. After the group protects the grave with stones, the irate teen stalks off—and does not return. Following a harrowing eight-day search, William and Tom find an injured, dehydrated, and malnourished Sarah.
When the teen awakens from a long slumber, she insists a hospital visit is unnecessary—she will leave the park the way she came. As the group camps one night, Sarah opens up and tells an incredible story.
Author Charlie Sheldon weaves his experiences living and working in the Pacific Northwest into a fascinating, multilayered tale. William is a perceptive narrator. His childhood experiences, occupation as a merchant seaman, and life in two worlds—American and Native—give him depth and an understanding of people and events. (“Myra, we think we brought Sarah on this trip, but maybe it is she, who is taking us.”) The characters, both heroes and villains, are multi-dimensional and believable. Even though Tom’s lack of knowledge of the existence of a granddaughter—and the idea that he would leave a young teen in a strange place so soon after her arrival—stretch credibility, it does not detract from the quality of the story.
What is detrimental to the novel are a number of awkward passages, unnecessary phrases, and grammatical errors, which careful editing would have caught. For example: “As soon as they left the parking lot, they were in forest.” “By now fully dark, the glow to the west was gone.” “His feet were in bad shape even though he’d lost pounds and pounds.” “The stream, which in May had been flowing, was now, in August, a trickle.” (The reader already knows it is August.) Because of these drawbacks, I give the novel 3 out of 4 stars.
Interestingly, the chapters devoted to Sarah’s story are free of such mistakes. The language is sheer poetry:
“We spent a long night keeping the fires high, tending to Bright Eyes, and rotating watchers. The stars rolled slowly, that night.”
“Clouds in thin streams walked across the top of the sky.”
“In places, the ice covering the mountains reached the sea, threading down slopes in thick, long, broken tongues, ending in piles of rocks, dirt, and old snow. On the slopes between the tongues of ice, I saw clusters of trees.”
“Past the point, the great ice wall loomed, teeth deep in the sea, gnawing, stretching south, eating the sea.”
The author’s thoughtful tale successfully incorporates the story within a story into the main narrative. Sarah’s spell-binding tale neatly ties together the novel’s many elements, and her narrative both challenges the characters’ world-views and answers long-standing questions.
Well-placed chapter breaks serve as appropriate pauses in the narrative and, at the same time, entice us to continue reading. Both the teen’s story and the real-world events not only provide food for thought but keep readers riveted until the novel reaches a satisfying conclusion. Strong Heart is sure to appeal to devotees of Native American literature and traditions, family tales, and novels which give readers something to ponder while they enjoy a rich, multi-layered story. I look forward to more books by a talented author.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Basya's review? Post a comment saying so!
3 out of 4 stars
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As this rich, imaginative story opens, three people are preparing to depart on a camping trip. William, a sixty-year-old Native American, and his daughter Myra are accompanying their elderly friend Tom on a quest: to find the latter’s grandfather’s grave deep in Washington State’s Olympic National Park. Once there, Tom plans to leave an artifact once in the old man’s possession—an ancient spear thrower called an atlatl—behind.
The group’s final preparations are interrupted when a surprise arrives on Tom’s doorstep: a heretofore unknown 13-year-old granddaughter. Tom’s ex-wife, Ruth, unravels the mystery: their daughter, Becky (who left home as a teenager) married and, unknown to her parents, had a daughter. The girl’s mother passed away five years ago, and her father—working in Europe and not in a position to care for a child—deposited her with Ruth. Sarah proved to be difficult, so her grandmother decided to unload the youngster on Tom.
This leaves the campers in a quandary. Should they abandon their plans or leave Sarah behind? William suggests that they bring the girl along. Although Tom disapproves, he is overruled and Sarah becomes a member of the expedition.
Even though the campers have a lofty goal, they find themselves preoccupied with real-life concerns. While Sarah is exploring the area armed with a sketchpad, Myra, a devoted member of the Sol Duc Nation, expresses concerns about a corporate plan. Buckhorn International proposes to use a Native fishing pier in a mining operation, which they will conduct in the park. Even though such activity is unprincipled and not exactly legal, the corporation is working its way around the difficulties. Myra suggests that Tom’s spear thrower would identify the area as an archaeological site—and put a stop to Buckhorn’s devious scheme.
The adults’ musings are interrupted by Sarah’s reappearance. She appears distraught and shows the adults a picture she drew. The bear in the drawing is tremendous, unlike any they have ever seen. Despite Sarah’s protests, her grandfather puts the creature’s unusual appearance down to the fact that she did not get the details right. It is Myra who recalls seeing a picture of a now-extinct bear looking like the one in Sarah’s drawing.
The campers arrive at their destination with Tom determined to leave the dart thrower, Sarah angry about the adults’ doubts about her story, and Myra and William understanding the girl better than her grandfather does. After the group protects the grave with stones, the irate teen stalks off—and does not return. Following a harrowing eight-day search, William and Tom find an injured, dehydrated, and malnourished Sarah.
When the teen awakens from a long slumber, she insists a hospital visit is unnecessary—she will leave the park the way she came. As the group camps one night, Sarah opens up and tells an incredible story.
Author Charlie Sheldon weaves his experiences living and working in the Pacific Northwest into a fascinating, multilayered tale. William is a perceptive narrator. His childhood experiences, occupation as a merchant seaman, and life in two worlds—American and Native—give him depth and an understanding of people and events. (“Myra, we think we brought Sarah on this trip, but maybe it is she, who is taking us.”) The characters, both heroes and villains, are multi-dimensional and believable. Even though Tom’s lack of knowledge of the existence of a granddaughter—and the idea that he would leave a young teen in a strange place so soon after her arrival—stretch credibility, it does not detract from the quality of the story.
What is detrimental to the novel are a number of awkward passages, unnecessary phrases, and grammatical errors, which careful editing would have caught. For example: “As soon as they left the parking lot, they were in forest.” “By now fully dark, the glow to the west was gone.” “His feet were in bad shape even though he’d lost pounds and pounds.” “The stream, which in May had been flowing, was now, in August, a trickle.” (The reader already knows it is August.) Because of these drawbacks, I give the novel 3 out of 4 stars.
Interestingly, the chapters devoted to Sarah’s story are free of such mistakes. The language is sheer poetry:
“We spent a long night keeping the fires high, tending to Bright Eyes, and rotating watchers. The stars rolled slowly, that night.”
“Clouds in thin streams walked across the top of the sky.”
“In places, the ice covering the mountains reached the sea, threading down slopes in thick, long, broken tongues, ending in piles of rocks, dirt, and old snow. On the slopes between the tongues of ice, I saw clusters of trees.”
“Past the point, the great ice wall loomed, teeth deep in the sea, gnawing, stretching south, eating the sea.”
The author’s thoughtful tale successfully incorporates the story within a story into the main narrative. Sarah’s spell-binding tale neatly ties together the novel’s many elements, and her narrative both challenges the characters’ world-views and answers long-standing questions.
Well-placed chapter breaks serve as appropriate pauses in the narrative and, at the same time, entice us to continue reading. Both the teen’s story and the real-world events not only provide food for thought but keep readers riveted until the novel reaches a satisfying conclusion. Strong Heart is sure to appeal to devotees of Native American literature and traditions, family tales, and novels which give readers something to ponder while they enjoy a rich, multi-layered story. I look forward to more books by a talented author.
******
Strong Heart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Basya's review? Post a comment saying so!
