Albert, 4 years older than 12-year-old Odie, was a rule follower and honest to a fault. The brothers couldn’t have been more different. Every student had uniform dress mostly comprised of overalls. That and forcing the Indian children to be white. The “training” was often forced labor for area farmers. Brickman, the “Black Witch” as she was known out of her hearing, ran the school like a prison, complete with a quiet room (solitary confinement) and whipping. It’s 1932, and the O’Banion boy’s father has just been shot dead, leaving the boys orphans, thus the nearby Indian School. Hundreds of Native American children are there, mostly, but not all, from the area. When the story begins, Odie O’Banion and his brother, Albert, are the only white children at the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota. Like “Ordinary Grace,” an examination of religious faith plays a part in the story, but it isn’t the story. “This Tender Land” also is a standalone novel.
I first discovered Krueger when “Ordinary Grace,” a standalone novel, was an Ontario Public Library selection.
William Kent Krueger is the author of the “Cork O’Connor” mystery series.
0 kommentar(er)
