This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

“It’s a hard knock life,” Annie sings in the Depression-era musical of the same name, and there’s no doubt that children suffered greatly during this time period, as William Kent Krueger so movingly shows in his new novel, This Tender Land (published Sept. 3).   The cover alone will beg you to pick up the book, but the story with its resilient characters and their quest for bearable lives will pull you in.

Narrated by the elderly Odie O’Banion,  the story looks back on his 12th year in 1932 when he is living with his older brother Albert at the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota.  They are the only two white children there, taken in when their father (and sole parent), is killed while delivering bootleg alcohol in the area. 

Conditions in the school are brutal with poor food, hard work, little recreation, and disciplinary measures often involving solitary confinement in a dark and dank room room.  It’s made worse by the school administrator, Mrs. Brickman, nicknamed “The Black Witch,” her husband who is complicit in all his wife’s meanness, and groundskeeper, Vincent DiMarco, who does unspeakable things to the children in the dead of night.

Fortunately, there are sympathetic people in these children’s lives, whose small kindnesses make big differences in how they feel about themselves and take on the world.  When tragedy strikes at the Lincoln School, four of these children band together and take a canoe to escape down the river Gilead with the intent of finding Albert’s and Odie’s aunt in St. Louis.  In addition to Albert and Odie, they include Mose, a mute Indian and close friend who communicates through sign language, and Emmie, the daughter of one of the school’s teachers.

Their travels take them through many challenges while giving readers an intimate view of the conditions of the Depression where people are losing their farms, drowning sorrows in drink, establishing Hoovervilles, helping out others, getting by through sharing music and song, and providing hope through the sometimes questionable miracles of tent revivals. 

Reminiscent of Huck Finn’s adventure on the Mississippi, the novel also weaves in many references to The Odyssey, creating a vast canvas where each character moves into the direction of his or her destiny.  The novel can be fully enjoyed for the adventure it is, but the threads of classic literature (quest stories and The Odyssey) provide a vibrant layer to enjoy.  While parts may seem to be too easily tied together,  this is an old-fashioned story that will appeal to many readers.

Krueger, who has a very fine and long-running mystery series set in Minnesota featuring Cork O’Connor, is also the author of the stand-alone novel, Ordinary Grace.

Favorite quotes:
“Open yourself to every possibility , for there is nothing your heart can imagine that is not so.”

“And, of course, there will be hope.  In the end, isn’t that what every good story is about?”