This book is a sweeping epic masterpiece which gripped my heart from the first word and took me and my emotions captive.
Based in the summer of 1932 in the middle of the depression, four orphaned children Albert, Odie, Mose and Emmy escape the grips of Thelma Brickman, the woman they nickname “the Black Witch” who torments them at the Native American school they go to. At the tender ages of 16 & 12 (Mose’s age is unknown), Albert, Odie and Mose have suffered the deaths of parents and horrific abuse at the hands of the adults at the Native American school where they live. Albert and Odie are brothers who despite not even being Native Americans, ended up there after their father’s murder. Young Emmy, aged 6, ends up orphaned when a tornado leaves her mother dead. The wicked Thelma Brickman says she will adopt Emmy which prompts the young boys to take action to save her from the grip of the Black Witch and begin the adventure of all adventures running away in a canoe along the Mississippi River.
In the course of this journey they were constantly being chased by Thelma and Clyde Brickman, the police, and anyone wanting the reward offered for their return, and they quickly learned who to trust and who not to trust. They take on wily ways as a means of survival, constantly trying to avoid people bent on harming them. Encountering countless people along the way they also find people who would show them untold kindness and give them food or a place to sleep. They came to see heartache and brokenness at every corner, adding to their own misery, and the belief that God is a tornado who comes and strips away all that is good and right in this world.
This theme of God being a tornado continues throughout the book as Odie (who is narrating the story) tries to make sense of, and process, the unbearable hardships he has experienced himself, and witnesses others experiencing. I felt this so deeply in my bones since I have often held the belief that I will lose all that is dear to me. I lived this journey with them, aching for them, aching for the brokenness they witnessed around them, aching for the brokenness I see in the real world. From the first word of this book there is such a deep gut wrenching ache, but there is not only ache, there is also hope.
They encounter a travelling healing mission that goes from town to town and Sister Eve, the healer, wins all their hearts with her striking singing voice and warm, caring nature. She embraces them all with such kindness that they are drawn to her, which makes me think of Galadriel in LOTR. Sister Eve possesses a gift at reading the longing and desires of each heart and she sees and understands each child and their deepest desires. Odie’s heart, she said, was easiest to read, he longed for home; somewhere to call home. She gives them money for their journey and lets them go despite wanting them to remain with her and her travelling mission.
A longing for home is drenched in such raw emotion and is steeped in a desire for belonging, something common to everyone. Young Odie had lost every person he had ever loved, apart from his three friends, yet he constantly held on to hope that there was a home waiting for him somewhere. I liken this to a longing for heaven, when this world hurts and hurts and hurts again, yet there is a constant ache and longing for heaven. I know this longing so well.
Albert and Odie discover they have an Aunt in Saint Louis and intend it to be their destination, however, they end up finding a family who offers them a safe place to live, and offers Albert and Mose work. Albert, Mose and Emmy agree they want to stop travelling and remain with these people they’ve found, but Odie’s desire for home draws him on and despite heartbroken he departs from his closest companions, only confiding in one new friend about leaving.
Odie rides in boxcars on railways till he lands in Saint Louis. He finds his Aunt Julia and initially it is enormously awkward and strange between them. He is shocked and disappointed to find out she is a prostitute who runs a brothel. When he realises and understands why men come and go constantly from the house, full of young women, he is once again bitterly disappointed and hurt that nothing is as it should be and every adult he encounters comes with such messed up lives. Surprisingly, Odie crosses paths with Sister Eve, the healer, who once again suggests he join her on her mission if he chooses not to stay with his Aunt. He returns to tell his Aunt Julia that he was leaving only for her to shock him to his core with the truth that she is in fact his mother and she has loved him and longed for him all his life, but because of the life she lived she gave him to her sister to bring him up properly.
Thelma and Clyde Brickman discover Odie at his newly found mother’s house and a showdown takes place between Thelma and Julia, who as it turns out have previous connections and animosity between them, as they were prostitutes together many years before. Thelma admitted to murdering Odie’s father (his uncle who he believed to be his father), and she then pulled out a gun and shot Odie in the leg. Julia ran at Thelma and they both fell out a window which killed Thelma and left Julia paralysed.
About this time Albert, Mose and Emmy finally found Odie, and his mother, and were reunited together. They began a new life with Julia once she had recovered.
This Tender land raises so many questions about the ugliness in this world and whether there is a good God truly there who loves and cares for us. It may not directly answer those questions yet at the same time it answers them in spades. I feel like I’ve just read one of the greatest theology books of my life despite this being a work of historical fiction.
Some really significant events in the book included crossing paths with a scary looking man called Big Jack who essentially kept the children prisoner and made them work for him. They developed a warm relationship with him, but Odie suspects Jack had murdered his family who he mentions from time to time, and is wary of him. When Jack threatened violence on Emmy Odie pulls out a gun he took from Clyde Brickman and shoots Jack in the chest. They escape after that and Odie carries the weight of guilt for murdering him, especially because he liked him (he had unintentionally killed one of the evil men who inflicted much abuse on them while escaping from the school also, which also weighed on his mind). Later in the book he encounters Big Jack again who is very much alive and he thanks Odie immensely for shooting him because it triggered him to consider his life and turn things around and he told Odie he had started to repair his relationship with his wife and child (he obviously didn’t murder them!).
Another very significant story of redemption involved an alcoholic who had lost everything his family had and they were homeless and suffering because of his addiction. Odie had fallen in love with his daughter, Maybeth. For a reason even unknown to Odie himself, he gave all his money to the man (which Sister Eve had given to them) and told him to take his family to where they need to be. The next morning the man hadn’t returned to their tent and the family assumed he had found money to waste on alcohol once again but instead he had bought petrol to put in their car and gifts for each of his family and he entrusted the rest of his money to his mother-in-law to look after so he didn’t get tempted to use it on alcohol. Odie offered a second chance to this man and his family, and he went on to marry Maybeth when they were grown up.
A reflection of this book in no way does justice to how spectacular it is. It felt like every sentence had such profound meaning. Every person they encountered brought greater depth. Every broken soul they crossed paths with opened new opportunities for empathy and understanding of the human condition. The hurt, the pain, the devastating blows and setbacks were also balanced with such beauty. Beauty in deep human connection, beauty in simple kindnesses, beauty in redemption, and beauty in holding onto hope when life screams to give up.
No comments:
Post a Comment