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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Historical Fiction At Its Best!, March 7, 2005
This review is from: Crooked River (Library Binding)
CROOKED RIVER is the second novel for author Shelley Pearsall, winner of the 2003 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Set in Ohio in 1812, CROOKED RIVER tells the dramatic story of an unjust trial of an Indian--nicknamed Indian John--who was captured and held prisoner by one of the white settlers. "Indian John" is accused of murdering a white fur trapper. The story is told from two perspectives: prose chapters narrated by Rebecca Carver, the 13 year old daughter of the white man who captured the Indian, and a series of poems narrated by the Indian--whose real name is Amik. As his formal trial draws closer--although the men in the settlement have already concluded his guilt--Rebecca becomes more and more convinced that "Indian John" is innocent. One other man, Peter Kelley, a lawyer, also believes in his innocence. Kelley tries his best to win the case and set his friend Amik free, but the judge and jury will not be swayed. The trial is a mockery. Evidence or no evidence, they want this man to be convicted and hung.
CROOKED RIVER is based loosely on the true story of an Indian named John O'Mic who was tried and convicted of murder in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1812. He was held captive in a cabin and shared it with the white man and his family--there was a thirteen year old daughter. Using this true story as a basis and framework, Pearsall fictionalized the account to show how these people might have felt. Her research was thorough and impressive as her author's note indicates. While CROOKED RIVER is based on a true story, fact and fiction have two different endings. In real life, John O'Mic was sentenced to death--by hanging. "Indian John" was also sentenced to die--however, thanks to his friends he faked his death and was able to escape further west along with the rest of his family.
I thought CROOKED RIVER was a wonderful book. Although Pearsall is not of Native American ancestry, I believe her research was so extensive that Amik's voice was authentic. The poems narrated by Amik are beautiful. To learn that some of these phrases were borrowed from authentic Ojibwe sources--poems, stories, songs, etc--was fascinating. It made the book even "more authentic" than I originally thought. The narration of Rebecca Carver was equally researched. Pearsall read primary sources--diaries, books, letters, etc--from the time period to capture authentic language patterns and phrases of the whites as well. One source in particular that Pearsall used was an unpublished diary of a young girl named Emily Nash.
CROOKED RIVER is an excellent novel, and I highly recommend it to all. I am impressed not only with the novel CROOKED RIVER but with the author's in-depth research into the time period and opposing cultures that provide the background and context for the novel. I am curious to find a copy of her first novel, TROUBLE DON'T LAST, and read it as well.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cry me a river, January 3, 2006
About halfway through a thorough reading of this book, a question popped into my brain. How many well-known children's books center on an important court case? There must be dozens, right? I mean, a courtroom is a perfect setting for drama. Just ask the audience of "Law and Order". Children's books, similarly, thrive on heightened emotions. Hence, there must be lots of children's fiction out there employing judges, juries, and gavel poundings right? Maybe so, but I was hard pressed to think of a one. The closest story I came up with was Harper Lee's, "To Kill a Mockingbird" and calling that a children's book is bound to offend all sorts of people everywhere. No, at this time I think that "Crooked River" is probably the only children's book I've personally read where the courtroom becomes the center of one young girl's life. I just wish I could figure out whether I liked it or not.
It's 1812 and Rebecca Carver has just learned that there's a manacled Chippewa in her attic. Needless to say, the news comes as quite a shock. Till now Reb has lived a pretty downtrodden life. She has an overbearing father, a series of spoiled or ignorant male relatives, and just her older and younger sisters for comfort. Finding an Indian in her attic has done little to improve her life. It seems that her father and some men in the village decided to go out and find the Chippewa that killed a white trapper some miles out of town. They proclaim Indian John (as they have dubbed him) to be the murderer, leaving Carver's daughters to fear for their lives as they sleep in their beds. In time, however, Reb learns that the man chained in the attic may not be the kind of man her fellows have always taught her to fear. A red-haired lawyer named Peter Kelley has known Amik, the prisoner, since childhood and believes fully in his innocence. It will take a trial to prove to Reb just what kind of influence that she, a mere thirteen-year-old slip of a girl, can have over events beyond her control.
Judging the portrayal of a Native American in a children's book is a monumentally difficult task. Often in cases like this one I turn to the Oyate organization (a Native American group charged with determining how popular culture depicts them) to see what their reactions to any given book are. In this particular case, however, "Crooked River" is too new for much outside critiquing. The book itself is broken into two narratives. In one, Rebecca talks about her changing perceptions and disillusionment with the people around her. In the other is Amik's voice. His words are in a different font and are written in a kind of free verse. At the beginning of the book, these words are rather beautiful. "it is the time when the leaves / are small on the trees. / too small / for hiding". But I had a very difficult time deciding whether or not Amik's mode of speech was a creative answer to giving his character a distinct personality and way of seeing the world or if it was an offensive stereotype too often done. He does, after all, revert back to those old clichés of wondering why the whites around him are seemingly deaf and dumb to the smells and sounds around them. It's a moment we've seen in countless books and films. On the other hand, the verse is often rather touching and quite interesting. I'm torn both ways.
The book itself is more than readable. At first it seems reliant on two-dimensional characters. Rebecca is good and therefore she pities the Indian. Her father is bad and therefore loathes Amik. It takes a while to realize but Rebecca's older sister Laura is one of the exceptions to this rule. In her case you have someone good who fears and dislikes Amik and has a hard time overcoming her own prejudices. Amos, Rebecca's older brother, is the same way. Pearsall's writing deftly plays with their thoughts on the matter while making it perfectly clear that early U.S. settlers weren't exactly the saintly explorers so lauded in American stories and songs.
A book can be beautifully written, penned with aplomb, and smart as a whip yet not quite touch the reader. Personally, "Crooked River" was not one of my favorite books of the year. This is not to say that it isn't a worthwhile piece of writing. I simply couldn't get a grip on the character of Amik and all that he was meant to represent. For others, their reactions will be different. Some people will adore this book. Some will despise it. I feel neither of these emotions myself. I simply recommend that you read it on your own time and come to your own conclusions about it. If Amazon.com is good for nothing else, it helps us to proclaim to the masses how much we love or hate a title. I will be eagerly reading all the other responses, "Crooked River" engenders.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully researched and told, September 20, 2010
Dreaming of seeing my own books in bookstores one day, I find myself consciously wondering sometimes, what makes me pick a book up from the shelf? What makes me look at the blurb on the back? And then what makes me buy? Unfortunately what makes me buy is all too often influenced by whether the book is cheap, and some of my most treasured finds have been remaindered hardbacks.
Crooked River was a hardback remainder with a beautiful cover. Purple clouds (I like purple) loom in a black-lit sky and jagged lightning stabs at a woven earth-toned patterned thread. That's why I picked it up. The back blurb lists the awards received for Shelley Pearsall's previous book, Trouble Don't Last, convincing me she must be a good writer who tells a good tale. And the inside flap reveals the voice of Indian John in prose poetry, coupled with this introduction, "The year is 1812. A white trapper is murdered. And a young Chippewa Indian stands accused." I was hooked.
The story is told in two voices, that of Indian John with flowing words likes streams of living meaning, and that of Rebecca Carver, a thirteen-year-old slowly learning just how wrong the world can be. Her halting steps, from obedient acceptance of everything she's told, to human concern and thankfulness and thought, are beautifully told. Her words reflect the language of the time--the author says she mined old documents and diaries for authentic turns of phrase. The passages grow to reveal the mind of a genuine girl with a thirteen-year-old's passion for truth and joy under the burden of a settler's needs.
I learned how justice was conducted on the frontier, how judges travelled from town to town, how decisions were made and lives ended with the aid of a jury of somebody's peers. I learned of human frailty, of good people believing falsehood and closing their ears to truth, and also of hope. I longed for the right ending to the book, though I couldn't see how it would come. And then I read an ending that was righter than right and delighted me.
I hope I might read Trouble Don't Last one day. But for now, Crooked River was a wonderful introduction to an author whose research astounds and convinces, and whose writing voices inspire.
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