Warren Read

Ernie Luntz is a convicted murderer and now he’s on the loose and is being hunted by the police. Back at home at Ash Falls, his family and all of the residents wonder if he’ll return there. That’s where the murder happened and Ernie would be a fool to set foot in that town again. But his ex-wife Bobbie and his son Patrick still live there and that may be enticement enough for Ernie to return.

I became completely immersed in this compelling tale. Not only is there the suspense of show more “will Ernie return and what will happen if he does” but there’s also the interconnecting stories of others living in Ash Falls. This is a quiet book that slowly pulls you in. The author masterfully tells the story of each of these people who have been touched by the same horrendous event in the past and presents their stories through their everyday lives. These characters are real – Marcelle, the too-young-to-be-married wife of Eugene, Hank, the pot dealer, Patrick, the gay teenager who is struggling to deal with his father’s crime, and Bobbie, the single mom who feels to blame. I grew to know and care for these people. The ending brought me to tears.

For those animal lovers out there, there is quite a bit about mink farming though I felt the author was not a fan of it, which made it easier to read. Though personally I had to skip the part about the day the minks’ skins are harvested.

There were sections throughout this book that I had to stop and read again. This quote may not appear in the final edition but I’d like to share it so you can see this writer’s potential. “The vista shifted quickly from wheat fields to a wide spread of stunted trees, perfect geometrical grids of them that stretched on forever, naked branches reaching up, shocked, as if crying out to be released from the roots that anchored them into the cold earth.” This is the author’s first novel, though he did write a memoir, “The Lyncher in Me: A Search for Redemption in the Face of History” about his discovery that his great-grandfather had incited the lynching of three black circus workers. I’m looking forward to what he’ll come up with next.

Recommended.

This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review. show less

I saw Sherrilyn Ifill recommend this book on Twitter. The book is a memoir and apology by the author Warren Read about the actions of his Great Grandfather in a 1920 lynching of three young black men in Duluth, Minnesota in 1920.

if you are a therapist, anyone interested in multi-generational trauma, or just someone trying to make sense of the world right now--this is worth seeking out.

We have to look our history square in the face to move on as a nation. Scratch some dirt in your show more neighborhood in this country and you'll find a story of injustice. Let's own up to it.

In weird coincidences I often find in the book world, the author happens to live not too far from me. show less

This book was not what I expected, and was a pleasant surprise. From the blurb, I thought it would be more of a mystery thriller. Instead it's a story of aftermath. The mystery unfolds slowly, revealed piecemeal as characters open up and deal with the grief left in the wake of tragedy. Shock, denial, shame. The setting (remote, inclement, atmospherically confining) adds greatly to the mood of the story, giving a sense of being trapped and unable to move on until unfinished business is show more addressed.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in a GoodRead's giveaway. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1171958.html

This is a fascinating book. Subtitled "A Search for Redemption in the Face of History", it chronicles the research of Warren Read, an elementary school teacher from Washington State, into the June 1920 lynching of three black men in Duluth, Minnesota, accused of a rape that had not actually happened. To his horror, Read discovered while doing some online genealogical research that his own great-grandfather was jailed for inciting the riot. His show more exploration of that hot summer night in Duluth goes in parallel with exploring his own childhood experiences (his own father was also jailed, for raping his step-sister) and teasing out the unspoken parts of his own family's history. In one particularly moving chapter he visits the home town of one of the lynched men, and gives his own testimony at the local church. It's actually quite a short book, but passionate in its detailed analysis. show less