It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine's father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church--a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.
Crooked Hallelujah tells the stories of Justine--a mixed-blood Cherokee woman--and her daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma's Indian Country in the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust of the 1980s. However, life in Texas isn't easy, and Reney feels unmoored from her family in Indian Country. Against the vivid backdrop of the Red River, we see their struggle to survive in a world--of unreliable …
It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine's father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church--a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.
Crooked Hallelujah tells the stories of Justine--a mixed-blood Cherokee woman--and her daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma's Indian Country in the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust of the 1980s. However, life in Texas isn't easy, and Reney feels unmoored from her family in Indian Country. Against the vivid backdrop of the Red River, we see their struggle to survive in a world--of unreliable men and near-Biblical natural forces, like wildfires and tornados--intent on stripping away their connections to one another and their very ideas of home.
In lush and empathic prose, Kelli Jo Ford depicts what this family of proud, stubborn, Cherokee women sacrifices for those they love, amid larger forces of history, religion, class, and culture. This is a big-hearted and ambitious novel of the powerful bonds between mothers and daughters by an exquisite and rare new talent.
This book is really, really good. The end reminds me of Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God. I recommend this to anyone struggling to continue moving through climate anxiety or generational trauma. I love a multigenerational novel. ❤️ This one packs quite a punch in just ~300 pages.
This book is really, really good. The end reminds me of Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God. I recommend this to anyone struggling to continue moving through climate anxiety or generational trauma. I love a multigenerational novel. ❤️ This one packs quite a punch in just ~300 pages.
An impressive debut. Although it feels (at timeS) like a slow read for such a short book. The POV changes often, but I only needed to get my bearings a couple of times. But at those times, there were some considerable jumps in time and place that felt like, if it was a TV series, I'd missed a couple of crucial episodes -- maybe even a season. Though still impressive that it covers so much time in so few pages. With 4 generations of Cherokee women, and 2 of them being main characters, only 1 of them felt fully fleshed out and developed.
An impressive debut. Although it feels (at timeS) like a slow read for such a short book. The POV changes often, but I only needed to get my bearings a couple of times. But at those times, there were some considerable jumps in time and place that felt like, if it was a TV series, I'd missed a couple of crucial episodes -- maybe even a season. Though still impressive that it covers so much time in so few pages. With 4 generations of Cherokee women, and 2 of them being main characters, only 1 of them felt fully fleshed out and developed.
