294 pages
We all go through that period in our life where we're not sure where exactly we fit in, where we belong. Muri Pond's marriage has just ended, and she has packed up her two children and moves them to a dilapitted trailer on an Indian reservation with her aunt and uncle. Muri's father, who was part Native American, has recently passed away and left his legacy to Muri.
After not haing seen her father since her parents separated when she was a young child, Muri finds that her father's legacy is a mixed bag. For years, he had battled alcoholism, but never lost sight of his connection to his daughter, his heritage, his people and the land.
Muri encounters challenges from her rebelious teenage daughter, being a newly minted single mother, her faith and trying to figure out who she is and where she fits in. She also encounters resistance from a local rancher who controls nearly the entire town and who wants to buy her land supposedly to obtain access to water rights for his cattle. After being blacklisted by most of the locals, Muri vehementhly fights and uncovers the rancher's true intentions - the illegal selling of priceless Native American artifacts originally uncovered by Muri's father.
During the book, Muri is on a journey to discover who her father was. As she digs deeper, she relives memories from her early childhood with her father and the many things she shares in common him - "If my father loved books, he couldn't have been ordinary at all."
The book also documents Muri's exploration of her father's Christian faith: "Had it been hard for him to separate his Native spirtual leanings from his Christian ones? How had he managed to embrace his ethnic heritage and still hang onto faith that had come from the very people who had robbed Indians of their lands? Had he been like me, undecided in what - or whom - to believe?"
It was an interesting book with insight into challenges that many of us face in our lives.
We all go through that period in our life where we're not sure where exactly we fit in, where we belong. Muri Pond's marriage has just ended, and she has packed up her two children and moves them to a dilapitted trailer on an Indian reservation with her aunt and uncle. Muri's father, who was part Native American, has recently passed away and left his legacy to Muri.
After not haing seen her father since her parents separated when she was a young child, Muri finds that her father's legacy is a mixed bag. For years, he had battled alcoholism, but never lost sight of his connection to his daughter, his heritage, his people and the land.
Muri encounters challenges from her rebelious teenage daughter, being a newly minted single mother, her faith and trying to figure out who she is and where she fits in. She also encounters resistance from a local rancher who controls nearly the entire town and who wants to buy her land supposedly to obtain access to water rights for his cattle. After being blacklisted by most of the locals, Muri vehementhly fights and uncovers the rancher's true intentions - the illegal selling of priceless Native American artifacts originally uncovered by Muri's father.
During the book, Muri is on a journey to discover who her father was. As she digs deeper, she relives memories from her early childhood with her father and the many things she shares in common him - "If my father loved books, he couldn't have been ordinary at all."
The book also documents Muri's exploration of her father's Christian faith: "Had it been hard for him to separate his Native spirtual leanings from his Christian ones? How had he managed to embrace his ethnic heritage and still hang onto faith that had come from the very people who had robbed Indians of their lands? Had he been like me, undecided in what - or whom - to believe?"
It was an interesting book with insight into challenges that many of us face in our lives.
