Review by Stacsads -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

[Stacsads]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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An unexpected knock on the door throws Tom’s life into a tailspin. He is in the process of packing for a hiking trip into Washington State’s Olympic National Park, with two good friends, when his ex-wife shows up on his stoop. Ruth leads with, “This is your granddaughter,” as she drags the 13-year-old girl into the house. Ruth concludes with, “She’s been with Fletcher and me four days. That’s enough. It’s your turn.”

Sullen, mouthy, and bad-tempered, Sarah is as displeased to be there as Tom is to have her thrust upon him. Before that moment, he hadn’t known she existed. Believing the best course of action is to cancel the trip until he can figure out what to do with Sarah, he is surprised when his friends suggest they bring her along. Tom is pretty sure it’s a bad idea.

However, forty-five years have passed since Tom and his own grandfather hiked the trails together. And when Bob-Bob perished on that trip, Tom had to bury him in the wilderness. This trip to visit his grandfather’s grave has been in the works for a while and Tom has some unfinished business to attend to.

So, despite his misgivings, Tom and Sarah, along with William and his grown daughter, Myra, head into the wilderness. As Tom suspected, their trip is not without its challenges. At one point, Sarah runs off, angry at Tom, and fails to return to camp. A week-long search turns up nothing. Everyone is bracing for a grim outcome when Sarah suddenly stumbles back into camp. The bizarre story Sarah tells upon returning is met with much speculation. Was it a dream? How else could they explain this mystifying tale? But more importantly, what can they all learn from it?

Sarah’s story was an interlude to the main plot. It was the author’s way to explain a possibility and it was intriguing. But it went on way too long. The reader does not need to know every detail the characters experienced between every Island. Furthermore, the reader does not need to know what every character is doing at a given moment. It often felt like a gratuitous play-by-play.

Charlie Sheldon’s research for Strong Heart is evident on nearly every page. He uses a variety of characters to tell us about ices ages, carbon dating, and the migration of people from Asia across the Bering Land Bridge to North America. He also tells us about mining claims in national parks and tidbits of Native American history and legends. I knew next to nothing about Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula wilderness before reading this book. But as I read, I found myself captivated to the point of looking up maps of the area and refreshing my knowledge of the migration of early man. The author also included a few maps that were helpful to reference while reading the story.

I liked the author’s clear writing but numerous times it came across as too minimal. An example of such text is found on page 63: “They ate dinner in the dark. The night was long. Rain fell hard. The wind blew.” Another example of this thin text is, “They tried to feed her. She ate little. She drank. She remained silent.” I felt like I was reading a grade school primer.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. While the book was well edited for punctuation and grammar, further editing would have created a more robust tale. I noticed a fair amount of redundancy within certain paragraphs and even within sentences. The author used the pronoun “she” eight times in one paragraph, in addition to the eight instances of the pronoun “her” in the same paragraph.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of his style of writing. Much of the book is spoon fed to the reader, leaving precious few bits of information for the reader to imagine. We are told, “His pack is heavy.” We are told, “The sun felt hot.” And we are told, “She smelled.” Of what? I wanted to ask. What did she smell of?

In addition, there were times when he portrayed his characters as knowing something but not explaining how they could know. An example of this is when Sarah, as Strong Heart, says, “Watching Thrower, I could see how much it meant, seeing his home rise before him.” What was Thrower doing or saying in order for her to make this observation? Another example is when the author writes, “William could tell Sergei didn’t think Roger was bluffing.” How could he tell? This remark is without foundation. The characters aren’t clairvoyant so the reader needs these remarks to be anchored to an observable fact.

Despite some style issues, this story is a worthy read, which is why I gave it 3 stars and not 2. I think this book will appeal to people interested in a casual depiction about a significant region of the United States. Those drawn to the study of ancient Indian lore and archeology will find morsels of thought-provoking ideas in this story as well.

Ultimately this story is about belonging and the connections we have to each other. Sarah and Tom discover their relationship as granddaughter and grandfather. William and Myra discover their friend, Tom, is connected to them through their Native blood and through Sarah’s story, each one sees the possibility that they are all connected, indeed we are all connected, from the beginning.

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Strong Heart
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[Laura Lee]

"I also wasn’t a huge fan of his style of writing. Much of the book is spoon fed to the reader, leaving precious few bits of information for the reader to imagine." That's a really insightful analysis. Just out of curiosity, would you read another book by this author? Thanks for an interesting review!

[Stacsads]

Hi. I always enjoy a story that pulls me in, and parts of Strong Heart did do that, despite the writing style. The author shared interesting information within the story, and that kept me going. I would probably consider reading something else from this author, more for the content and not for the writing. Thanks for the nice comment on my review.