Readers and Writers: Late summer's 'Lightning' and 'Love Songs' are getting plenty of praise

Aug. 21—Two of the most anticipated novels of late summer are widely-praised. William Kent Krueger has cancelled his long national tour for "Lightning Strike," which would have begun this week, because of concerns about COVID. Honoree Fanonne Jeffrers will virtually discuss "The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois" this week presented by Rain Taxi Review..

'LIGHTNING STRIKE" by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books, $27)

There was a bench on the sidewalk, and he sat and allowed himself the indulgence of reverie. Beneath a blue sky and a butter yellow sun, with a cool breeze on his face, the weight of a new badge on his chest, and the responsibilities that came with it resting on his shoulders, he considered a summer long ago when he'd first begun to try to unravel the mystery hat had been his father.

So begins William Kent Krueger's new Cork O'Connor thriller, 18th in this series and a prequel to his previous books featuring O'Connor, the sheriff of Tamarack County in northern Minnesota.

It's 1989 and Cork, newly sworn-in as sheriff, recalls the summer of 1963 when he was 12 going on 13, on the cusp of young manhood and hoping to help his sheriff father, Liam, in an investigation into the apparent suicide of an Indian man.

It's a joy for O'Connor fans to meet characters whose futures we know from previous books. It is set, of course, in Aurora, the small town on the shores of Iron Lake (title of the debut book in this series), close to the reservation of Iron Lake Anishinaabe, where Cork's full-blood grandmother Dilsey lives. Cork's family includes his mother, Jo, and they have Native American friends with whom we are familiar, including Sam Winter Moon, owner of Sam's Place, where the best hamburgers in the Northland are served, and Henry Meloux, a Mide or healer, young and strong is this book but just as wise as he is in later books when he's close to 100 years old.

When Cork and his buddies Billy and Jorge are hiking on the edge of the Boundary Waters, they find the body of Billy's uncle, Big John Manydeeds, hanging from a tree at Lightning Strike, a clearing in the middle of a great stand of old-growth white pines and mixed hardwoods at the center of which is a burned log structure that had been hit by lightning. The Indians believed it was a sacred place and it was burned because it was violated by someone building on it.

Cork's dad believes Big John committed suicide. He had been a notorious drinker but the folks on the res insisted he had stopped drinking. They demanded Liam do more investigating, but Cork's dad had found liquor bottles behind the dead man's cabin and an autopsy confirmed his alcohol level was elevated.

Big John's death comes at a time of heightened tensions between Indians and white people in the county. The Ojibwe were still angry about the effects of the Indian Relocation Act of 1956, under which reservations were terminated. The people saw this as another in a long history of attempts by the government to get rid of Indians, including forcibly taking their children and sending them to boarding schools where they were often abused.

As Liam stands firm about thinking big John's death is a suicide, the body of a young Indian girl is found in a backwater known only to the Ojibwe. That escalates tension between whites and Native Americans. Even Cork's grandmother is mad at Liam for not digging deeper into Big John's death.

Their anger turns on Cork's father. After Cork gets in a fight with a kid who calls the dead girl ugly names, his dad's deputy, Joe Meese, warns the boy:

"Things are happening here like I've never seen before. I don't know what's at the bottom of it or why, but I do know that you and your family are at the heart of it. You're kinda like a bull's-eye right now. You be careful."

When Cork's dad has second thoughts and begins to suspect Big John might have been murdered, Cork asks permission to do his own research. Liam sees no harm in it and Henry Meloux tells Cork and his friends to "follow the crumbs" like Hansel and Gretel. The boys don't know what that means, but they start to investigate a link between the deaths of the big Indian man and the young woman.

As Cork pursues the truth, he twice sees a "towering black shape" he believes is the spirit of Big John.

"Lightning Strike," which earned a starred review from Library Journal, encompasses all the things Krueger's devoted readers love about his books — a twisty plot, characters that come alive on the page, and a deep understanding of these people as well as his lush descriptions of the changing colors of Iron Lake's surfaces in the shifting weather and the piney smell of the woods.

'THE LOVE SONGS OF W.E.B. DU BOIS" by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (Harper, $28.99)

I opened the paper and touched the edge of the daguerreotype inside. It was a picture of three girls who seemed more than solemn. They looked severe, as if they would rather not be bothered. All three wore frowns so deep, they seemed to be scowling. My breath caught — one of these girls was Eliza Two, my great-great-great-great grandmother.

"If this isn't the Great American Novel, it's a mighty attempt at achieving one." That's what Kirkus Review thinks of Honoree Fanonne Jeffers' sweeping, marvelous debut novel.

Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, called it "a staggering and ambitious saga. ... Themes of family, class, higher education, feminism and colorism yield many rich layers. Readers will be floored."

Jeffers, award-winning author of five poetry collections, teaches creative writing at the University of Oklahoma where she is associate professor of English.

She will discuss her novel virtually at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 25, presented by Rain Taxi Review, joined in conversation by Lissa Jones-Lofgren, Twin Cities-based radio and podcast host. The program is free, but registration is required at: raintaxi.com/honoree-fanonne-jeffers/.

Touted in most major publications as one of the most anticipated books of the summer, it's the story of the three daughters of light-skinned Geoff Garfield and his wife, Belle, both college-educated. The oldest daughter, Lydia, hides a childhood trauma that ultimately leads her to use the drugs her husband deals. Coco is a genius and a lesbian doctor.

The narrator is sassy, ambitious Ailey Pearl Garfield, who wants to become the first African American to earn a doctorate in history at her college.

Interspersed with the contemporary story are the "songs," quotes from Du Bois' writings that introduce the stories of the Garfield ancestors, white and Black as well as Cherokee, the tribe that was forced out of their homes and moved to Oklahoma when white people wanted their land.

There are the stories we have heard and read — rape of Black women and girls (a particularly cruel character embodies all that awfulness), the deep fear of white people on the part of enslaved men and women, and the emotional and mental strength it took for the enslaved to survive.

Jeffers puts particular emphasis on the enslaved women, who raise their own children and the half-white children fathered by the master. One mother scars her beautiful daughter's face with a knife and cuts of all her hair so she will not be tempting to the master.

Jeffrers' evocation of these strong women is so emotional, so real, she gives new meaning to the terrible practice of enslavement.

We follow Ailey through college, where we learn of colorism among her classmates, such as the lighter-skinned women being sought by sororities, and her experiences with men.

Northerners not familiar with the South might marvel at the emphasis everyone puts on manners and raising children to be courteous to their elders, as well as the practice of gathering on wide porches. When one character builds a New England Saltbox-style house, people are aghast. Where is the porch? Where do people sit to talk?

This is also a novel of place, the little town of Chicasetta, Ga. When Ailey is miserable she returns to the farm that was once a plantation and visits her relatives.

"The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois" is 790 pages long, but it reads like 150 pages, so deft is Jeffers at writing perfect dialogue, as well as looking into her characters' hearts. Her astonishing feat is keeping all the balls in the air. There are dozens of characters who move in and out of the narrative, and in the end she brings them all together in Ailey's research.

If you're looking for a late summer book, this is for you. You will become emotionally involved with the characters.