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Summary
Summary
Clement and Angel are fraternal twinsnbsp;separated at birth; they grow up in the same small, frontier loggingnbsp;town of Stillwater, Minnesota. Clement was left at the orphanage. Angel was adopted by the town's richest couple, but is marked and threatened by her mother's mental illness. They rarely meet, but Clement knows if he is truly in need, Angel will come to save him.
Stillwater,nbsp;near the Mississippi River andnbsp;Canada, becomes an important stop on the Underground Railroad. As Clement and Angel grow up and the country marches to war, their lives are changed by many battles for freedom and by losses in the struggle for independence, large and small.
Stillwater nbsp;reveals the hardscrabble lives of pioneers, nuns, squaws, fur trappers, loggers, runaway slaves and freedmen,nbsp;outlaws and people of conscience, all seekingnbsp;a better, freer,nbsp;more prosperous future. It is a novel about mothers, about siblings, about the ways in which we must take care of one another and let go of one another. And it'snbsp;brought to us in Nicole Helget's winning, gorgeous prose.
Author Notes
Born in 1976, NICOLE LEA HELGET grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, a childhood and place she drew on in the writing of her memoir, The Summer of Ordinary Ways . She received her BA and an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Based on the novel's first chapter, NPR's Scott Simon awarded The Turtle Catcher the Tamarack Prize from Minnesota Monthly .
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Helget, best known for her critically acclaimed memoir The Summer of Ordinary Ways, sets her third novel in the harsh frontier of Minnesota around the time of the Civil War, where the explosion in logging activity transforms her characters as wholly as it does the landscape. What drives the narrative is the dark side of the pioneer spirit-the urge to abandon home and loved ones in search of opportunity. Helget's colorful cast struggles against an "every man for himself" frontier mentality: from a set of orphaned, separated twins named Clement and Angel; to their biological father, a ne'er-do-well fur-trapper named Beaver Jean; to Angel's nervous, abusive adoptive mother in her fine taffeta skirts; to the nuns and priests and native Americans and escaped slaves who fill out the titular town of Stillwater. The question of whether they will-or won't-take the risks to help each other survive gives the story some tension, but Helget's lyricism is what elevates it: "Wedged among the reeds of the shore, the swan's nest rested in a precarious position... Clement watched as the river took another few strands of the nest, and he was reminded of what happens when one thread is pulled from the cloth." Agent: Faye Bender, Faye Bender Literary Agency. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
With historic forces playing out on a human scale, this novel brings a lyrical voice all its own to midwestern literature. An author recognized for her memoir The Summer of Ordinary Ways (2005), Helget plunges with the force of river rapids into nineteenth-century life on the changing landscape of Minnesota's wild frontier, with all its hardships. The story revolves around the connection between fraternal twins Clement and Angel, which proves to be both a blessing and a burden throughout their lives among the hardy town and prairie folk. Helget's writing practically sings with the force of Clement's aching devotion to his sister and its consequences. The characters' unique perspectives weave a rich tapestry of the community, replete with religious caretakers, logger barons, and an abolitionist brothel. Throughout, Helget beats the theme of human bondage in ways both obvious and subtle, from runaway slaves to a domineering mother. A well-crafted meditation on bonds and bondage, Stillwater offers an eloquent tribute to the tribulations of those who made their mark on a growing nation.--Thoreson, Bridget Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Helget's tale of frontier life in the territory of Minnesota gives stark meaning to the term "woebegone." The novel interweaves the stories of several denizens of Stillwater, Minn., as the town is transformed from wilderness outpost to lumber empire. We know from the beginning how wily Beaver Jean, a fur trapper and trader, meets his end--from an ax wielded by his own daughter. The events leading up to this date with destiny are recounted in an extended flashback which comprises the novel. Lydian, Beaver Jean's runaway wife, arrives at the orphanage run by Mother St. John, a Catholic nun, and the peripatetic priest Father Paul. There, Lydian gives birth to twins, a boy, Clement, and girl, Angel. After their mother escapes to Mexico, Angel is adopted by a wealthy couple, the Hatterbys, who live nearby, while Clement becomes the surrogate son of Mother St. John's assistant, Big Waters, a Native American exiled by her tribe. Soon after the twins are born, a fugitive slave, Eliza, arrives at the orphanage with her young son, Davis. Ailing from consumption, Eliza has run away from her masters while they were traveling in the North, and Beaver Jean, who's seeking other sidelines now that beaver hats are no longer fashionable menswear, is on her trail, hoping to collect a bounty. However, he's slowed considerably by a decrepit nag and his remaining two wives. Father Paul spirits Eliza and Davis to a house of ill repute (also a stop on the Underground Railroad), where Eliza dies. Davis is adopted by a prostitute, Daisy, who was ruined after being jilted by her Southern beau. Her most frequent client is Mr. Hatterby, whose wife is slowly poisoning Angel to keep her--and her husband--close to home. But when Clement and Angel reconnect, their fierce bond will explode everyone's best laid schemes. Although the dialects occasionally distract, and too many colorful characters clamor for attention, this novel effectively dramatizes the seismic sociological shifts that shaped the American Midwest.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Set on the Minnesota frontier, in the river town that eventually became the home of the state prison, this novel focuses on the intertwined lives of various settlers, Native Americans, escaped slaves, and orphans. They include twins Angel and Clement, who are separated by Angel's adoption into a prominent family but connected by a psychic link; Mother St. John and Father Paul, who run an orphanage that also serves as a stop on the Underground Railroad; and trapper and bounty hunter Beaver Jean and his two Native American wives. As the narrative unfolds, we see the evolution of an unsettled territory into statehood, the growth of the timber industry, the uneasy relations with Native Americans, and Minnesota's role in the Civil War. VERDICT The novel often has a gothic feel, with madwomen, poisonings, and dead babies. But there is also an undercurrent of black humor, particularly in the portrayal of Beaver Jean, who is reprehensible but also a delightful comic creation. Helget (The Summer of Ordinary Ways) tends to go overboard with exposition in both narrative and dialog, but her research has provided copious fascinating detail that she interweaves with her intriguing tale.-Christine -DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
1 The River Stillwater, Minnesota May 1863 Thousands of white pine and tamarack logs were hung up, crisscrossed, and tangled to form a dam as tight as a sinner's fingers on the St. Croix River. North of the logjam, the surface of the great river shimmered and reflected the sun, haloing the town of Stillwater so that its citizens shielded their eyes as they watched rivulets creep toward their homes and stores. A dry spring had depleted the water level, and an easterly crook in the riverbed caught the trunks, one after another, until they stretched shore to shore. The usual roar of the St. Croix was eerily quiet, and stagnant pools sat rank among the logs. The backed-up water breached Main Street, flooding the lower roads, the railroad tracks, and the basement of the state prison. The women of Stillwater walked from one side of town to the other on boards men had thrown over the miry roads. Mud dangled like lace along skirt hems. A young woman, laden with rattraps, tripped and fell and was nearly hit by the wheels of a passing wagon, but Mr. Barton Hatterby, a local politician, grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his own arms just in time. Her heart beat hard. Mr. Hatterby was handsome and had more than once charmed a young lass out of her knickers. Everyone in Stillwater said his wife, Millicent Hatterby, was "touched" and, worse, had been a poor mother to their daughter, Angel. When Millicent Hatterby heard about her husband's good deed, she flew into another jealous fit and threatened to throw herself down the stairs. Mr. Hatterby tied her to the bedpost and sent for the priest. Father Paul, from St. Mary's Basilica, who'd been overseeing the building of a clay berm to hold water back from his church, rushed away to pray over the affected woman. While he was gone administering extreme unction, the laborers he'd hired skulked into the warm church and stared up at a ceiling fresco of the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Heart until they fell asleep upon the dry padded pews. While they slept, the river water poured over the berm and rippled down the marble stairs into the church basement, destroying relics such as a wood sliver from Christ's cross, a bone chip from the apostle James, and a thread from Judas's hanging rope. Stillwater horses found themselves stuck in the sludge up to their bellies. One fought so fiercely against the sticky matter that he worked himself into a heart attack and died where he stood. The rest of the horses looked as though they wore thigh-high stockings of grime. On the outskirts of town, Beaver Jean's hogs, drowned when the waters overcame their pen, floated, their legs up and bellies bloated. Beaver Jean's two wives lassoed the carcasses together, pulled them to dry land, and disemboweled the animals. The women hadn't seen Beaver Jean in days. But they were content in each other's company, with or without him. On the north end of Stillwater town, the whores of the Red Swan Saloon waved colorful handkerchiefs and whistled to prospective clients from the safety of the dry balcony. They ordered the hot-footed men to leave their dirty boots on the stairs. And rather than visit each woman individually, Father Paul stood on the bottom steps and threw general absolutions up to all the doves at once. He came to hear their confessions weekly, yelling, "For your fornications say a decade of the rosary and sin no more!" The women crossed themselves. They giggled and shouted down, "We won't!" Mr. Hatterby, who liked to wear his boots in every situation, bought an extra pair, which he kept on the third stair and would exchange for his sodden ones before he ascended to the room of Miss Daisy, the best whore at the Red Swan as far as he was concerned. Mr. Hatterby showed no shame as he passed Father Paul on the stairs. The politician had promised in his will to bequeath a great gift upon St. Mary's Basilica, and so Father Paul prayed forgiveness for the politician's lust and adultery too, even though the man's shadow had never graced a confessional. Mother St. John, headmistress of Stillwater Home for Orphans and Infirmed, sent her children out with pails. Frogs teemed from every corner of the earth, as if sent forth in a biblical plague. The children captured them, knocked them out against rocks, and brought them to Mother St. John, who butchered them, then floured and fried the legs in hot grease. After the frog-leg feasts, prayers, and bedtime, Mother St. John's helper, Big Waters, lifted her feet for Mother St. John to tend. The withered old things were drenched, wrinkled, pale, bleeding, and dropping skin in leaves. Big Waters was called "The Beggar" in town for her frequent trips to the backdoors of the wealthy, appealing for pennies for the orphans. Big Waters had the tale of the north in her. She knew the story of the place all the way back to creation if anyone cared to ask, which no one ever did. Stillwater children squealed with delight and were head-to-toe wet from frolicking in the water during the day. But many of them took sick with fever and chills at night. Thomas and Angel Lawrence's youngest daughter, Goldenrod, caught a chill and would suffer a cough for the rest of her short life. Thomas Lawrence was heir to and operator of the largest timber outfit in the entire north. He spent little time at home, though his wife, Angel, was considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in Stillwater. Some said, though, that if you looked near enough, you could see that her eyes were too close together and pitch-black and that her nose and chin were too pinched to be considered beautiful. Everyone agreed that she had strange ways, like her mother, Millicent Hatterby, and kept suspect company. There was something about a hidden affair with an army deserter, some gossip about a Negro lover, and more speculation about an illegitimate child kept hidden in the basement of the Lawrences' mansion. And some said she wasn't even a natural child, that she'd been abandoned by one of those prairie mothers who every year popped out a baby she couldn't feed and was then adopted by the Hatterbys when she was but a few days old. Some said her rich husband, whose Lawrence lineage went all the way back to French aristocrats, would never have married Angel Hatterby if he'd known the truth. Some said that if he found out now, he'd divorce her and disown the children and marry someone more suitable, and there were plenty of willing prospects in Stillwater. Some of the women from other prominent families of Stillwater had a good mind to send Thomas Lawrence an anonymous note. Angel Hatterby Lawrence never saw a friendly female face in Stillwater. After three weeks of the logjam, the whole town stunk of wet wood, rotting foliage, overflowing outhouses, drowned animals, and moldy potatoes and onions. Insects of every miserable biting and stinging kind proliferated by the millions and hung over the town in a buzzing fog. Workers from Lawrence's company and all available men from the woods, the riverboats, the farmlands, the businesses, and the mills ran to the river with picks and shovels. They jabbed at logs. Everyone had a stake in it. The freedom of the river affected the livelihood of all. The mayor demanded that the logjam be freed. "Blow it up," he said. "Get that river going again." He picked at his ear, where a malarial mosquito had bitten, as he watched a thin man hack at a log near the front of the jam. Excerpted from Stillwater by Nicole Lea Helget All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.