... was the reason I nearly ran out of gas and found myself afoot on the way home in the downpour. Listening to the Cds had me so on edge, anxious for a good outcome, I was not paying attention to my gas gauge. I'm not sure if it qualifies as 'distracted driving', for which I could be stopped and ticketed, but I was certainly immersed in the tale. Written by William Kent Krueger, (copyright 2014), who is obviously very knowledgeable about native culture/history of the Lake Superior area. The title comes from a story in Ojibwa tribal legends about an evil spirit. Pure, undiluted evil: a windigo.
One of the main characters in the book is a "healer", someone our culture would likely term as a 'medicine man': Henry. He is ancient, no one knows his age, but obviously highly respected by his family and friends, all who encounter him. Henry seems to have some internal power, ability to draw on spiritual energy, that we in our highly superficial, trivial culture might compare to a Jedi warrior. As in: "Those are not the droids you are looking for."
A story Henry told based on the legends of his people, natives that were here long before the European invasion, in an effort to remind his friends of their own inner strength: We all have two wolves that live within us. One is love, the other is fear. The strongest one will be the one we feed. If we feed the one the thrives on love, we will be more compassionate and caring, empathetic to others. If we feed the wolf that gains strength from our fears and anxieties, we will become that person, filled with rage and hate, bent on destruction of ourselves and others.
The story line is fast paced, easy to follow, people you feel like you have met, actually know. While the plot is heart-wrenching, about sex trafficking of young girls from the reservation. We all know how teenagers are never satisfied, always at odds with their elders, determined and head-strong. The two under-age girls left with an older female and ended up as prostitutes. The family that wanted them back would stop at nothing to get them away from the pimps/handlers who controlled every facet of their lives. Fiction but embedded with horrible truths.
Great story, fascinating characters, excellent read. I had times when I found myself, just sitting, parked, unwilling to turn the car off. What the folk at NPR call 'driveway moments', where you get to your destination, but don't want to stop. Driving around the block, or sitting in a parking lot, waiting for what a certain age-group will refer to as "Paul Harvey's: 'The Rest of the Story'."
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