Crooked Hallelujah (original 2020; edição 2020)

This book is set in Oklahoma and Texas, but it reminds me of where my family is from in Ohio. Not the landscape but the feeling of fate at work, of holding tight to what you can because the world is not doing you any favors. There's this sense that maybe the end of the world doesn't happen all at once but starts slowly in particular locations, bellwether towns that herald the accelerating approach of disaster. Depressing book, but excellent. ( )

I know nothing about Kelli Jo Ford, but I bet she had experience living in poverty. Fried bologna sandwiches and using wood-grained contact paper to update your home add dimension to this story of four generations of Cherokee women. She also speaks to the importance of strength in poor women and how something like getting a GED, which initially embarrassing proved to be the way to getting higher pay for menial work. At times, I had trouble deciding which woman’s life was being looked at and I still don’t understand why Mose, the mentally-disabled Mose and his friendship with the lesbian couple was introduced into the book, it took me into world with which I had no familiarity. Once I realized these were interconnected stories as opposed to a novel with a storyline, I enjoyed the book more. Was I satisfied with the ending of the book? No. But if you are living in poverty, there is no satisfying ending. ( )

Can I love anything the way that I used to love the mystery of my mother, her strength in suffering?"

"His baritone sounded familiar but busy, his words fireflies that flitted between them without illuminating a thing."

This is a multi-generational novel, set in the Cherokee Nation, of Oklahoma. It follows one family over the decades, beginning in the early 1970s where we are introduced to Justine, a wayward teenager, who becomes pregnant at 15. The stories focus mostly on the female members, including Justine's mother Lula, a devout member of the Holiness Church, who lays down the wrath of God. The spotlight also shines on Justine's daughter Reney, who becomes fiercely independent, trying to shake the bonds of poverty and broken men.
I like Native American fiction, and I wish the author would have included more of their culture and heritage. Other than that, I really admired her writing style and I think she delivered a solid family drama. Impressive debut. ( )

In her debut novel Crooked Hallelujah, Kelli Jo Ford follows the lives of four generations Cherokee women seeking a safe place amidst their faith-based convictions, class, and nation, and dysfunctional families. Set in the 1970s and 1970s, proud and stubborn characters like Lula and her mother (Granny), daughter Justine (in the first part of the book a teenager herself, in the second part mother of Reney), and granddaughter looking back on past certainties and the unsure present.

The writing style however seriously needs attention. Disjoint chapters, the introduction of new characters without rationale or clear position in the context, and the very different nature of the third part, in which statements replace the narrative, confused me very often. I went on reading, although I could easily put this book aside. On various occasions, I really had no clue what I just had read. ( )