NORTH OF HOPE

by Jon Hassler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1990

Another simple-hearted midwestern page-turner, this time with a Native American twist, from Hassler (Grand Opening, A Green Journey, The Lover Hunter). A priest moves to an Ojibway reservation late in his career, and there meets the woman who was once his true love--and might still be. Father Frank Healy, a priest for 20 years, goes as a missionary to the desolate Basswood Reservation in the north woods. The dilapidated Church of Our Lady serves only 800 Indians scattered over 800 square miles. Father Frank, however, encounters Libby there, whom he met first in Linden Falls in 1949. Back then, he had a romance with her (""As fall became winter and winter became endless, they went deeper into themselves in search of memories and worries and puzzles and hopes. . .""). But, alas, Frank's mother on her deathbed spoke ominous words: ""I want Frankie to be a priest."" After this background is exhaustively rendered, Father Frank tends to the walking wounded on the reservation. They include Libby's daughter Verna, in and out of mental hospitals, and Verna's husband Tom, a doctor who is both an alcoholic and a drug-dealer. Libby and Frank have long heartfelt reminiscences; we meet the usual gallery of small-time types (some played for humor; most maudlin) before Verna tells Libby that Tom has sexually abused her. Tom dies when his car plunges into a lake; Frank tends chastely to Verna and Libby--and declares by story's end that ""Hope goes wherever you want it to."" The prose is serviceable but stuffy and undistinguished: here, unfortunately, Hassler is more interested in popular melodrama than in the rich, engaging satire of Stagerford, his first novel.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0829423575

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION