The Turtle Warrior

Rating:
Summary: Reminding Us of War's Domino Effect
Review: Although it moves slowly at times, overall, this is a good book. Ellis explores the devastating domino effect war has on those who fight, those who wait for their fighters to return, those who are on the periphery quietly observing lives torn apart by man's need to kill.

There is a definite bleak element to the setting. Yet Ellis tempers much of the cold climate and the dark days by having her characters find various kinds of beauty in their surroundings. It is how they manage to survive on hard-scrabble farms and in nightmare marriages. Her people are thoroughly believable.

This story will make you cry at times, but always it reminds how tough and adaptable is the human spirit.

We await her next novel!

Rating:
Summary: Raw, Flawed But Completely Absorbing.
Review: I was drawn to the title of this book on a recent visit to the States and, having read the synopsis on the inside cover, was intrigued. "The Turtle Warrior" is, indeed, a dark book; there is little joy, but it is compelling. It is, I understand, the author's debut novel, and as such is flawed in places - but that makes it all the more real. The author takes us on a journey with her writing, sometimes stumbling, but captivating us into wanting to read more. We are drawn into each and every character's lives, into their psyche and souls. We become them for a brief instant, and in doing so, feel their pain and despair. This book is hard reading, not gentle. So, if you want a read that uplifts you, "The Turtle Warrior" is not for you. However, if you want a read that takes you on a journey of harsh reality and one that absorbs until the last, buy it now! This is by far one of the best books I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: "The despair that destroys the conscious act of love"
Review: My feelings about The Turtle Warrior are quite ambiguous. On the one hand Mary Relindes Ellis has provided us with a startlingly beautiful and devastatingly emotional piece of work. But, on the other hand, the novel suffers from a rather languid plot, and an almost funereal tone, which at times can make it a frustrating read. Ellis's writing style and her themes of family loyalty are very reminiscent of Michael Cunningham as she brings the tortured sufferings and dysfunctions of a small town family to life. Told from several different perspectives and also traversing almost forty years, The Turtle Warrior is essentially a devastating, but ultimately redemptive story of two brothers, their parents, and their loyal neighbours who farm in the beautiful, isolated country of Northern Wisconsin.

The elder brother James Lucas, a dead ringer for Elvis Presley with his "tight Levi's jeans and rockabilly boots" is packed off to the Vietnam War, by his hard drinking and abusive father. While the younger brother Bill is left with his father, John Lucas whose ugly, drunken acts of bullying and cruelty drive Billy to the edge. Bill, the warrior of the title fashions a shield from a giant turtle shell that he believes will keep him from harm. Billy's nine-year-old life revolves around a daily struggle to survive at school; the strained wait for his brother's letters, the fragile web of his mother's world, and Ernie and Rosemary, his two kind neighbours who adopt him in a time of need.

Ellis astonishingly evokes the horror and the waste of war not just with Jimmy's blood soaked and violent account of life on the frontlines in Vietnam, but back at home where the emotional casualties of mothers, brothers, friends and fathers are laid waste. When her son is reported as missing in action, Claire Lucas, distraught and hysterical, imagines "flying to the highlands in Vietnam, a frozen Wisconsin mother looking for her disappeared son." As the novel progresses all the characters gradually exercise their demons and lay their souls on the table. But the real strength of the novel is in Ellis's effortless description of nature's natural beauty. Whether it is the "the sun's rays filtering through the canopy of leaves and needles," "the smell of soil thawing," "the yolk colored light in the kitchen," or the "fields, woods, swamps, and sky of the Lucas farm." One can appreciate this book just for Ellis's remarkable lyricism alone.

Michael

Rating:
Summary: The Turtle Warrior
Review: The Turtle Warrior, Mary Ellis's first novel, is a master piece. Sensitive and haunting the tale takes the reader from a poor farm in Wisconsin to the battle fields of World War II and Vietnam. It is a sensitive tale of an unforgettable world where the physical and spiritual, the past and present merge. I liked the Native American aspects. It is an insightful and disturbing story, not an easy read, but one that is sure to raise emotions and well worth it.