Publisher: Ecco
Published: February 2, 2021
Source: Personal copy
Summary:
Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a fractured family reckoning with the tragic death of their son long ago—from National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson
In the fifteen years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation.
With the family’s annual bonfire approaching—an occasion marking both the Cherokee National Holiday and Ray-Ray’s death, and a rare moment in which they openly talk about his memory—Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin, despite—or perhaps because of—his ties to tragedy in her lifetime and lifetimes before. And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo.
Drawing deeply on Cherokee folklore, The Removed seamlessly blends the real and spiritual to excavate the deep reverberations of trauma—a meditation on family, grief, home, and the power of stories on both a personal and ancestral level.
My thoughts:
This was one of the Literati book club picks and I’m so glad I selected it. It’s one of those books that I might not have picked up on my own, but I ended up really loving it and having the group to discuss it with really enhanced my reading experience.
I admit I’m not all that familiar with Cherokee traditions, so this one just appealed to me on that level, but the way the story was told just pulled me in. Having multiple narrators really keeps you engaged and it ends up being quite a moving, haunting story despite it being a story about grief, among other things. This is one of those stories that ends up staying with you long after you finish reading it…and those end up being my favorite kinds. I know I’m going to want to reread this at some point because I think there is just so much to take away from it than you would get in just one read.
The writing is as heartbreaking and stunning as the book…it grabs you and makes you want to stay involved. I loved learning as much about the Cherokee folklore as I did the history, and the characters just made the book, their flaws and all.
I’m so glad I read this one and will definitely be checking out Brandon Hobson’s backlist as I need to experience more of his writing!
