I’ve just recently started re-reading some of William Kent Krueger’s books, as well as reading a couple of his newer ones. His books are some that I have enjoyed a lot, but then I’d forget to look for his latest and a few years would go by before I thought of how much I like his work.
In reading Blood Hollow, I realized one of the things I like most about the Cork O’Connor mysteries. They are set in Minnesota, in the land of the Anishinaabe and Ojibwe Indians, and Native American lore and spirituality are an important part of the characters’ lives and the stories they are part of.
This morning I read the following passage and found it so fitting for a Sunday — a day that many people consider holy.
“Whenever Cork entered the deep woods, he knew he was stepping into a sacred place. This was much the same way he’d felt entering the church. It was not just the peace, although it was truly peaceful. It was more than the incense of evergreen all around him and the choir of birds in the branches above and the cushion of the pine needles like a thick carpet under his feet. There was a spirit here so huge it humbled the human heart.”
I am not in a deep forest like Cork, but I have felt the same connection to the spirit of the land when I step out into my little “ranch” and see all the beauty around me. It is certainly how I felt when I saw those egrets the other day. What a wonderful gift from God or Mother Earth, or whoever is responsible.
I love the way Krueger uses words to make the woods a church – the incense, the choir, the cushion. Beautiful!
Helen
Straight From Hel
That struck me, too, Helen. It is that attention to the little details that can make some writing so vivid.