As he grows to manhood, young Bill Lucas struggles to overcome the trauma of his past--an abusive and alcoholic father, brutalized mother, loss of his older brother James on the battlefields of Vietnam, and failing farm--as he sets out to build a life and family for himself, in a debut novel set against the backdrop of rural Wisconsin. Filled with tortured souls ravaged by an alcoholic Wisconsin farmer, The Turtle Warrior , Mary Relindes Ellis's debut novel, is a depressing book. Having lied about his own military experience in WW II, John Lucas goads his eldest son, Jim, into "becoming a man" by fighting in Vietnam, wherein Jim goes missing and is presumed dead. The novel focuses almost exclusively on the dysfunctional Lucases, save for the neighboring couple that acts as surrogates to the children. The townspeople note: "John Lucas walked their streets like a film character, haunting them when they saw him in the bar, working at the mill, or driving on the road. He was a wrong turn personified. A wrong turn they might have taken, might still take." Since Ellis is at her strongest with the first-person narratives of the rest of the nuclear family, and often writes eloquent prose, it is disappointing to have John's point of view glossed over with exposition, since he ultimately destroyed his own family. Everyone here has demons, and the imposed weightiness of the subject matter can be cumbersome at times (if anyone cries or laughs, it seems always to be done to the point of exhaustion). Debilitating addiction and crippling anguish make The Turtle Warrior a difficult journey, but one worth taking. --Michael Ferch Adult/High School–A well-written, if somewhat dark, novel. It's 1967 on a northern Wisconsin farm, and 8-year-old Billy Lucas watches as his 17-year-old brother, Jimmy, shoots a snapping turtle in the jaw. The ultrasensitive child tries to save the wounded animal, an action that becomes a metaphor throughout the book. The childless couple next door, Ernie and Rosemary Morriseau, treat the neglected boys as their own. Ernie is half Native American and deemed inferior by Mr. Lucas and other farmers in the area. When Jimmy enlists and is sent to Vietnam, Ernie, a World War II veteran, feels guilty for not having stopped him. Once Jimmy is listed as MIA, his spirit returns to the farm where he is spotted by several of the characters. Billy withdraws into a silent, morose teenager; his father drinks behind the barn, hiding bottles of liquor under the soil. His mother walks the farm in her dirty housecoat and curlers talking to herself. And the Morriseaus stop communicating with them. When John Lucas dies, the adult Billy takes on his father's abusive and alcoholic persona, and Ernie tries to save him as he was unable to save his brother. This lyrically written novel is filled with descriptions of farming and has themes of alcoholism, parental abuse, prejudice against Native Americans, and coming-of-age problems. –Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. In Wisconsin's far north, an isolated family is torn by war from within and without. The father is a merciless, violent drunk. The mother is an intelligent, educated woman who fears she is losing her mind. Their older son is a gifted outdoorsman who escapes by joining the marines to fight in Vietnam. Their younger son is dreamy, introspective, and frighteningly vulnerable. Childless neighbors see the family's struggles and help as best they can. Told from many perspectives, this epic of the emotions explores themes of war, loss, and family, showing the paralysis of grief and the healing power of nature. It's unfortunate for Ellis that Oprah is now focusing on classics, as this first novel has all the types (alcoholic father, abused mother and children, sage Indian) and elements (addiction stories, a spirit presence, the formation of a nontraditional family) required for membership in the first incarnation of the talk show host's book club. Those who are drawn to these themes should find Ellis' debut a moving addition to the canon. Keir Graff Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Mary Relindes Ellis’s stories have been anthologized in Uncommon Waters: Women Write About Fishing; Bless Me, Father: Stories of Catholic Childhood; The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror ; and Gifts of the Wild: A Woman’s Book of Adventure . The first-time traveler through the remote and rugged part of Wisconsin that natives call "up north" is likely to ask, "Who lives here, anyway?" The small towns are few and far between. The land is so heavily wooded and the soil so clotted with stones that farming seems impossible. The rivers are wild and the lakes glacially cold or frozen. Along Lake Superior, snows are often measured in feet rather than inches. The local economy largely depends upon luring tourists to a country as forbidding as it is enticin