Prudence (2015) By David Treuer

If you are looking for happy endings, stop now. No one in Prudence by David Treuer has a happy life. If you are looking for writing that often climbs to brilliant, you’ve found it. 

Treuer’s novel is set in the woods of Minnesota where each summer a family from Chicago travels north to open up a vacation resort. They are Emma and Jonathan Washburn, and their son Frankie. Other main characters include Felix, a World War I veteran who serves as the caretaker & handyman at the resort, and Billy, who is Frankie’s age. Felix and Frankie are from the nearby Indian reservation. And of course, there is the title character Prudence, also a Native American, originally from Standing Rock Reservation, to the west.

 

The story begins in 1942 when Frankie, having just graduated from Princeton, is visiting his parents at the resort before leaving for basic training, and then on to the war in Europe. But perhaps more important, he is visiting Billy who he has had an ongoing intimate relationship with all the years they’ve known each other.

 

During the week-long visit, Frankie and Billy will join with others to hunt down a German prisoner of war who has escaped from the prison camp across the lake from the resort. With testosterone running high, a shot is fired into some bushes in the belief the prisoner of war is hiding there. He was not. Instead, shot and killed is the younger sister of Prudence. They had been in hiding, having run away from an orphanage that planned on separating them from each other. No charges are filed, because after all it was “just” an Indian girl. The Washburns care for the in-shock Prudence, and bury her sister. As the guilt stricken Frankie visits Prudence’s room, he promises her he will come back after the war and care for her.
 

As the story unfolds over the next ten years, the events of that week are examined in detail and from ever perspective. It has impacted each of them profoundly. It is at this point in the novel Treuer’s writing soars, his ability to capture a character’s hopes, dreams, and heartache, is flawless. His chapter on Frankie’s letter to Billy written just before his final mission in Germany is of award winning caliber. The final chapter, Prudence’s letter to her long dead sister, will make you hurt.

The book ends with Prudence’s suicide in 1952. That’s not a spoiler, it’s the prologue. 

 

I have two disappointments. First, the stereotypes in the book strike me as overplayed, though they are perhaps necessary for readers who may not be aware of the social history of the time period. If one is not aware of them, then much of the story will not make sense. My other disappointment is that Treuer drops the characters of Frankie’s parents -- we know that after the war they stop coming to Minnesota, I’d like to know more.

Recommendation:  Read it for its superb writing, but be aware it is not a pleasant story.