A story of love and heartbreak in a world of breathtaking splendor and deep injustice, Bill Roorbach's Lucky Turtle is a novel of perseverance, brimming with entertaining dialogue and rich details of the flora and fauna of the West.
Sixteen-year-old Cindra, a "fresh delinquent" from suburban Boston, faces a minimum of two years of "voluntary enrollment" at Camp Challenge in the town of Elk Creek, Mont. Montana enthralls Cindra, who anticipates an adventure: "the view opened up to at least eternity." Behind the barbed-wire fence, she fixates on Lucky, an inscrutable but courteous staffer with "diamond toughness." Cindra sees Lucky, who is reputedly Crow, as "a box of broken crayons to draw a new life with, his quietude a thick pad of good paper." Mutual attraction sparks romance, and soon they escape from the Camp. As told in Cindra's voice, the flight into the Montana hills, which Lucky skillfully navigates, is tense with the threat of discovery. It is also joyful as they share their hidden home, Far Turtle Wilderness. Months of surviving on young love and hunting and foraging feel doomed. Yet Lucky's Auntie Maria, characteristically "full of visions," predicts a baby. He "will be a man one day and come back here to see me."
As unlikely as it is that the "splendid isolation inside each other's hearts" will survive, Roorbach (The Girl of the Lake) sustains hope through the ensuing decades. Cindra lives a desolate suburban life with no word of Lucky, though their brilliant son has unwavering faith that he's alive. Readers also remain optimistic, following these sympathetic characters to an ultimately happy ending. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.