Book Discussion: Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford

Drop in book discussion group. Only rule is we discuss the book! Let us know if you need a copy of the book. SPECIAL announcement - the author will be dropping in as well!

Our Nov 14, 2023 discussion is on “Crooked Hallelujah” by Kelli Jo Ford

About the book:

It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and  fifteen-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated,  and loyal women, presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After  Justine's father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of  the Holiness Church - a community that Justine at times finds stifling  and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter, until  an act of violence sends her on a different path forever. Crooked Hallelujah tells the stories of Justine--a mixed-blood Cherokee woman-- and her  daughter, Reney, as they move from Eastern Oklahoma's Indian Country in  the hopes of starting a new, more stable life in Texas amid the oil bust  of the 1980s. However, life in Texas isn't easy, and Reney feels  unmoored from her family in Indian Country. Against the vivid backdrop  of the Red River, we see their struggle to survive in a world--of  unreliable men and near-Biblical natural forces, like wildfires and  tornados--intent on stripping away their connections to one another and  their very ideas of home.  In lush and empathic prose, Kelli Jo  Ford depicts what this family of proud, stubborn, Cherokee women  sacrifice for those they love, amid larger forces of history, religion,  class, and culture. This is a big-hearted and ambitious novel of the  powerful bonds between mothers and daughters by an exquisite and rare  new talent.