The Healing of Natalie Curtis. Jane Kirkpatrick. 2021. [September] 368 pages. [Source: Review copy]
First sentence: She followed the blind boy up through the crevice, up through the warm rocks the colors of weeping rainbows, up to a life beyond any she had known.
Jane Kirkpatrick's newest novel is based on a true story. Her heroine, Natalie Curtis, was a real person (1875-1921). The novel focuses on Curtis' work as an ethnomusicologist. When she went west with her brother, she wasn't particularly looking for a monumental life-change; she was in need of a change, and desperately needed a change. But still. She couldn't have predicted the direction her life would take. Curtis found meaning--if meaning is the right word--in visiting Native American tribes across the country and recording their music, transcribing and describing their songs and traditions. At the time, it was illegal--in many places for Native Americans to sing and dance and speak their own language. The push was to get the tribes--all tribes--"civilized" and speaking English. The quicker all tribes could assimilate, the better. (Not that they'd ever be seen as "equal" mind you.) She saw that the loss of this American folk music--this ethnic music--would be devastating and crushing. Within a generation or two, all would be irrevocably lost. She traveled the country, lived on and visited many reservations, recorded the music, took notes on the traditions, wanted to share the vastness, the richness of these cultures. She needed patrons to help support her financially and she needed support politically. It was controversial to say the least--going against "the code" of what was legal at the time.
Her biography is interesting. I think the book seeks to capture her work. But at times it felt a bit draggy. (Not all the time, mind you.) It's just that these 368 pages felt more like 450 pages.
It is based on a true story. The focus is always on her and her work. It never becomes a fluff piece trying to make it into a more traditional "Christian romance" title.
But is it Christian fiction??? I would say it could easily pass as NOT. For better or worse. Curtis was not a missionary. It was never her goal, her mission, to proclaim the gospel, to spread Christianity, to instruct or teach the Christian faith. There is nothing remotely evangelical or "Christian" in the novel.
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