When the Tempest Passes: …and the Wicked is No More

by L. Kephart-Nash

True fiction based on the life of Olena Hogenson Erickson through memories and imagination of her granddaughter. Families are complex, puzzling, mysterious, sometimes admired, and sometimes disliked. Some memories are recalled with love and gratitude, others with feelings of fear and sometimes dislike. Always there was something hinted at, sometimes just whispered, not quite talked about. Mysterious-but definitely there. Her grandmother is central, a silent figure full of sadness and loss, but beneath the surface was a world of other unresolved emotions. It is dedicated to Olena and all silenced women. Solidly written, this moving story begins at the end with a dying woman's last moments in the presence of her grown children. As the story is explained by the woman's granddaughter, retrospectively unfolding, it spans the life of this Norwegian-American woman in newly settled Minnesota. Olena Hogenson Erickson was a bride left standing at the altar by a groom who mysteriously vanished and Olena's future is permanently altered by all that follows that momentous humiliation. The relationships between characters are stirring. Using the Bible's verses in Ecclesiastes "a time for every purpose under heaven," the chapters weave a tale of loss and mystery. Olena's birthplace was Choice, MN-a cruel irony at play in this story about the death of a young woman's American dream of equality and fulfillment, and her loveless marriage to the older Cornelius who was her father's farmhand. Each chapter ends leaving the reader's interest piqued, making this book hard to put down.

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2020

Reviews

[Danette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick read because the author's chapter endings left me so interested in knowing more. The book includes old family photos that add dimension to the wonderful flowing prose. Using the verses from Ecclesiastes for the chapters provides perspective and additional dimension. The author has obviously thought a lot about this family mystery and a grandmother's painful disappointments in life, and does an excellent job with eliciting emotion. (Two places in the book took my breath away and flooded my face with tears!) Yes, there is sadness in the tale but the reflections are hopeful and the balance between both is superb.

[Danette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poignant story of a family mystery written in mesmerizing prose is highly engaging. I could not put it down and read it almost completely in one sitting.. It has old photographs throughout which lend to the written work a sense of knowing the characters firsthand--being there.