The Turtle Catcher
by Nicole
Helget
A story of
outcasts, broken friendships and history
From 1897 Germany
to 1920 New Germany, Minnesota, THE
TURTLE CATCHER tells a story of outcasts, friendships, and
retribution. In the first chapters, set in 1920
New Germany, Minnesota, the three Richter brothers take justice into
their own hands when their sister Liesl cries out against Lester but
remains silent, protecting the secret she carries in her body from
being discovered. An outcast due to her hidden deformity, Liesl
and the brain-damaged Lester Sutter had formed a friendship that has
transcended their individual isolation. From this one brutal
moment, Nicole Helget looks backward in time to all the events that led
to this heinous crime. Alongside the main thread of the
Richter-Sutter feud, Nicole Helget creates haunting broader resonances
of once friendships that end in historic retribution from the
relationship of the Sioux and the Minnesota residents to the German and
Scandinavian immigrants. Within this context, THE TURTLE CATCHER tells the love
story of Magdalena Schultz, or Maggie, and her daughter Liesl.
Pregnant and in love with a Jewish man, Maggie immigrates to America
rather than tell her father who blames the Jews for his fall in
status. Likewise, Liesl falls for Lester, the son of Harald
Sutter, the man Richter blames for his downfall. Sutter equally
blames Richter for his misfortune. The parallels between Maggie
and her daughter's stories are not slavish copies of one another but
rather haunt with the similarities and differences, creating a broader
picture of the movement of a family and indeed women within a family
through generations.
THE TURTLE CATCHER
clearly is not a novel that will appeal to all readers. Several
brutal scenes from a vicious murder and horrific scene of childbirth to
self-mutilation make the reader recoil in a revulsion that is often
visceral. THE TURTLE CATCHER
does not present a linear easy-to-follow plot but rather builds through
a careful layering of sometimes seemingly disparate vignettes joined
together by their thematic resonances rather than by a strict
chronology. Throughout most of the novel, Nicole Helget presents
readers with a grim portrait of a cast of severely flawed
characters. Historic events only exaggerate some of the
more unsettling aspects of her characters. Just when a reader
thinks things can't possibly get worse, they do. THE TURTLE CATCHER, however, will
appeal to other readers precisely for those literary qualities and the
way in which the author combines history and personal history to
examine the outcast and the dynamics of unthinkable retribution.
THE TURTLE CATCHER
takes an unflinching look into the small town of New Germany, Minnesota
around World War I and inside a family whose secrets are hidden from
plain sight. One sees the sins of the parents passed down, not
only to sons and daughters but also the ramifications of personal
histories and a broader historic movement combining to create within
individuals the worst parts of themselves. Juxtaposed to these
characters and the horrific events, the doctor's daughter stands as an
outsider, but an outsider whose compassion and understanding contrasts
with the spiraling, overwhelming darkness. In the end, Nicole
Helget paints a complex multi-layered portrait of all those moments
that lead up to the initial scene at Spider Lake. Just when the
reader feels the weight of hopelessness for outcasts and for alliances
turned into enemies, Nicole Helget offers a glimmer of hope, unveiling
a hope that, like the horrific personal history of the Richters and
Sutters, might remain hidden to outsiders except through the eyes of
myth, history expanded through time and through the vision of
literature. THE TURTLE CATCHER
is not a novel to be read lightly but rather one that challenges the
reader with its themes and literary vision. THE TURTLE CATCHER is a novel of
rich beauty, a literary beauty that haunts the soul with its look into
history and family.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (February
2009)
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