Beer And Books Book Club Review – Megan Lindholm – The Reindeer People 1988 Voyager Books.
Spoilers
The first of two books, or rather one book split into two volumes, the second being Wolf’s Brother. (Unsurprisingly our choice for the September book club assessment as everyone loved this one).
Written by Robin Hobb under the pseudonym, Megan Lindholm, it is realistic look at prehistoric tribal life in the Arctic Circle. The only specific geographical reference is a brief glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. The setting is probably Northern Sweden, Lapland or Norway. As with her Robin Hobbs work, this is a fantasy novel, though its magical elements are kept very low key.
The story revolves around a troubled, introspective, possibly autistic boy, Kerlew, vague, inattentive, likely to forget his duty to get firewood to stare at unusual red rocks instead, Kerlew is torn between two guardians, his Mother, Tillu, a healing woman with strong medical knowledge and skills, and Carp, a possessive, ultimately creepy and manipulative shaman, with plans to groom Kerlew as his successor.
Kerlew is bullied by other boys for his strangeness and escalates wise warnings to run away if attacked by (polar?) bears into a phobia the village boys exploit. Added to that is Tillu’s sense that her rights as a mother are being undermined. Carp plans to steal Kerlew away for deeper shaman training, so she runs away from home, taking Kerlew with her into the unknown landscape.
Hunting a Reindeer, Tillu accidentally wounds a hunter from a previously unknown (to her) tribe. Aware that it was an accident, and impressed by her healing skills, the other hunters invite Tillu & Kerlew to stay on the edge of their camp, though being nomadic, the tribe plan to move on to fresh terrain soon. Whether the strangers will be invited to join the exodus is a key factor in the plot. Their policy and custom for hospitality to strange travellers exposes everyone to danger.
Several crisis situations arise. The hunter Heckram clearly bonds with Kerlew and teaches him various crafting skills. It also fuels Kerlew’s male arrogance. In being trusted with knives he feels as if he is becoming a man, which further alienates him from his mother. Heckram’s tribe breed reindeer, have crossed the cusp of stone age to bronze age skills, and they travel on skis when needed too. Heckram is developing affection for Tillu, but he is also loyal to his new bride to be, Elsa, until a savage murder occurs. Is the killer Joboam, who has ambitions to lead the tribe and sees strength and endurance and masculinity as the most important things? Could it be Carp, who has used a ‘Sith Force’ like bond with Kerlew to track down the mother and son who fled from him? Could it even be Kerlew himself in one of his blackout episodes or under possession by Carp? A reindeer is killed too, and Kerlew is certainly involved in both an attempted poisoning and a near stabbing incident.
Tillu has a fierce independence, making her over-protective to her son, escaping from a male dominated tribe where weakness is mocked and attacked, guided by a Shaman who expects his visions to grant him power over all. The original village is very patriarchal. Even a new birth is more celebrated by the men-folk than the women. Tillu is astonished when taken in by the nomads to see a stronger gender equality in the community, with women having status and property of their own.
Kerlew is stronger than he seems, and affected by the sly cunning of his mentor, like Annekin, he could easily slide to the Shaman’s Dark Side. Carp has an evil Emperor edge to him, and even comes over as a pervading force in the background in the long period when he is not directly present.
That Tillu and Carp both abandon their original home village leaves that without a healer or a religious shaman (the only one who knows the words to Ebenezer Goode, lol). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b2T8K2D-ps&list=RD7b2T8K2D-ps&start_radio=1
The Wolf, a mysterious spirit entity and totem animal that seems to have its own plans for Kerlew, and later, it also manifests for Heckram, proving it is more than an abstraction. Could it be Carp in some transcendental form or more likely, something more? Carp knows Keckram has had contact with Wolf. (The second book being called Wolf’s Brother, is the brother to be Kerlew, Carp or Heckram?). My bet is on Heckram.
The Women of the tribe. - Elsa has status, property, and decision making power of her own. There is The women can be formidable, especially Lasse’s hypercritical, cantankerous, but affectionate grandmother, a light relief character in an otherwise dark tale. There is some humour as with Lasse’s Mum’s reactions when her son is brought home injured.
Heckram – Hunter, craftsman, and deer herder, with feelings of being an outsider. A lonely man, and kind to Kerlew. His doomed relationship with Elsa, who shows how potentially tragic he is, unable to stop Joboam’s push to divide the community, possibly with intent to cease power from the established but weak leader. His bullying son is also a significant threat.
There are many great elements to this novel, notably the very realistic and vivid landscape and weather descriptions, and creeping sense of encroaching tragedy.
The most impressive scene is the marriage of Heckram & Elsa as the women of the tribe each come forward in ceremonial ritual with increasingly useless foundation blocks for their new house together (intentionally) before Elsa herself brings one deemed just right. The ill-omen as her stone cracks soon afterwards seems quite low key given the tragedy that it heralds.
There is a great sense of realism to the story, and very credible characters. The sense of a showdown when Kerlew moves his loyalties to Carp before his Mum’s eyes and Joboam simultaneously threatens to expose Heckram’s secrets to the tribal leader is incredibly intense.
I expected Kerlew to be confronted by a bear, given its significance at the beginning, and that may well still occur in book two.
While there are echoes here of Jean M Auel’s 1980 novel The Clan Of The Cave Bear (the first of a six part fantasy and also about a woman torn between two tribes, filmed in 1986 with Daryl Hannah in the leading role), The Reindeer People is very much its own work, and a genuine masterpiece.
My thanks to Millie Angel, Beer & Books Book Club organiser, the group members and host pub Vinyl Tap too.
Arthur Chappell