The Liberation of Ravenna Morton — Suzanne Jenkins

Visitors approach the cabin with wonder; have they just stepped back in time? Smoke curls up from the stone chimney, the smell of wood burning in the air. A cast iron water pump with a tin bucket next to it has a place of honor in the front of the cabin, while in the back, an old outhouse tilting to the side is surrounded by geraniums that have survived the first frost. Fog lifts off the slowly moving river, and the songs of an ancient people sung by a woman weaving baskets float on the surface. Ravenna Morton is an American Indian woman living a very old-fashioned life in a primitive cabin at the edge of the Kalamazoo River. She faces modern problems when her lifelong affair with a Greek artist is closely examined by their children after a child she gave up for adoption dies. Esme Wynd, her granddaughter, travels to meet Ravenna and accidentally uncovers a web of betrayal and crimes that were committed against her. The Liberation of Ravenna Morton captures the small-town dynamic of a family's private secrets being exposed to the world. A poignant look at the melding of two Americanized cultures observed under a microscope.