Book Review of Sister Lumberjack by Charlie Johnson

SISTER LUMBERJACK
By Candace Simar
488 Pages
Published by North Star Press of St. Cloud, MN
ISBN 168201150X

SISTER LUMBERJACK by Candace Simar is one of those books that is unique in every sense of the word. Have you read books about nuns in the Northwoods of Minnesota, or about widows leaving their beloved farm to earn money, or about pencil neck money counters with the sense of fence post, or about winters so desperately nasty that even Siberia would feel tropical?

I would say you haven’t, but in SISTER LUMBERJACK, Candace Simar has given the reader all these notions – and she has presented them in full screen technicolor and stereophonic sound!

Her characters live deeply, live with passion, live with goals in mind – and yet each of them has flaws that wrap their intentions with distortion. The setting of a lumber camp is filled with pine fragrance, soft breezes and torrential rains and snows and sounds of the saws buzzing and the falling trees whomping to the ground as they are hauled away.

SISTER LUMBERJACK has a pace that will keep the reader awake late into the night. Each adventure involves one or more of the three dimensional characters – Solveig the widowed farm wife must deal with earning money, with losing a son (at least metaphorically). The enthusiastic young man Nels finds himself turning to the demon liquor, yet has a work ethic that will not perish. The dear nun, Sister Magdalena, for whom the book is named, brings intense faith in God as she delivers her messages from a convent in Duluth to the ribald men of the logging camps.

Train rides with soot filled cars? Chilled winters with conditions that make blizzards look like a walk in the park in April? Fist fights? Shouting arguments? Deep discussions about faith, about serving others? Despair at the loss of a friend or family member? Its all here, all wrapped by the wonderful writing skills of Candace Simar.

Simar’s track record with her books is impressive – good story telling, good characters, interesting plot lines – SISTER LUMBERJACK just might be at the top of the list of all of this author’s work.