Operation: Nebraska Author- The Meaning of Names

I must apologize for being remiss in my blogging duties. A severe lack of writing motivation added to some serious life upheavals have left me with little time and little inclination to write anything more than writing prompts for my writers group. I finished the book for my next review more than a month ago and I have been staring at it sitting on my end table since.

I'm glad I found my motivation again because this next book is a must-read.

The Meaning of Names by Karen Gettert Shoemaker was the 2016 One Book One Nebraska Winner.

One Book One Nebraska is a book chosen every year by the Nebraska Center for the book.

"The Nebraska Center for the Book believes One Book One Nebraska demonstrates how books and reading connect people across time and place. Each year, Nebraska communities come together through literature in community-wide reading programs to explore a classic work by one of Nebraska’s best-loved authors, or a book with a Nebraska setting." (http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/onebook.html)

My friend, Jen, and I went to see Karen Shoemaker speak at the Kearney Public Library during her One Book One Nebraska tour. she was very interesting to listen to, not only because of her passion about the subject matter, but also because of her personal connection to the story.

The Meaning of Names follows Gerda Vogel, the daughter of German immigrants  who settled in West Point, NE at the end of the 19th Century. Gerda incurred the wrath of her father and sorrow of her mother when she fell in love with Fritz Vogel (a German immigrant), married without their consent, and headed west. The young couple settled down on a farm outside of Stuart, NE.

Those of you who have experienced a thunderstorm on the
Great Plains are familiar with the cover picture. It is also
a great visual of what the characters weather in the book.

The story starts just after the USA joined the Great War. Anti-German sentiment was slowly growing across the country and the heart of the Great Plains was not immune.

Gerda was aware of the growing hatred of her people, but her first glimpse of the violence that it could cause occurred on the train on her way to visit her family in West Point. A group of young men, full of liquid courage, accosted a German man, beat him, and threw him off the train into the snow. Gerda was fearful for the man but terrified for herself and her three young sons who were with her.

The crowd in the car cheered.

Anti-German sentiment grew as the war continued. Violence against German immigrants was more and more common, neighbor turned against neighbor, and German descendants became more isolated as their language was shunned and German-language books were burned.

The fear grew as the first of Stuart's sons were killed in the war and more men were called up in an expanded draft.

Fritz, Gerda's husband, was old enough and valuable enough as a farmer to have been exempt to the first drafts, but as things in Europe got worse, he went back into the pool of eligible men. A moment of kindness to a man who lost a son in the war who had power on the draft board ensured Fritz's number was called.

Nebraska.

The seasons passed as the Vogel family survived the storm of hatred and work to keep their farm running smoothly. Fritz hid his draft results from Gerda but did all he could to prepare his family and farm for his absence.

Amidst this all, a silent evil crept its way north, taking thousands, sparing few.

Stuart was not immune to the influenza pandemic of 1918 that killed millions around the globe. The Vogel family was some of the lucky ones who fell to the deadly disease but managed to come out the other side. Even bringing a true miracle to their family in the process.

Gerda was pregnant when she fell ill but managed to give birth to a healthy baby who was raised by a family in Stuart until the Vogels were well again.

That baby was Shoemaker's mother.

Shoemaker did a wonderful job bringing the beauty and vastness of the Plains alive with her writing. Her words brought Nebraska alive.

Her characters: Gerda, Fritz, Dr. Gannoway, Alloys and Magaret Baum, and all the others came alive on the page and are so like the Nebraskans that I grew up knowing.

This book came along at the perfect time. When there is so much anti-Muslim, anti-Middle Eastern, and anti-outsider sentiment in the world, it is disheartening to see history repeat itself. Shoemaker did a fantastic job of putting the reader into the Vogel's shoes, to show them what the Germans were going through during WWI (and what they would see again during WWII) and what people are going through today.

The Meaning of Names is a great study into, not only rural life in Nebraska during the nineteen teens, but also of human nature. I strongly recommend reading it.

Other Books by Karen Gettert Shoemaker
Night Sounds and Other Stories
Shoemaker also reviews books